MONSTER TREE up for grabs

[stingray bay]

We were down in Invercargill, on a mission to find some chainsaw pants that Timber referred me on to. Found them, and on our way back northward I decided to call Graeme and ask what there was to see between here and there. I called and his roommate answered, who is also an arborist, so I ask him, I sez, "If you had a pretty girl and you've been driving around New Zealand for 6 weeks, what would you do next?" He answers, "I'd take 'er pig huntin." Not overly surprised by this answer, I said, "So what if she was ugly and you just got here yesterday. "Aww, I'd still take 'er pig huntin."




This is a pretty good derail so far, don'tcha think? Waiting on final photos, we shift to a related topic, geography, history, demographics and pig hunting on an island at the top of New Zealand's south Island.

You're now FAMOUS, Stingray.


This image is one of my favorites of the New Zealand landscape. Elizabeth would not let me get the hat.

Yep thats pretty typical of Kiwi humour (esp considering we don't have beavers (of the animal kind) in NZed. Great derail, its a pretty small world when you jump on a site half way round the world only to find someone who has been half way back to fish, hunt, (and buy pants!) at least you got the order right. Since we are Stihl waiting for the final photos of the tree off the house heres a photo of a good pig AND some chainsaw chaps (for scale)

 

[trevmcrev]

AND some chainsaw chaps (for scale)

Hahaha, for scale Just incase you standing beside the pig happen to be either a giant or a midget:hmm3grin2orange:

Trev

 

[Tree Machine]

Love the Kiwi humor. Can you explain this bit of Kiwi culture in the picture below?


Also, way back in a much earlier New Zealand day (as I understand it) when you were trying to establish domestic deer herds you would capture deer out of the wild. To do this, the capturer would ride as a passenger in a small helicopter. The copter would swoop low and behind the deer. The deer, with the copter on his tail would run in a straight line, and the capturer would jump onto the deer and wrestle it down. I am not kidding. They said there is a video out there somewhere. It's one of my life's missions to find and procure this tape. That's just extreme beyond my comprehension. Any ideas where this can be found?

As long as we're derailing this thread, sure, let's move on to deer wrestling and donkey punching. :deadhorse:

 

[stingray bay]

Love the Kiwi humor. Can you explain this bit of Kiwi culture in the picture below?


Also, way back in a much earlier New Zealand day (as I understand it) when you were trying to establish domestic deer herds you would capture deer out of the wild. To do this, the capturer would ride as a passenger in a small helicopter. The copter would swoop low and behind the deer. The deer, with the copter on his tail would run in a straight line, and the capturer would jump onto the deer and wrestle it down. I am not kidding. They said there is a video out there somewhere. It's one of my life's missions to find and procure this tape. That's just extreme beyond my comprehension. Any ideas where this can be found?

As long as we're derailing this thread, sure, let's move on to deer wrestling and donkey punching. :deadhorse:

Yep we really are waiting a while for that tree to get off the house...

THAT pic was an absolutely don't go there, new one on me! (MUST be a sticker from the states:jawdrop:, If you really want to know try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_punch

As for the live capture of deer, thats absolutely true, Kiwis discovered that the quickest way to live capture deer (and make lots of money doing something bound to shorten your lifespan) was from a helicopter (a live hind was worth $5000 each in the mid 1980's. Initially in clear country by jumping out on top of the animal and manhandling it to the ground (called bull dogging after a much safer version in American rodeos) and later using a net gun (A converted shotgun/blunderbus that fired a net over the animal) both resulted in alot of captured deer and dead helicopters/pilots/ jumpers, a complete description can be found on page 34 at http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:...pdf+bulldogging+deer&hl=en&gl=nz&ct=clnk&cd=1
I also found a NZ site that sells the videos you are after for $45 NZ shekels (about USD 28) http://www.thedeerpark.co.nz/video.html
When you see this for real you will understand why in NZ we aren't allowed to sue each other for doing something stupidly dangerous :hmm3grin2orange:

 

[Bermie]

Still on the deer,
When we were over there we came across a video called 'The Venison Hunters', all about the guys who went out in the bush to hunt the wild deer that were destroying the countryside, flipping AMAZING footage of cessnas landing on next to nothing, seat of the pants take offs and landings, WAY overloaded with deer, then onto the helicopter hunting, still amazing, they had so much weight on board the 'copter had to take off over a cliff so they'd have room to sink before the rotors could gain enough power to lift the damn thing! Shooting footage and interviews with the blokes who did it. Way cool.