Dec 2013 Newsletter

NEW ZEALAND AT ITS FINEST
Written By: Dean Regehr
Hello there Drayton Valley SCI,
I recently returned from a great adventure in
New Zealand, donated by Bruce and Mieke
Flett, owners of Ngahere Ranch on the South
Island. Of course, this all started at the 2012
fundraiser dinner, and a little too much wine
at the live auction! I ended up being the
successful bidder, and it was a great stroke of
luck for us as we had an amazing time!! My
good friend (and wildlife sculptor) Rick Taylor,
and his wife really wanted to join my wife and
I so we were officially a party of four.
This hunt included a great tour of the South
Island, which was a lot of fun and included
train rides, glaciers, vineyards, lots of history,
more wine, Queenstown, and a bunch of other
really memorable excursions including awesome jet
boating, go carting, boating, gondola rides, hiking and
great food!
The hunting…we traveled to Fox Glacier in search
of Tahr and Chamois first. I didn’t go on this hunt
as one of my sons would really like to hunt Tahr and
Chamois so I decided I would wait and go back with
him in 2014. Rick and Carol were off in the chopper
to get dropped off up on the top of the Glacier (any
ideas of walking up there were instantly dropped
when we all saw where they were going!!). Rick
hunted hard, lost weight, got the crap scared out of
him being stuck up there in the dark, but managed to
shoot two great trophies.
We headed for the Ranch the next day. What an
amazing lodge. We stayed in a 125 year old winery/
vineyard that was just simply exquisite. An 11 on a
scale of 1-10 for sure. The hunting was AWESOME!
What a great ranch. Tons of space; it’s just like sheep
hunting in Southern Alberta and a TON of game!
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