I'm Kevin Biggar. And I'm Jamie Fitzgerald. And we're modern-day adventurers who have travelled all over NZ. In the past few years, we've traversed some of the most dangerous mountains,... LAUGHS: I left my ice axe! ...wildest rivers and rugged trails. Oh! Now we're stepping back in time, retracing the footsteps of early pioneers,... Whoa! ...bringing the past back to life with tales of heroic rescue attempts,... Just take it slow, Kev! ...shipwrecks,... Oh no! ...and deadly pursuits,... It's getting deep! ...where human endurance is pushed to the absolute limit. (YELLS) (YELLS) SPLASH! This week ` the Whitcombe Valley on the western side of the Southern Alps, where only the toughest dare to venture. Two government deer hunters are sent into a vast unmapped wilderness. (SIGHS) As they venture further into the wild, the men are forced to take greater and greater risks in pursuit of their quarry. You're past halfway. Oh! Quick! Oh, Kev! Just what made these men risk their lives to cull deer? Oh. Was the slaughter of thousands of animals really needed? Check it out. Fresh sign. And did their work have any effect on the environment they were trying to save? Can you see them? Just down there. > As two men were about to discover, when you're caught up in the thrill of the chase, even a calculated risk can sometimes go horribly wrong. Captions by Antony Vlug. Edited by Tracey Dawson. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2014 The Southern Alps might seem like an invincible fortress of rock and ice, but 60 years ago it was under attack. When in 1850 a group of landowners introduced red deer into these hills as something to hunt, they had no idea of the havoc that they'd cause. In an environment perfect for deer, their numbers soon exploded. And after 100 years of uninterrupted breeding, vast herds of deer, shammy and tahr roamed the landscape, eating everything they could find. With no foliage holding the hills together, the hills began to crumble. It was an ecological disaster on an unprecedented scale. Drastic action was required to take back control. So the Department of Internal Affairs put a bounty on each deer's head, or, more exactly, a price on each tail. Cullers would enter the hills for weeks at a time and be supplied only by air with parachute drops. Lew Sutherland and Jock Fisher were two keen young lads looking for adventure, and they talked themselves into a job. So what made the job so dangerous? And why would young men put their lives on the line for just a few deer? And what made this story stand above all of the others? The answer lies somewhere out there in the dark foreboding Whitcombe Valley. Jock Fisher had been in the British Army during World War II under the command of a NZer. At war's end rather than return to Scotland, he took up the offer of free passage to the colonies and chose the country the Kiwi major spoke so longingly of. Lew, on the other hand, was from NZ and just missed the war due to his age. Thanks so much, Sally. Thanks so much, Sally. Awesome. See you, Kevin. See you soon. See you soon. Thanks, Sally. Both men were in their prime and deadly with a gun. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Here we go. They've given us... They've given us... Uh-oh! They've given us... Uh-oh! ...a gun. When was the last time you used one of these? Uh, could be clay bird shooting. But these 303s seem a bit stronger than that. Still better than me. The last thing I shot was a picture of my mum. Still better than me. The last thing I shot was a picture of my mum. Oh, oilskin. Well, that makes a lot of sense cos it's gonna rain a lot on the West Coast. Swanndri. Old school. Swanndri. Old school. Oh, looking good. We'll look like Barry Crump out there. Fantastic. We'll look like Barry Crump out there. Fantastic. Oh, that's brilliant. Oh, it wouldn't be a decent hunting show without a decent knife. Gee. You call that a knife? You call that a knife? (CHUCKLES) Oh, this is just for shaving. They were hard men and very good at what they did, but in this environment that counted for little. Because although deaths by firearm accidents were very rare, the mountains themselves were not to be taken lightly. There was no doubt that, despite the beauty that surrounded them, they'd signed up for a dangerous and physically demanding job. The Whitcombe Valley is ringed by high mountains and guarded by the majestic Mt Evans. It's one of the wettest places on the planet with over 10m of rain each year, and it makes the rivers incredibly unpredictable. As they started on their journey, there's no way that Lew and Jock could have known the events that were about to take place... ...or the chilling conclusion to the story. At first it was a hunter's dream. The animals had no natural predators, and there were herds of up to 150 deer in places. They had never seen a human, and so they showed little fear. The hunters paid for their own ammunition, so the rules were ` as few shots as possible and a clean kill so the animals didn't suffer. But it was just this sort of professionalism that made it so dangerous. Oh, can't trust this. To get a good clean shot, the hunters were lured into dangerous places and extreme situations that no tramper or explorer would