The Wild Goats of the Tararuas

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, 1 September 1904, Page 403

The Wild Goats of the Tararuas

'Ajfjiifp T had taken us a full day's march, and though our swags were light in reYf <s> ality^ they felt heavy enough by the time the fiX^o last long black birch Pfj ridge had been scaled. Six of us in a straggling line, ,§-(, with swags upon our ; 7 backs, rifles in our hands, and fire-blackened billies strung to our respective belts, crawled wearily out into the brighter daylight of a little open patch in the dense undergrowth of the bush, and threw ourselves down on the springy fern. The three dogs of the expedition, by name, Scout, Rajah, and Spring, respectively, came crawling in close upon our heels, with lolling tongues and panting sides. We had reached our campingground in the wild and rugged fastnesses of the Tararua Ranges only just in time, for the shadows were already gathering" and thickening among the tree trunks, and up in the heavy foliage overhead. After a short spell we unrolled our swags, and set about pitching the tent and starting a fire to boil the billy for tea. Within an hour of our arrival our little weather-stained tent was securely set up, and made all snug with a great stack of fern fronds spread upon the floor for bedding. Then as a sound of hissing and spluttering announced that the

billy was boiling, we gathered about the cheerful blaze of the fire, and set to work on our stock of provisions with appetites such as only those know who have trodden the out trail, and smelt the reek of the camp fire.

Long before our hunger was appeased the shadows had marshalled their forces close about our little circle, and darkness, thick and impenetrable., had cast its mantle over the bush. A belated tui, perched high in the branches of a giant rata that towered above us, 2 - ave voice to a few sweet bell notes, and fell suddenly silent as the harsh, grating cries of a flock of kakas riving high overhead broke in upon his melody. A mopoke hooted eerily from the shadows behind the tent, and then as if his voice were a signal, a perfect chorus of wailingcries rose from the gully below, where the wekas, now wide awake, were starting out on their marauding excursions.

We needed no rocking to send us to sleep that first night in camp. We dropped off into the land of dreams the moment we rolled ourselves in our blankets, and snored soundly until awakened by the sweet voices of the tiiis at daylight the following morning. It was a nositive delight to draw aside the tent-flap and step out into the cool fresli air of the bush, the rich, damp smell of the fern was sweet as in-

cense to the nostrils, and the feeling of exhilaration at being away in the heart of wild country, full of big game, was grand in the extreme.

After a hearty breakfast, a plan of campaign was drawn up for the day,, and it was finally decided that we should start oft' in pairs. Two of our party were to scout around on the ridges near the camp, whilst two others worked up the Orongo-rono-o river-bed, and the remaining two down. A dog was allotted to each party, and having equipped

ourselves with rifle, cartridges and sheath knives, we started out for our first day's sport. Harry, our leader, and myself, elected to take the up-river beat with Scout, our veteran hunting dog, to assist us on the trail, so leaving the snug little camp behind us, we struck off down a narrow creek-bed amid a marvellous wealth of beautiful ferns that everywhere clothed the floor of the bush.

Tracks and signs of game were not wanting, and- we had the ut-

most difficulty in keeping old Scout from breaking away in hot pursuit on the trail of some of the freshest tracks of big game. Finally, in spite of all we could do, lie dashed up a steep birch-clad slope, and an angry baying from the direction in which he had disappeared informed us that he had bailed up something 1 .

We instantly made all haste to the scene of action, and after a tough scramble among the supplejacks, came upon a fine young sow

that lie had cornered for us between the wide flanges of the roots of a giant pukatea tree. Upon our arrival the dog at once dashed in and seized the sow by the throat, when we lost no time in dispatching her, heedful of the requirements of our camp commissariat. We carried the carcass down to the track, hung- it securely amid the boughs of a small karaka tree, and continued our journey, coming shortly afterwards out upon the boulder-bed of the Orongorongo River.

