Postmarks

My papers arrived today, postmarked 3rd June. One would normally expect 2 day delivery from NZ Post, which would have landed them in my letterbox Saturday earliest.

Here's some back of napkin scratchings, for those who are interested:

AWF&G Income: $900,000
Wages & Salaries (inc "Superannuation") $461,000 (5 staff).So over half of all income is gone before anything is done. What is done? Projects are done. What projects? Swamp 'refurbishment' projects mostly. Without a much deeper dive, you could say that approximately a million bucks a year are being tipped into swamps. (The swamps that are now closed to hunting). Value for money? You answer that question....

The weekend's weather looked pretty good. Northerly system, wind, rain - the full noise. I met dad at the landing Friday night and we set off, reaching the hut to catch up with Rick and Jason. We set about a meal of fallow in garlic, with a red wine and afterwards set about a bottle of Glenfiddich. God I slept badly. It rained off and on and in no time at all the alrm went. Up for a coffee and biscuits then we loaded the punt and set off for Puru (aka The Graveyard). Not sure how many ducks have been taken there, but of the season total of over 320 birds at least 75% would have come from there. Took forever to set up Rick's 24 dekes, 3 flasher splashers, 2 Pulsators, Robo and wonderduk. Was quite light and almost 7 am beforre all was ready. A few shots here and there. I spotted 4 ducks off near the Crossfire (unattaended) and laid into the hail calls, and they swung towards us. They circled several times before I called the shot and we dropped 3 - all greys. After that we worked hard and added to the bag here and there. We finished with 6 in the bag and unusually for us lost 3 around the place. Paris worked hard but with all the additional water the ducks had plenty of escape routes. Hundreds upon hundreds of swan were around - we were to find out why later... Back to the hut for lunch (game stew) and then we got a vist from the Haywards, Lloyd reporting that there are no ducks up their way so they had gone rooster chasing for nil result. They had moved "100" swan off Pullford's pond, which had scared a bunch more hence the sight of so many around. Jase and me went up to the landing to grab Tim & Quinn and we arrived back to put dekes into Bollocks for their morning hunt. I went across to the night spot for the arvo/evening shoot while Tim & Quinn shot the Prang-dang's pond and the other guys went to (go on, guess) puru. An early burst of activity at about 4.20 saw them get a duck, while I screwed up on a pair. Was quite excited to be buzzed by a brace of spoonies who departed when the others fired (getting a single duck). Then quite a decent lull, before darkness fell and the place livened up. I got a brace that nipped across, then as I was searching for the second bird 2 brace visited but shied away from my head lamp. I didn't find the bird after 15 minutes of searching but decided to visit again in the morning. Back at base we had a great beef randang curry and sat around shooting the breeze. I hit the hay and slept like a baby. The alarm woke us at 5.15 and again we were off to Puru, dad wisely sleeping in. Despite the wind and rain we were buzzed by a single grey which landed behind the maimai. I got it with a dodgy shot past the big oak behind the maimai, narrowly avoiding hitting the trunk. it was the smallest grey I'd ever seen. Took Paris for a wonder to the night spit and found my downed bird from the night before, lying belly up not 5 feet from where I'd been searching. That was it for the day. Tim, Quinn and I pulled out and after cleaning the birds we packed and hit the road at 11, having raised dad from his slumber. Rick and Jase stayed on before deciding to pull the pin at about 1. They moved to AJ's place in the Kopuka and got 7 birds for the arvo.

Well, that's my duck season all but over. A bit light on duck trips but still there's roosters to be had after June and perhaps a goose trip in August.