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LEG ONE - NELSON to TAKAKA
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The alarm rang loudly in my ear, yet another 6am start to shoot down to Nelson Airport to pick up my newest group of clients - 3 extremely wealthy Yanks who have decided to take a one month break from the hustle and bustle of New York and come to our beautiful country to pursue our finest array of game animals. I will be their private guide over the next while, taking them around the majestic South Island of New Zealand in chase Red Deer, Thar, Chamoi, Boars, Fallow Deer, Wapiti and Wallabies.
We will start our journey in Nelson, and head from North to South and back up, eventually finishing up where we started.
I will fly the trio around the South Island in my Beech King Air 350; however at various stages, in order to take the group up to some remote hunting areas, we may use local aero clubs aircraft.
The sun was coming up over the eastern ranges of Nelson while I shot down the road to the airport. Jumping out of the car, the sweet smell of Avgas got me excited for our departure in an hour or so. I waited for the Air New Zealand flight from Wellington to arrive with the 3 on board. It finally touched down at 7:18am, and I was introduced to three mildly overweight Americans who were about to realise the real world. Would they last in the remote high country, chasing Thar over snow capped peaks, stalking deer over slushy river flats? It looked to me as if they were more used to dieting on Latte's and Biscotti.
Grabbing their gear and throwing it in the back of the Hilux, I took them back to my place for a gourmet Kiwi breakfast - free range country eggs, bacon, tomatoes, hash browns, fresh orange juice, and a nice cuppa. Over breakfast they gave me the impression that they wanted to get up in the air as soon as possible, so once our bellies were chocka, we were back in the truck, headed to the hangar.
There she was, the glistening Beech 350 King Air sitting proudly in the hangar ready to tackle whatever the South Island had to throw at her in the next couple of weeks. We loaded her up with all the gear, rifles, ammo, food, and of course a lot of Speights. I then sat in the cockpit planning our flight that would take us out over Tasman Bay, back in to Motueka, then follow the Abel Tasman around to Takaka which would be our destination for the night. Depending on the weather, we may head out this evening for a flight over Farwell Spit in the sunset - we will wait and see what mother nature throws at us!
We fired her up, fully loaded and ready to go....
On the apron at NZNS
Climbing out of Nelson, towards the West
Ominous rain cloud near Motueka
Approaching Kaiteriteri
Totaranui and Seperation Point
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