The scene that immediately confronted us was one. of the wildest and most desolate description. For fully a hundred yards from where we stood there stretched a wilderness of water-worn stones, boulders, and flood wreckage. At the outer edge of this, the cold, clear waters of the river, fed by the snows of the Rimutaka, rushed and foamed with a reverberating roar that filled the air with its tumultuous echoes. Beyond the river again, the boulders stretched for fully a quarter of a

mile to the further bank, which, precipitous and bush-clad, leant back in mighty slip-scarred ridges to the towering* summits of the main Tararua Range.

The majestic solitude of the scene lield us entranced for a space, as we raised our eyes from our immediate surroundings ar.d took in the full glory of it. First, the "blue-gray of the boulder-bed, then the many shades of g-reen reflected in the allenveloping bush, . with here and there the Hood -red stain of the

rata blossom flung broadcast over the tree, tops, and at the back of all, the blue and purple of the distant summits of the main range melting into an azure sky.

Our attention was soon called back to the business of our trip, however, by the sudden appearance of several bright patches of white and brown moving- upon the face of the river bank opposite us. ''Goats/ ejaculated Harry, "come -on." and crouching low, we commenced a

stealthy advance across the open towards them.

Reaching the river, we plunged over our knees into ice-cold water that deepened rapidly as we moved forward, until it almost reached our waists. The bed of the river was so uneven and the current so strong' that it was with difficulty we kept our footing. Numbed with the cold, we readied the opposite side without mishap. A further advance brought us well within three hundred yards of the little mob of

goats, who now caught sight of us, and showed signs of alarm. Not a moment was to be lost. Taking careful aim, we singled out a couple and fired simultaneously. Harry's goat leapt high in the air as the rifle shot rang out, and fell head foremost on to the river bed below. The rest of the flock made a dash for cover. Had I missed ? No, for my quarry stumbled and fell just as he reached the bush, but recovering himself quickly, he disappeared at the heels of

the others. We crossed the open at a, run, and set our eager dog on the trail. We had hardly entered the bush ere a furious barking close ahead told us that our quarry was at bay.

Upon arriving on the scene, we discovered not one goat, as we had expected, but two. The foremost of these was a fine, patriarchal old billy, who kept making savage rushes at our dog as he circled around him. Behind this brave old warrior, and evidently sorely

wounded, stood the goat I had fired at, a graceful little nanny, with a prettily marked brown and white skin. I lost no time in putting her out of her misery with a second shot that stretched her lifeless amid the fern.

Then we turned our attention to her defender. It was well for us that we did, for evidently under the impression that we were foemen most worthy of his steel, the old goat suddenly broke away from the dog, and came for us with a rush.

Feeling that discretion was the better part of valour in this case, we hastily made for the friendly shelter of a great tree trunk, round which the old chap chased us hotly with his long', twisted horns lowered for the attack, uncomfortably close to us. The faithful Scout came to the rescue, however, and by a sudden rear-guard action forced billy to bail up once more, when we dispatched him with a bullet between the eyes. I hung the nanny up to a branch

and stripped her skin oft", secured the horns of the old billy, and then returned to the river-bed where Harry was busily engaged skinning his kill. His goat proved to be a fine young billy with a magnificent

skin covered with long, shaggy, white and brown hair. The bullet which had brought him down had caught him just behind the shoulder, drilling a neat hole through his vitals, and proved the splendid shooting qualities of the Winchester .44.

Well pleased with the commencement of our clay's sport, we struck off up one of the wild precipitous gorges that debouched on to the main river-bed. Here the scenery was wilder than ever, the gorge being about two hundred yards in width, with steep water-worn walls on either side, fully forty feet in height, almost perpendicular, and with the dark shadows of the surrounding bush crowding their broken edges.

