Alistair!

Alistair!….Self-sufficient, kiwi, solid, funny man, old soul, new mate…We call him Al. I have now spent a week with Al participating in a one of a kind work exchange experience. I don’t really know where to begin..but I’ll start with my first day with Al.

I arrived mid-afternoon to Al’s place in the middle of nowhere, Kinloch. I got squared away in my bus/van…there is running water and no electricity. Several windows are out and they have netting stiched into the frame to keep the bloody sand flies out…(just killed one biting my hand as I type. They suck…but you get used to them..sort of…. The sand flys haven’t really made it into my bus yet. I try my best to be quick in and out the door but these things are some pesky buggers. Ive got bites all over. I’ll live. They are mainly near the water…which I guess is only less than 100 yards away from the bus.

I sleep in the back of the bus where there is a bunk bed…he gave me two sleeping bags and one comforter. I sleep on top of one sleeping bag and then get in the other…and comforter on top. The temp has dropped a good little bit since I’ve been here…there has been a couple days of snow on the mountain tops behind the property. I do have a little furnace that I can burn wood/pinecones in…their pinecones are heavy…I thought they were water logged but that’s just how heavy they are…and they do burn. The fire has definitely helped at night..I sleep with socks, pajama pants, fleece, and a sweater at night. I wake up at 7:30 and then walk over to Al’s to have tea(coffee). He’s got some strong coffee and it works!. He boils the water on top of the furnace in his living room. He also uses that boiling water to wash dishes and I swear it couldn’t be anymore piping hot….He washes them with his bare hands and then hands them to me and I can barely hold the plate its so hot…the heat doesn’t bother him…he said his son was pretty much born not able to feel pain…something in their nerve endings…idk. Most of the time I can’t tell if he is messing with me or not…I think he likes trying to pull one over on me most of the time. ooops anyways..first day with al.

So we have dinner the first night..me and Al..no hats at the table…. sitting on one end of the table because the rest of is covered in bills/fish hooks/keys/sticky notes/rat poison cans/etc. We watch the “local” news…it’s always the main news channel out of Auckland….It’s quite entertaining to hear his commentary on the “talking heads” on the tube. It’s also amazing how many stories they report on about things happening in the US. Especially the election, obviously. But it’s filled with all of our sports, music, Hollywood etc. We watch game shows sometimes…He’s pretty good at the NZ version of Jeopardy. First meal was baked chicken drumsticks, potatoes, pumpkin, and carrots. I love the pumpkin. Drumsticks are fine…just not back to back which does happen. I try not to put too many condiments on the food, but he does always insist if I want to…he doesn’t care how much I eat…just that whatever makes it on my plate goes in my belly and that nothing goes to waste! Fair!

After our first dinner he called up a “lass with some land” that he helps with her cars and property. We load up a couple guns and we are headed to kill a stag. No camouflage..just whatever we were wearing at dinner and a couple guns and we’re off.. I knew we were probably going to hunt at some point during this stay but I didn’t know it was going to be the first thing…and I surely didn’t expect what was to come next.

We drive about 40 minutes in the middle of this valley surrounded by beautiful mountains..the dart river…and thousands of sheep.. We make it to the property and he goes…alright eyes peeled…He said he hasn’t seen a stag(red deer) in awhile on this property…we were going to get a couple hares if we didn’t find one. We are riding on this muddy country road in this red and black cargo? van idk you’ll see the picture of it at the end of this…the back is empty and its just got two seats in the front…I wasn’t sure if the thing even had working headlights..and we were pretty far away from home.

So I grew up with Yancey Houston as my father and of course I’ve been hunting many of times with him in Georgia..sometimes on a Wim in the late afternoon…and you may or may not see anything…and in my experience you don’t see big bucks. It’s never really about(for me) whether or not we kill something…or even see anything….of course that would be great but its about the bonding and experience and a break in the day to day action of our lives. Being outside ya know. So I’m fully prepared to just spend the evening with this man I only met 2 hours ago in New Zealand..who I am supposed to spend a few weeks with moving forward…and we are far from the house…its getting dark and we are on a hunt. So i’m locked in…smallish talk…then only talk about stag…hunting. Its incredibly beautiful.. I don’t care if we see a single tweety bird. I'm pumped to be in paradise and learn about who the hell this guy is who let me join him for a few weeks.

