CHRIS BILKEY TRACK AND TRAIL SAFARIS NEW ZEALAND

My connection with Chris and Peg Bilkey goes back a long way and is a long story. 35 years ago, the late, great Australian outfitter Bob Penfold of Hunt Australia got me started on a quest to take all the South Pacific animals free range, what Penfold described as “wild and free.”

Tough quest. For New Zealand game, Penfold was working with John Berry, long retired, and John introduced me to Chris and Peg Bilkey.

There are numerous great outfitters in New Zealand, but I’ve been hunting with Chris Bilkey Track & Trail Safaris ever since. They run a small, personal outfit, headquartered out of their comfortable home in Geraldine on the South Island. Close proximity to excellent hunting for red stag, tahr, chamois, and fallow deer, and with access to the full range of New Zealand game.

On one of my first hunts with Chris I took daughter Brittany, then in her teens. Despite a June snowstorm, we both took fine bull tahr. Hunting Himalayan tahr in New Zealand is one of my favorite mountain hunts, and the Bilkeys have a fantastic area barely an hour from their home, a huge sheep station that enables walk-up hunting, no helicopter required. Excellent red stag in the same mountains. I don’t need to hunt another tahr for myself, but I love that area. I’ve been back and made the climb several times, with Donna, Brittany again, and younger daughter Caroline, and with friends. In 2011, I made that climb four months after my heart attack…just to make sure I could. It’s not an easy hunt, but not a killer.
My crazy quest for all the South Pacific animals continued into the teens, and I was down to whitetail and sambar. Both are found only in certain areas, especially free range. I’d tried for both and failed. Chris set me up for one more attempt for a whitetail, near Queenstown on South Island, and this time I took a nice buck easily. With time remaining, I hustled back to Chris and Peg’s place. Chris knew of a farm on the North Island that held good sambar, suggested we give it a try. We hustled up there, saw a decent stag the first afternoon. Chris suggested we pass, maybe could do better. After multiple attempts, I was horrified, but I trust Chris Bilkey. Two days later we took a fine sambar.

That ended my South Pacific quest, but not my hunting with Chris and Peg’s Track Trail. I’ve been back since, love the people, love the country, and Chris and Peg are family. Not just part of our CBEO family, but close family. It’s probably time for me to plan one more hunt in New Zealand.

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