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| Feeding the (tame) wild deer |
It had been a couple of years since we had headed into our favourite mountain station to go for an easy hunt. By easy, we mean that we can usually get an animal or two for the freezer. But first of all we were required to beat the feet over the hills for a few days laying rat bait.
With the work part of our trip complete we were able to gather a few future feeds under our belts.
We are always awed by the flora and fauna in the NZ bush.
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| Wild clematis |
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| A very pretty moth, nature has the best designs |
Our next stop was back to Whakatane where we have access to a shared freezer. Our great mates Ollie and Snow are also hunter gatherers so we all add to the freezer stock whenever we can and take from it what we need. A perfect solution for a couple of nomads.
It always occurs to us during the processing of our 'catches' just how much work it is to hunt and gather so much of our own food. To do it really well and use every inch of each animal we gather takes lots of time and effort. We wouldn't have it any other way. We still believe this is the most sustainable meat to eat. The vac pac machine has also revolutionised this process for us. We have now learnt to wet age the venison when we are living in our van.
Ollie and Snow then headed off on a family holiday of their own and we stayed to care for the furbies.
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| Max enjoying some grooming |
And, of course, a spot of surfcasting which allowed us to also stash some smoked fish cakes in the freezer!
Next we headed out of town to a repeat sit with the crew from Edgecumbe. Always lot of fun with this lot!
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| Tux's parents tell us that he was never a lap cat until we came into his life. Hard to believe by this evidence! |
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| Joey, the retired sheep dog. So much for being the tough guy, either of them :-) |
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