THE BEST DAYS OF THE YEAR OPENING WEEKEND
Here at the bottom of the country, even non-hunters can’t help but notice that something is in the air. Sure, it’s the start of autumn but it runs much deeper than that. The whole province changes.
Rugby is played after work so people don’t have to play on the Saturday of opening weekend. Bottle stores run promotions for hunting jackets and decoys. Pie shops, butcheries and bakeries do a roaring trade and run special duck hunters’ packs. There’s even duck widow lunches organised by the pubs. The local hunting store is the place to be with lots of people buying gear they don’t really need just so they can talk hunting and there are trailer loads of manuka for scrubbing maimais everywhere.
In the early hours of Friday morning the boat is hitched up to the truck, Kiera is let out of her kennel and after she eats her breakfast as fast as possible so she doesn’t get left behind, we say our goodbyes and we’re off.
Once we arrive at the lake it’s time to get our waders on and get serious about the weekend ahead of us. Lucky there’s no one else around when we get to the