Wild pigeons were here in great numbers, and so tame that we could approach to within a few yards of them without their becoming alarmed. It was a very pretty sight to see them launching out from the tree-tops on one side of tlie gorge and swooping across to the opposite side, their feathers flashing

bronze-green and copper colour in the bright sunlight. Before we had gone far, upon rounding a sharp bend in the gorge, we came suddenly in full view of a large flock of goats of every variety of colour in the act of crossing from one side to the other. Before they had time to discover our presence, we had selected one each, and the loud roar of the rifle-shots echoing from either wall of the gorge was the first intimation they received that anyone had invaded their sylvan retreat. The range was not more than a hundred and fifty yards, and yet, to my chagrin, the goat I fired at bounded off with the rest apparently unhurt. A struggling 1 patch of colour among the rocks shewed that Harry's shot had gone home ; and with the aid of our magazines, which we had luckily filled just before we discovered the flock, we got several more shots in before they were able to scale the steep slope before them. By the time the last goat had bounded out of sight into the bush, three more lay dead

among the rocks. Unloading our magazines, we pressed forward to examine our quarry. They proved to be a billy and three nannies with splendid skins, prettily marked in ruddy brown and white patches, so

we at once set to work to secure the skins and the billy's horns as trophies. By the time this was done the lengthening shadows warned us that it was time to make tracks for camp. We made excellent representations of Kobinson Crusoe and Man Friday as we tramped off with goat-skins strapped across our shoulders, billy goat's horns stuck in our belts, and our shirts and trousers in a sadly dilapidated, blood-bespattered condition. Down

the rugged gorge we made our way, climbing* over the great heaps of flood wreckage that everywhere blocked our passage, and at times wading knee-deep in the rushing torrent that brawled and foamed among the great boulders.

In due time we reached the riverbed, now wrapped in cold shadows, cast by the great range behind which the afternoon sun had sunk io rest. Several grey ducks rose with a sharp whistling, of wings from a bend in the river as we were

negotiating a crossing, and as we were about to enter the bush a brace of line paradise ducks flew past on their way up-stream. Every kind of game abounded, as this first day's incursion into the wilds of the Tararuas clearly proved. The thick, impenetrable darkness of the bush came upon us just as we caught sight of a bright point of light flickering on the ridge among the tree trunks. With a ureat and ravenous hunger urging us on. we lost no time in making camp, where

we discovered the rest of our expedition sitting round the fire, gazing longingly at several wellblackened billies that hung simmering over the blaze. What a sumptuous meal we had that night, too ! Pigeon and kaka stew, onions and potatoes, and bread and butter, and best of all, several large pannikins each of choice billy tea. Afterwards we heaped more logs upon the fire, and related the day's adventures as we lay around in the glow, whilst the

mopokes and woodhens kept up their dismal chorus in the gullies and on the ridges close by.

The sun was well up over the range before we started out on the following morning, and the second day yielded us just as good sport as the previous one. There were fresh gorges to be explored, every one of which contained its flocks of goats, and occasionally a solitary old bush boar.

In one of these gorges we bailed up a magnificent old boar. Never

before had 1 seen such a picture of absolutely devilish ferocity as he presented when with foam-flecked jaws, gleaming 1 tusks, and bristling shoulders, he stood at bay against the fern-matted trunk of a giant rata. In spite of the many pigsticking tales that we had heard, we decided that the rifle was the better way of dispatching him, his gleaming- tusks being a conclusive argument in that direction. A sharp report, a short, snarling rush, and this monarch of the gorge was

put beyond the reach of doing any damage, whilst the death-dealing tusks, sharp as razors, further increased our stock of trophies.

On this occasion we had our camera with us, and were enabled to take the unique photographs with which this article is illustrated. Cne of them depicts a trial d strength which Harry had with a little billy. The sturdy little cjiiadrured dragged him hither and thither, whilst we hung- on to the dogs to keep them from rushing in

on the plucky little chap. Finally when Harry tired of the game, and let go of the goat's horns, he was immediately charged by the enraged animal,, and had to seek safety in ignominious flight, much to our amusement.

Before returning home we determined to scale Mt. Matthews, one of the highest peaks of the main range, and with sides as steep as a wall. On the slopes of this peak, as in fact along the whole range, were enormous land-slips many

acres in extent, whose gleaming rock faces may be plainly seen from Wellington, twenty miles away. It took us half the day to reach the

summit of the mountain, for we had to make a track as we went along-, climbing with hands and feet up the precipitous slope, where beautiful umbrella ferns were growing shoulder hi eh.