ever put themselves in. Jock and Lew, they were out hunting a herd one day, and they were almost ready to open fire, when suddenly an enormous animal let out a warning cry. The herd scattered. They only got off a couple of shots. They killed one, but only wounded another. They followed the wounded animal, but it led them in to a series of rock crevasses. But they were determined to chase it down and capture that tail token. The wounded animal had climbed up the crevasse. So to follow it, Lew had to wedge his body against the rock and start to chimney climb. It's gonna have to be a leg on either side I think. < Just watch out for that moss. It looks like you've got very slippery footing. Yeah. Just watch that one. It might break` your left hand ` might break away. Nah, you're doing good. It's certainly not a place I'd choose to climb, but the urgency of the chase gave them little option. It's just slightly too wide for your normal chimney cross. Yeah, you're doing good. Just mind that moss. Hey. Good job, mate. That was brilliant. For Jock and Lew, when they completed their own chimney climb, they got to the top lip, looked over it, and they came face to face with the animal that they had been tracking. Lew got into a position to get another shot, and he finished the animal. It fell from the rock face and disappeared into a deep crevasse below. Now he had a problem. In order to get paid, they had to prove that they'd actually killed the animal. So to do that, they had to take its tail. And if the deer had fallen into an inaccessible place, well, then they had to decide if it was worth the risk. If a deer had gone down there, would you go after it? If a deer had gone down there, would you go after it? I mean, it all depends, right? What if there were 30 standing over the ridge there, and you wanted to get them and not waste a few hours. It all comes down to time, and they had a lot of time. But if there weren't 30 deer there, they might spend a day and not get anything. But what if they were to just take a few notes on where their deer were. But would that make a huge hike for the end of the day? But would that make a huge hike for the end of the day? I think so. Yeah, yeah. No. I guess it comes down to a case-by-case thing, whether or not it's worth the risk. Yeah. Yeah. This case ` Yeah. This case ` BOTH: Nah. Perhaps unknown to them at the time, this was the game they'd signed up for. The animals would often lure the hunters into more demanding and extreme terrain. And to get the shot, they'd need to put their own lives at risk. Yeah, mindful` Oh. Watch out. Watch out. Oh. Whoa! ROCKS CLATTER As they were making their way down the rock face, a sharp rock the size of a dinner plate whirled past their head. They looked up to see that it was the deer that had raised the alarm. It had started a rockfall. Oh. Oh. Yeah, mindful, mate. > ROCKS CLATTER They did their best to avoid the debris. (PANTS) But by the time they were at the bottom, the deer were long gone. Each tail was worth a pound. Doesn't sound a lot, but that equates to about $55 in today's currency. Tallies of 50 deer in a day were not uncommon, and the record for a single day by a single hunter was 101. That meant in one day you could earn the equivalent of $5500. It was a risk-versus-reward proposition, and the most risky part of the hunt always seemed to involve rivers. The thing about these rivers of the Whitcombe is that it pretty quickly starts feeling like Groundhog Day. We've been crossing them all the time. There are so many streams and creeks leading into the main rivers. The rivers in flood are a deathtrap. But even in normal flow like this, you've got to treat them with caution. What was that one like there? What was that one like there? It's way too slippery up there. I think we'll have to try that technique we used before ` find a boulder out in the middle. find a boulder out in the middle. < And jump across? The plan is simple. But get it wrong and it's a swift trip down a river that only gets faster and nastier. Get wedged under a rock and the water pressure can hold you under. It's the most common way to die in alpine rivers. I'm just` I'm just gonna jump and put my hands over on the, uh` the dry. Yeah, there's a ledge underwater. Is that what you're aiming for? Yeah. But I wanna` I'll commit to getting my legs wet, but` Are you ready? 'Suddenly, it looks a lot further than before. Oh! (LAUGHS) 'But I nail the jump. 'Now it's Kev's turn. One, two. 'And he makes a meal of it. Quick! 