I see about 4 stag 300 yards away in a big field..tall grass… one has big horns…we park the car immediately…he tells me not to slam the door…okay okay..I’ve heard that one before…he said the French guys always slam the bloody door and spook em away. Al is wearing a tshirt..blue jeans..tennis shoes..and his hat cocked to the side. I’m wearing a lime green free fly hoodie. We are stalking these things…you can watch the video to see our approach…I’m behind him with my little 22…he’s got something bigger I can’t remember…He had talked about how he only does head shots…no suffering or a clean miss is what he says. This is not a trophy hunt for him by any means I can tell you that. He’s on a mission to feed himself for the next few months….and he was determined to make it happen. He kind of hid behind a tree all the way to them…I'm filming…I felt weird filming..but it was a legendary experience…I was looking at Al and the deer and holding the camera near my chest. For some reason I didn’t want him to know I was filming. But I had to document this…The sun is setting on this gorgeous mountains and i’m with a stranger about to watch him kill a red stag….He tries to free hand but he was a little out of breath and couldn’t get the crosshairs to focus…he turns to me and at first I thought he was going to let me shoot him. He said get down and I’m going to prop the gun on your shoulder…plug your ears. I get down..plug my ears…and I don’t see the shot. My heart is racing at this point…I look up after he shoots and I see one big buck running towards the fence line with the other females….Al doesn’t say a dang word..We start walking towards where they were..there are two horses across the way just staring at whatever the heck just happened….I’m convinced he missed…he still isn’t saying anything…we get up to the tree where they were..and sure enough this 12 point stag…big body animal is lying there…he said ..you didn’t think I got him did you….I didn’t even know there were two bucks! My hearts going…like buck fever..he thinks i’m exhausted fro the stalk…and I’m just standing there in the middle of paradise thinking where the hell am I….What just happened…I just landed in Queenstown like 5 hours ago. I couldn’t believe it…I was just in Atlanta a few days ago and I’m….here now…what in the world….

The deer is heavy! we gut it…he’s pumped(I think) he doesn’t show too much excitement but I could tell he was proud of this one. We barely…I mean barely got this thing lifted in the van….we almost gave and had to cut it in half right there…it’s getting dark…..I forgot to add that when we were on the way with they van to get the deer…he started laughing and starting singing “trailer park girls go round the outside..round the outside” by Eminem. I’m giddy. This is fun..this is spontaneous..this is adventure…this is living. We celebrated by playing a few of his favorite songs on the way home…the first being…Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver…The next song was…The Rodeo Song by Garry Lee and Showdown….This was already an experience that had cemented itself in Zack’s memory bank hall of fame.

On the way home…its dark…the conversation was open. I guess when I first sat down with him he wanted to know why I wanted to come across the world to visit his country. I mentioned a few high level things and said we could talk about it eventually on this trip. He went ahead and opened the door.. he asked a simple question.. “so what made you want to help people out of their despair?” We got into all of it. We get along. We made it home…kept the deer in the car overnight with the windows tight so the “blowflies” couldn't get to them.

Wake up first thing and we are processing this thing…he doesn’t give a crap about the horns..I had to ask him to take a pic with it. I’ve skinned and gutted deer before…but I don’t think I’ve gone past there…Al is saving every last bit of this thing….and we are going to eat it for the rest of trip. The following day we are slicing it up, mincing it, and by that night…we have venison stew…He’s got food for months. Where am I? I love it..what is going on…I’m processing this red stag in a kitchen listening to his records…Pink Floyd and Dire Straits..and Rod Stewart of course. I’m in the South Island of New Zealand…and I’m setting aside parts of this animal for the house cat…Kevin. Pictured below.. I am living.