Tahr Ta
An hour into it, Jack Frost started creeping into our carcasses as we made our way up the rugged Rangitata Creek. Sheer faces of sharp rocks and tight tussocks came into view around us as the deep peach of early morning sunlight stretched its way over the horizon, sending a shiver of excitement through our bones.
With more light, the lads, Dan Doyle, Tom Fuller, Guy Vallance aka Ginge, Ben Curnow and I found a vantage point to have a glass.
We spotted a couple of tahr silhouetted on a ridge roughly three kilometres away. They seemed to have descended from their higher perch to find a bite to eat where the snow had melted away, to satisfy their winter hunger for alpine vegetation.
These animals were at an advantage. They were trekking high, which meant we had to make a decision – to keep walking up the gully – or to split up. Ginge and Ben thought they would carry on up the creek a bit more, hoping for a lead up high on a ridge, so off they went.
Suddenly the rest of us spotted a group of tahr coming over a ridge
