Tahr on top of the world
If you want to hunt Himalayan tahr, head to New Zealand in May. If you want big bulls, bad weather, and downright frightening terrain, head to the West Coast. Jeff Borg and I had done our research and decided on a seven-day do-it-yourself hunt into the Westland Tai Poutini National Park.
WITH permits secured from the Department of Conservation, we organised a helicopter to get us in and out of the mountains. We set out from the sleepy little town of Whataroa, a popular jumping-off point for tahr hunters.
The car park was full of tahr hunters, either on their way in or returning, grizzled and weather beaten. Soon the coast was rapidly falling away behind us as we flew towards the mountains. The thin belt of coastal rainforest gave way to steep faces of scrub before breaking out into the alpine tussock country. Higher still, the rock and ice of the mountain peaks faded into the sky. That was tahr country, and that was where we were headed.
In only 15
