Everyone remembers their first hunt! The excitement, the nerves, the chase and the thrill of taking that perfect shot. While on a family trip to Poronui, young Eoin kept a journal of his first hunt and was kind enough to share it with us. Read about Eoin’s adventure below…

The day has come! Dad has organised for us to go for a hunt over in New Zealand on a property called Poronui. I am so excited as this will be my first hunt overseas and my first time hunting a Sika deer.

On Wednesday the 1st March 2017 I finished school early, mum and dad picked me up and we went to the airport. Dad had packed all our gear ready for our flight to NZ, all checked in and on the plane, we left Perth airport a little late and we flew through a thunderstorm which was a little scary watching all the lightning strikes all around us. After night-time in the air we landed 45 minutes later than scheduled, dad was worried we were going to miss our connecting flight. We collected our bags and ran from the international airport to the domestic airport (around 500 meters) we checked in with only 10 minutes to spare! We had made it, we were on our way to Taupo.

We arrived at Poronui and met Claire and she showed us where our room was. After lunch we met our guide, his name was Andrew then we had a rest. At about 5.30pm we went for a drive and a walk we saw a lot of Sika deer we got back at about 9.30pm.

The next morning we had breakfast, the fog was low so we stayed at the lodge until it got a bit lighter then Andrew took us through the property and we went for a walk up the steepest hills. We saw a few deer but by mid-morning we were getting hungry so we decided to get some morning tea back at the lodge. After morning tea Eve asked me if I would like to go for a ride in a helicopter, it was a great experience! In the afternoon we went out hunting again with Andrew and we saw some more deer, we walked up some more really big hills. Andrew and dad had spotted a big stag so we stalked up to him to get a closer look, we were about 300 meters from him and dad took the shot followed up by two more shots to make sure he was dead. We walked down to dad’s deer, took photos, gutted him and carried him back down to the pickup and we drove back to the cool room. Andrew took the skin off the deer and hung the meat in the chiller. We went back to the lodge and showed the pictures of the deer to some of the fisherman and staff at the lodge.

The next morning we went out early searching for a stag for me to hunt, after a couple of hours we spotted a stag that we had seen the day before so we started stalking up to my stag. We walked through some thick bush to get close enough for me to get a shot, we finally got close enough and I got set up and was ready to take the shot. Dad said to take some deep breaths and then to slowly squeeze the trigger on my 30-06. I had the crosshair right on the heart and lungs of this old stag and then bang! I hit him right in the sweet spot, he ran 10 meters and fell over dead.

Dad wasn’t ready for my shot as I took it pretty quickly, so it made him jump. Once we were happy that my deer was dead we made our way across the river to my first Sika stag. I had shot him with one shot into his lungs, we took some photos of my Sika stag and then Andrew carried him down to the river and then along the river back to the pickup. On my way out of the bush I found a cast antler, what a way to finish off my hunt for the day! We went back to the chiller so Andrew could skin my stag and hang him in the cool room. After cleaning up at the shed we went back to the lodge to show everyone the photos of my first Sika stag.

That afternoon we moved down to the Safari Camp we got settled in and Andrew came and picked us up and we went for another hunt. We were after a cull deer for a skin, we walked up a very big hill, when we got to the top we found a spot to sit and wait for the deer to come out of the bush. We saw a few stags come out of the bush then we saw a cull stag walk out so dad waited for him to stop and have a feed, dad took the shot followed up by another to make sure he was dead. The stag was 200 meters down a steep hill so when we got to where the stag was we couldn’t find him so we all split up to look for him, dad found him in a hole near a fallen tree. We dragged him out of the hole and took some photos, dad and I then carried the stag back to the road while Andrew went and got the pickup. We all then went back to the cool room to skin and hang the deer. That evening we had dinner at the Safari Camp and after dinner went down to the river with our torches to see if we could see some trout and eels. We saw two eels and three trout swimming it was cool watching them at night with the torches but it was getting late so we went to bed in our very nice tents. The next morning we packed all our gear up ready to head back into Taupo for a night after saying all our goodbyes to all the staff and new friends we had made in our short stay at Poronui.

I will never forget my first hunt for Sika deer at Poronui in New Zealand.

Eoin