A Wild Chix Weekend Recap
- isabell8785
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
Hannah came to the recent "Intro to Hunting weekend" - all the way from Wellington to spend a few days with complete strangers to learn how to hunt. It was such a pleasure having Hannah with us and I am incredibly grateful for the time she took to write this amazing blog post! Thank you so much!
While scrolling my newsfeed in January, I happened upon a little post on a tramping group page. One thing led to another, and after a whirlwind of travel, this young aspiring hunter was to be found driving out to Sika Lodge at around three in the afternoon on a Friday in pouring rain for the Wild Chix introduction to hunting weekend. Friday’s weather was less than ideal but the forecast promised improvement, so I kept my hopes up.
Sika Lodge is quite accessible and easy to find; a four wheel drive is definitely not required. It's an outdoor lodge owned by an older couple out in the foothills of the Kaimanawas with a small cottage nearby where the Wild Chix leaders had situated themselves. Our accommodation was in the larger dormitory style rooms, which have a larger attached kitchen and toilets and showers, which are flushing and warm.
After setting ourselves up in the cabins, we had an informal introduction. Cups of tea in hand, we let the chat develop naturally, followed by a group session to discuss the purpose of the weekend, what it would look like. A round of personal introductions followed with each sharing a little bit about ourselves, why we chose to do this, and what we were hoping to get out of it. It was really inspiring and made me realize that I was there for the right reasons, and that I'd done the right thing by signing up. There was a wide range of people there, from age to life experience. I was neither the youngest nor the oldest, not most experienced, nor the least experienced. There would be plenty to learn but also things that I would be able to add to other people’s knowledge.
Our fantastic dinner on Friday night was included in the basic package. This was created with love and amazing skill by Katie our Wild Chix chef. While the catered option is a new thing that they are trialing, it was wonderful to be able to share this dinner with everyone including those who had not opted in for the extra. Friday night’s dinner was a spectacular spread of fresh and preserved meats and fruits, cheeses, crackers and dips using native ingredients and wild venison. What a privilege to partake in this!
We would have then gone out for an evening walk, but it was still pouring with rain, so we decided to forego that until the rain unexpectedly cleared early, allowing us to head out for a short evening walk. While many were quite tired by that point, having just driven a long way and then meeting new people, I'm glad we still went before settling down to a good night's sleep, ready to wake bright eyed and bushy tailed at five o'clock the next morning.
One or two essential coffees and multiple layers of clothing later, two groups of women headed into the bush for a couple of hours. Multiple amateur hunters in large groups could not realistically hope to see or shoot deer, but this trip was amazing for learning to be quiet and to just be present in the bush. Using all of your senses to understand the world around you and to understand the world as it may be seen by a deer or other animal in their own environment is a skill that needs lots of honing over time, and varying levels of experience in the group meant we could share skills beyond the lessons and tips provided by our expert leaders. This included looking for tracks, find deer poo, hoof prints or bitten plants, moving ferns in the distance, smelling the musky fragrance of a deer that has settled in that spot for a night, listening for changes in the bush indicating large animals, and many more tips and tricks. These qualities are things that I've always admired in hunters; to be able to track animals and understand them and see the world from their eyes has been inspirational.
We then went back feeling ready for a beautiful family-style breakfast, again cooked by Katie as part of the opt-in catered option. Scrambled eggs, sausage hash, creamy mushrooms, sourdough with Mānuka butter, and another cold platter with cheese and fruit filled up all the holes in the tummy ready for our brains to be filled too!
Discussion around gear was something that I was quite looking forward to. While I have some gear and some knowledge about outdoors, coming from a tramping background, I do not necessarily come from a hunting one. Each of us were able to contribute to the discussion with our own background such as those with military connections, healthcare professions, hunting, fishing, and more. Being safe in the outdoors was a major part of this talk, with particular care taken to discuss considerations for hunting with its associated risks and types of clothing or gear that is needed. In-depth conversations on the nuances of women’s clothing followed their own tracks which were really important and valuable. When it is appropriate to use the men’s range, when women’s gear is required, how the various companies can skimp on the bells and whistles that men’s clothing have, and how women need to advocate for these were all things that the entire group debated. Izzy and Nat led these conversations in an expertly informal but well-directed way, allowing things to move in directions that permitted everyone to learn and didn't feel like too much was being packed in, and I think everyone came away from that having learned something.