'I need to pull him out before he gets caught in the main current.' Oh, Kev! You're killing me. (SPLUTTERS) Oh, I'm sorry, mate. Oh, I'm sorry, mate. That was... Oh, it's my fault. I jumped. Your hands were just that close. Oh, it's my fault. I jumped. Your hands were just that close. So close. I couldn't quite make it. It was my fault. No, I just didn't jump it. I mean, we could have just swum across, I guess, but just like Jock and Lew, you don't want to be walking around the hills cold. It was a bit of a gold-mining time, you know, so much money up on offer that, well, I guess they were pushing the limits a fair bit. Maybe that's an example... ...of taking a bit of a dodgy river crossing. Yeah, well, the good news is our guns are still dry. We've still got our hats. Jock had had a similar experience and regarded it as one of the worst things a hunter could face. Unfortunately for Lew, as events would show, he was wrong about that. We're in the Southern Alps, walking in the footsteps of Jock Fisher and Lew Sutherland, two hunters for hire working in one of the most extreme environments on earth. We've come to discover just what made the job such a risky proposition and why young men would put their lives so readily on the line. Incredible, eh? Incredible, eh? It's just beautiful. Having to survive long periods without shelter in the wilderness eventually began to take its toll on the hunters. The government decided basic back-country huts were the answer. Over 60 years later, those same simple shelters form the backbone of the network of huts still used by recreational hunters and trampers. Choice. Choice. What a cutie. Now, on a lot of our journeys, we're having to sleep under rocks and things like that, but this time here we get to see the Frew Saddle Biv. Now, it's special to our story because Jock Fisher built it. So, it was flown in in parts by a plane, dropped off. Jock and his mate pulled it here, then they tried to assemble it. But just then a storm hit. They spent two days having to build it from the inside and then the outside while the storm was raging on. and then the outside while the storm was raging on. Now, that was back in 1957. It's held up pretty well. Kind of makes it about the same age as you, Muz. It's in much better knick, though. Now, the bad news... ...it's only a two-person biv. Well,... see you in the morning, Muz. see you in the morning, Muz. (CHUCKLES) Jeez, she's pretty tight. You might not think so, but even living in the huts could be dangerous. If you were employed to kill possums, that also meant the men had to prepare the poison as well, and in the '50s that mean cyanide. For some reason, it came in a solid egg-shaped form, but to go into the traps it had to be crushed into a powder. And to do that, the hunters would just hit it with a hammer. Cyanide would fill the air, and the men had to keep their mouths shut during the whole operation. There was one other bit of health and safety. They made sure their mugs of tea were well out of range. (LAUGHS) You ready, Kev? Yep. Oh, well, this isn't so bad. I think the possums will like this. So it's now clear the reason these men took the risks they did was for money. It was the country's last gold rush. It's just that the gold was in a deer tail and not in the ground. In fact, it was such a lucrative job that apart from building the odd hut, the government just left the hunters to get on with it. The shooters were expected to supply their own guns, packs and even their own food. In the early days it meant lugging packs weighing up to 100 pounds through the bush. But in the 1950s they came up with a faster way ` parachute drops. They'd just wrap the supplies up in hessian sacks, fly low and chuck it out the door. Some of the supply drops, though, didn't have parachutes. But on those occasions, some of the local Hokitika girls found themselves in an oversupply of cheap silk for their undies. BOTH LAUGH BOTH CHEER Whoa, surely it only takes one to go and get the supply drop. Oh, my lace is undone. You go. I'll catch up. No, come on. All right, first person there gets all the chocolate. BOTH: Oh! The water here is some of the purest on Earth. But unfortunately, it's also some of the coldest. This better be worth it! I hope there's a lot of food in there. This better be worth it! I hope there's a lot of food in there. (GASPS, LAUGHS) I don't know about you, but there is a sensation` a shooting pain in that lower groin. (LAUGHS) Oh, that's bad. Here it is. Now, we have to be a little bit careful when we open this up, because they didn't just drop food off this way, they actually dropped sticks of gelignite as well, which was use to clear trees that had fallen on the track. There's certainly one thing that the hunters were always conscious of ` is doing their very best to find these supply drops. Because if they didn't, there was one thing they said would always happen. What's that? Their poos would end up looking a bit like the deer. How did they describe it? Small, black and shiny. Small, black and shiny. Ew. BOTH: Oh! Oh no! Oh no! Who thought of that? They were a bit rough on the old` That breaks my heart. They were a bit rough on the old` That breaks my heart. Yeah, doesn't it, really? With fresh supplies, Jock and Lew's plan was to go bush for a few days. They would travel to their other designated hunting ground across the Lang Range. It meant getting into big country. The deer there would be even more plentiful, but the slopes were steeper and the rivers wilder ` in fact, often far too dangerous to cross on foot. Not that they let that little problem slow them down. They started to put up single fixed ropes like this. It wasn't much help, but at least it was something. We've got our packs to get across as well. What do you think the plan is? Uh, how about first person goes, drags a rope with them, pulls over all the gear, then the second person goes? It makes sense. But you don't wanna be the second