Here we saw our first huia, and later on in the day we came across several pairs of these rare and beautiful birds. Kakas and pigeons were in hundreds, and the trees were literally alive with tuis who filled the air with their blithesome melody.

It was a tough climb, truly, but we were amply rewarded. The summit resembled nothing- more than the scene in a fairy pantomime. The stunted and weather-beaten tree stems with their tangled grey beards and flowing garbs of pendent moss and gnarled and intertwined limbs might well be attendant dwarfs dancing an intricate measure in some weird, fantastic dance on this secluded height where man rarely, if ever, trod. Here and there one swept the earth in a courtly bow to some unseen divinity. On either hand great precipices, dropping sheer at our feet made us feel that we were indeed in another world, till after creeping

under the branches of the windswept trees which had never been able to gain an upright position in this exposed locality, the sight of a trig station effectually dispelled the illusion. We had dragged a chain ourselves.

The station consisted of an iron pipe, embedded in the ground, in which during" survey work a pole bearing a flag is set up for purposes of observation. From this point we got a most extensive and magnificent view embracing to the north and eastward the whole of the lower portion of the Wairarapa valley, including both the Wairarapa and Onoke Lakes. To the southward lay Palliser Bay stretching in deepest blue to Cape Palliser, and the vast infinitude of the far horizon. Away to the wes Iward Wellington harbour lay before us like a map, with the distant city spreading like a white mist at the feet of the sun-browned hills that guarded it. Far away beyond Wellington over the Terawhiti hills, a narrow gleaming belt of silver marked the position of Cook Strait, and faintly outlined in the distance,

loomed the blue ranges of the South island.

Before we turned to descend the mountain we nailed a large sheet of stout calico to two small birch

trees as a flag to commemorate our | visit, then loading- our rifles we fired i~ a volley, the echoes of which wenti' pealing away down the great precipices and gorges below like a crash .: of thunder. About half way down the mountain and whilst we were negotiating the passage of a great landslide that sloped away steeply into the darksome depths of a roaring torrent bed, we caught sight of the largest flock of goats we had yet

seen. The leader of this flock was a magnificent old billy with a grand pair of horns. We determined to have these at any cost, so Harry tried a long, shot at him. The old patriarch stumbled to his knees as the report rang out, but recovering himself, made off into the bush with the whole of: our party in hot pursuit. He led us a terrible dance over the roughest conceivable country before we managed to run him down. Five more shots were fired, each of which struck, but failed to

drop him. Finally a snap shot at long range, as he was scaling a precipitous, rocky face, caught him well forward under the shoulder,, and leaping in the air, he fell a matter of some three hundred feet in to a clump of fern trees in the gorge below. A laborious scramble round the edge of the cliff at last brought us to his body which lay doubled up and crushed among the rocks, thehorns, however, were luckily not

broken by the fall, and proved well worth the trouble we had taken to obtain them. From this point it took us all our time to reach the river-bed before darkness fell upon us. The gorge we had struck was very narrow, and jambed with great stacks of broken branches and tree trunks. At one part of this gorge we shot a pure white goat, with long, silky hair like an Angora, and just before reaching the .river a fine black cow with a young calf bounding 'behind her went crashing off in-

to the bush, one of the many which have wandered away from the settler's herds, and bred undisturbed in these wild fastnesses. Laden with the spoils of the chase in the shape •of goat skins, horns, and boar tusks, and with our game-bags full of pigeons and kakas, we crawled

into camp long 1 after dark that night, dog-tired, but supremely happy.

The following- day was spent in exploring the country in the immediate vicinity of our camp, and much good sport resulted, two yrand old boars, and several splen-

did goat skins falling 1 to our lot. Finally, one clear, fresh morning, when the whole bush rang with the sweet voices of the tuis and the lively chattering of the little green parrakeets, we made up our bulky swags for the return trip to civilisation. Down the home trail we

made our way, through the cool, fern-clad bush gullies, over the long,

sun- warmed, manuka-clad slopes, and so out to the green fields of the Wainui, where, tightening 1 our swagstraps, we struck up the old camp ditty, " Home, boys, home," and swung away down the dusty road.