Pig Hunt!

For a true New Zealand experience down in Invercargill I joined Nick and Nathan, my current house-mates, on Sunday for a pig hunt in the freezing sleet. Fortunately the weather took a turn for the better soon after setting out:



Pig hunting is a proper New Zealand blokey past-time, involving a pack of pig dogs who hunt for the pigs and run them down. Once they have it cornered or held down, its the hunter's job to go in and stick the pig with a knife, up close and personal. How manly is that! Its pretty dangerous too - a pig has huge tusks which are razor sharp. Some dogs get seriously torn up or even killed.



Unfortunately the guy with the highly trained pig dogs had to pull out of the hunt at the last minute. So we made do with Nathan and Nick's dogs, who aren't so highly trained. Although they do have a lot of enthusiasm! Above are Nathan's dogs, Tosh and Holly.



While this crazy pup is Nick's Jess. And yes, she is as looney as she looks!



We tracked deer and pigs through the bush, in a beautiful part of the Catlins close to Curio Bay. Shotguns and rifles were carried in hope of an opportunistic shot on a deer or duck. Not much use against a pig though!





The closest we got to shots fired - some paradise shell-ducks in the paddock below us... But no luck.



At least there was the opportunity for some great photos, even if not a success in the usual sense!