After gear we moved on to discussing navigation and weather. Nat brought out her paper map and her compass, which we discussed reading. While recognizing the need to understand and use paper maps, we didn’t spend too much time on this and focused instead on using the NZ Topo50 app which is something developed relatively recently and is invaluable for outdoor adventures. We talked about using Topo lines and interpreting that in terms of a hunting perspective, where to sit and wait for the deer, anabatic and katabatic winds, phases of the moon, and more.
After refreshing our minds out in the sun with a tasty lunch box of filled rolls, fresh fruit, quinoa salad and a cookie (again prepared by Katie), we then moved on to discussing firearms. I felt entirely naive about this, even having used firearms in the past as a child and as an adult. Those group members who had their own guns with them brought these out and we discussed types of firearms, ammunition, terms used for parts of guns and what game is suited to each type. Gun safety was a huge part of what we discussed, how to be safe with the gun and how to store it properly, with different considerations and discussion around what a person should know and prepare for when getting their firearms license.
Target practice naturally followed these gun talks. Two stations out in the paddock behind Sika lodge were set up for the group to practice on paper targets and the metal ‘plinker’. I found out that I was not as proficient with this as I thought I might be! Not to worry at all though, as the whole environment was really encouraging, with no silly questions, judgement or ego.
After target practice we went for another walk, driving a bit further out into the bush to get to a track that we followed instead of bush-bashing as before. Around a kilometre and a half into this track we just sat down next to an impressively large tree, being quiet, not saying anything, just being present, enjoying the setting of the sun and playing with some exciting new thermal binoculars. The Kaimanawa possums should count themselves lucky that they escaped the .22 guns that we took with us on this trip!
It goes without saying that dinner was spectacular. Katie prepared some pizzas with tasty toppings, teaching us how to throw the dough and we were able to choose our own toppings from a range of tasty options. A satisfied group of warm, full and tired women trooped off to bed that night, looking forward to the promise of an exciting Sunday morning.
And so, after another good night's sleep, we woke up at six o'clock the following morning for a slightly more relaxed coffee then another chilly morning stalk after a clear night. What a difference twenty four hours made – it was so helpful to have this shorter second morning walk after learning a lot and being able to kind of apply that knowledge and feel more confident and comfortable out there was exciting as well as reassuring. Several days of rain prior to our trip beautified the forest in unexpected ways, bringing up fantastic fungal scenes that were just too pretty to ignore.
You know, I don’t even think the ladies would have been opposed to another five o’clock start, especially as fresh hot scones, croissants, baked eggs, sausages, bacon and Mother’s Day bubbles greeted us on return to camp.
After breakfast, we moved on to our skinning and butchering session with some fallow deer which had been provided for us to do this with, and had been hanging in the cool shed for a couple of days and were waiting for us to get into them.
We learned considerations for being alone in the bush versus being in a group and able to share out the load, considerations about how far in the bush you are, when it's appropriate to carry the whole beast out and when you should just take the parts that are most valuable to you, how to prepare the beast and put it on your back. Unfortunately, I tried to swing the heavier of the two deer on my back as instructed and subsequently fell over - but had a good time doing it! Each of us had the opportunity to carry the beast and walk around the paddock for a bit, feeling its weight and how it might feel to have on one’s back for a long period. The deer were strung up for us to learn how to skin and break them down into manageable pieces of meat and then break that down further into cuts suitable for transferring to the kitchen. It goes without saying that many, many recipes were discussed while doing this which was enough to inspire us all to use the meat which was divided up amongst the group. Even the dogs at home benefitted from the discarded bones, a poor substitute for coming hunting too but nevertheless much appreciated.
This butchering session was a little rushed towards the end, because a number of people needed to get away and drive home for the afternoon with a target finish time of one o'clock. We had a sweet little session discussing the weekend and how much we'd learned, some feedback, and a little bit about future visions for Wild Chix. Many promises of swapping contacts for future trips and making connections later, hugs were given and the group dispersed back to our day to day lives which have been made much better after this weekend!
The Wild Chix introduction to hunting was a valuable experience that I would recommend to the majority of women I know whether experienced or not. I am grateful to Izzy, Nat and Katie for supporting this important step in allowing women to feel more confident in a typically male-dominated sport, in a way that really builds them up and provides a space to ask questions that is kind and empowering. No question feels like a stupid question and there is no judgement involved. I was happy to be there and will return home feeling refreshed and more prepared to enjoy the outdoors. Look out deer, another hunter has joined the ranks of Kiwi women after ya!
