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This year I had 3 weeks leave booked, but the only firm plans were for the first 10 days ... which involved a long walk with a pack full of gear and food for me & Mazz the dog. After a couple of days we'd seen a few deer and heard the odd roar, but warm Nor'westers seemed to be keeping things quiet. We found ourselves in a promising valley when this stag boldly appeared late one evening and let out a hearty roar, in the middle of a very large river flat (click "read more" below for the rest) ...

Thanks to Bevan Lowen for sending this story and pics from a sensational Fiordland trip during the first bugle period of 2009. Of the Fiordland stories I've read, for me this rates with the best of them ... yet there's not even one pic of a dead animal!

As I wrote on the back cover of the WildHunts Fiordland Adventures DVD (click here ) and consistent with my 2009 roar story below - "there's much more to hunting than shooting animals".

Bevan's words - "Of the five I roared in, I shot none of them. But the photo's really seemed like success in the hunt this time around". Click Read more below for Bevan's excellent story...