Been a little slack with the blog lately as have been desperately trying to get a few other things organised before the 1st October when the summer season starts - trying to move my new boat towards survey but have several sets of people to deal with to achieve this. Went fishing this afternoon for a couple of hours with Philip Norman in the Tongariro which was a little slow for us. Philip hooked and landed a nice fish and I lost a good one and landed 2 small ones.

Shot a red stag/spiker a couple of days ago - wasn’t able to tell as its antlers had only just started regrowing. Was out camping and hunting by myself and was highly surprised to kill the animal which was several hundred meters away - I aimed 6 to 8 inches above with my new SAKO 243 and using the ammo that Charlie Dixon from Spot X Lodge helped me load the other day. Had a mission carrying out the hind quarters, back steaks, rifle, and backpack with tent and sleeping bag etc. Got out of the bush just before dark completely exhausted and minus my sleeping mattress which got torn off coming through thick scrub somewhere. Will probably need to resight the gun in as it sustained a few knocks also on the way down.