Southland & Otago Duck Tour: Day 4 - hunt & home

This morning was our last, and we were to spend it with Josh on a paddock hunt. We arrived at his place and set off to a neighbour’s paddock, where we hiked through a chow paddock and got setup with a dozen full body dekes. A few birds were around, but they were very much focussed on the several large ponds nearby. A pair showed some interest but moved on, so we proceeded to walk up the river we were on. Josh showed us how it’s done by shooting a brace that Tim and I had walked past, including a fabulously coloured greylard hen, which was the icing on the cake.

We went back to Josh’s and cleaned our bag from the previous day and the morning, had a coffee and then hit the road.

The drive back was amazing for the simple fact that wherever we looked, ducks could be seen either loafing in small bodies of water, or feeding on paddocks. The conversation went something like this “Duck”. “Ducks”. “Heaps of ducks”. “Woah, check out those ducks right there”.

We took a slight detour to visit Outram … nothing there, move along... before arriving at the airport and checking in our guns and luggage.

What a trip! Huge thanks to Tim for organising the trip off the back of his work duties, to Josh for his great hospitality and acting as somewhat of a tour guide, and to Paul for sharing his thinking and his fabulous parts of the country.

Awesome.