person, then, mate, cos you've got no support, no backup. You don't want to be the first person. I don't wanna be the pack! You don't want to be the first person. I don't wanna be the pack! All right, here we go. Uh, loser... Loser goes second. Loser goes second. Goes second. OK, here we go. No, you just... (LAUGHS) Come on, let's get ready. Jock and Lew had met an ex-navy guy in the pub, and he had shown them this rope technique. My plan is to use the monkey crawl method, with both heels crossed over the rope and my arms free to pull myself along. But the rope sags. Soon I'm pulling myself uphill. Man, he makes it look hard. He's going uphill at the end. He's put so much sag in, he's having to pull himself uphill. < Just a little more! Come on, Jamie. One, two. You can do it, mate! Man, I'm not looking forward to this. Here, Kev. < Yep, good? Hope that knot holds. The guns and backpacks are next to cross. Try and take it easy on that knot. I'm not sure how well I tied it. Try and take it easy on that knot. I'm not sure how well I tied it. Yeah. > The last thing I want to see happen is these bags going down into the drink. There we go. Nice. OK, Kev, mate, your turn. Kevin's using a different method. He's been obsessed with the commando crawl ever since he saw it in a book. Oh, you're doing` Oh, you're doing` So far, so good. Oh, you're doing` So far, so good. You're doing great! That's cos I'm going downhill. It's probably not the time to point out that the last time he tried it, around halfway he fell off. You're doing great! > Oh. That water looks deep. You're getting closer to it by the second. You're getting closer to it by the second. (LAUGHS) You're past halfway. > Just be careful not to flip off as soon as you touch the rock. That's it. You're gonna make it. Whoo-hoo! Nice work, mate. > Heck, man. (GROANS) It's a bit uncomfortable. (LAUGHS) It's a bit uncomfortable. (LAUGHS) How's the burn? > Oh, I have to check. Not too bad. Maybe I've lost weight since the last time we tried this. That worked pretty well. Jock and Lew had done this journey many times, so probably didn't even pause to feel relief. But the next time they crossed a fast river, they wouldn't be so lucky. We're retracing the 1951 journey of Jock Fisher and Lew Sutherland, two government deer cullers on the hunt in the dangerous Whitcombe Valley. Watch out, Jamie. There's loose rock. We're heading for the tops to cut across to the Waitaha Valley. For the deer cullers, the roads and highways were in fact these waterways, and it helped them get higher up the mountains. The other big advantage ` when they were stalking deer, the water would mask the sound of their footsteps. As we reach a grassy plateau, we finally see a sign of what we've come here to find. Check it out. Check it out. Wow. It would've been just something like this that would have made the hunters excited after coming over those steep high passes ` fresh sign. Guess it could be tahr or shammy ` that's the other animals with hooves around here ` but it's probably deer. The tracks are fresh, so we need to get up higher to a vantage point where we can get a better view. Look at that. Fantastic. Look at that. Fantastic. Oh, you can see over the edge. All the mountains peeking up into the clouds. It's incredible. All the mountains peeking up into the clouds. It's incredible. Pretty cool office. (LAUGHS) The hunters used to love coming to places like this because these sorts of points gave immense, uninterrupted views of the landscapes, and from here they could just take some time to spot the deer. You got the binos? You got the binos? Yeah. And this would be a bit like the tool of choice. Pull these out. Now,... they must have spent hours up here, especially during the middle part of the day, if they were shooting morning and evening, just scouting out. And particularly I'm just looking over in those shadows over there. Sometimes they'd be looking into the shadows, out of the sun, where the deer might be hiding. If they could see some, they'd be going around, hiding over the spur and then hunting into the wind. No matter how carefully I look, there's no trace of any animals. Between 1932 and 1954, there was a recorded 1.4 million deer shot, although the actual number could be much higher. By 1954 there were 125 men employed to cull deer. As we climb higher, the work of these men is clear to see. The tussock and wild flowers that had been consumed by the animals have returned to the hills. The land is stable. A little higher up where it's too exposed for the tussock to survive, you can see what the mountains would have become had the deer been left to roam. This is it, eh? This is it, eh? Just about. We're just coming up to the Main Divide. Everything behind us drains out to the West Coast, and everything up here and in front of us drains out to Canterbury and the east. That's incredible. That's incredible. It's brilliant, isn't it? For Jock and Lew, they crossed over this very saddle many times. Not because there were deer here. The deer were smarter than that; they'd take the lower routes ` slightly longer routes to go around the side. The reason they were here's cos it was a shortcut between their two hunting grounds. It's been a long way up from the river. Huge amount of work to get up here. Those guys ` motivated as anything. Fit. Fit. Must be fit. Fit. Must be fit. Buck fit. (LAUGHS) The eastern face is less steep, but icy. It posed a whole new set of problems for Lew and Jock. When the guys came out on to the tops, they would leave all their equipment down at base camp, so it made them fast and light; which worked well, except the last thing they'd want to do was be caught out on the tops at night-time. That'd be a death sentence. On one occasion, the guys ` maybe late in the afternoon and a bit tired ` chose to cross a couloir on their way home. Now, a couloir is a bit like a passage, or virtually a gun barrel pointing straight down with a pile of rock and ice at the bottom. Normally, you wouldn't try and cross this unless you had crampons or an ice axe or a rope; they had none of that. All they could do was stomp out steps. They made it part way across, and then, as you'd expect, both of them slipped down the slope. They started shooting down the couloir like a bullet out of the gun barrel, and the only thing they had to stop themselves were their boot heels and the butt of their guns. (EXHALES) OK, here we go. Oh! 'We've done this plenty of times before, but never wearing shorts! Watch out! 'It's like sliding on sandpaper. 'You'll try anything you can to keep your exposed flesh away from the ice.' Oh! Oh. There's been damage. How are your thighs? How are your thighs? Ice burn. Oh! Oh, chopped liver. So that's us. Why do you think they took risks like this though? I don't` I mean, it's not uncommon for mountaineers or people in general to feel, late in the day, tired and then they stop, sort of, losing that rational thought, right? tired and then they stop, sort of, losing that rational thought, right? Yeah, yeah. But I just think, for these guys` But I just think, for these guys` And, sorry, they were young guys as well, so there's a bit of that` Yeah, I just think that for these guys, it was unnecessary for them to think like that, because they were here for a month at a time. It was a lifestyle. Exactly, and they had all the time in the world, and they also knew that if anything did happen to them, that they couldn't get help. There was no helicopters. I guess the only thing that might have made them do things like this, though, is the competition. If someone was over the ridge trying to get the deer, it would've been their money. And if it wasn't them doing it to themselves, the field service officer from next door was always coming over and saying the other guys are shooting more deer. But I mean,... it's a tough one. The thing I'm pleased about is just how it worked, though, and we kept our hats on. and we kept our hats on. I wouldn't want to do it again. No way. No way. Let's take it easy from now on. No way. Let's take it easy from now on. OK. It's midafternoon as we begin the serious part of the descent down the range to Jock and Lew's old hunting ground. We've been watching the cloud build up on the ridge. It usually means bad weather is on its way. By late afternoon heavy mist rolls in, making finding our way a lot more difficult. (SIGHS) One day when Lew was out on a hunt, he was travelling along a spur, stalking a deer. And he was getting close, but then, just like us today, a mist rolled in. As it got thicker and thicker, he had to break off the hunt. He could have been within 10m of the deer and would have had no way of knowing. But that was the least of his problems. As he was moving along the ridge, he had to find the correct spur to drop down to his campsite. If he got it wrong, he could end up being miles away, or worse ` slide over a bluff and drop over a cliff. It was as if that cheeky deer had lured him into a trap. HAUNTING MUSIC Across the other side of the valley, Jock was dealing with his own problems in the mist, and this one stopped him dead in his tracks. He suddenly saw a giant ghostly shape that appeared in front of him. Now, it's part myth and extremely rare and only found in the highest mountain ranges. It's called the spectre of the Brocken, and we've managed to sneak up on one, and there it is right there. and we've managed to sneak up on one, and there it is right there. JAMIE LAUGHS The spectre is actually nothing more than our shadows. It appears when the sun shines from behind the observer, who is looking down from a ridge or peak, to mist or fog. The light projects their shadow forward through the mist, often at an odd triangular shape, due to the perspective. For Jock, at the end of a very long day, he must have been exhausted to be scared by his own shadow. It kinda looks like somebody on a ridge line. Well, you know, if you hold your arms up, it could` Seems like something coming towards you. So which way should we head? Uh, not that way. Let's go this way. Let's go this way. Yeah. You sure we're not lost? You sure we're not lost? I dunno. With the weather closing in, we're going to spend the night in Jock and Lew's favourite rock biv. I just hope that we can find it. PEOPLE CHATTER, DANCE MUSIC PULSATES They've been on the sauce. They've been on the sauce. Your party! They've been on the sauce. Your party! That's Mary's boy, isn't it? Yeah. Maybe you should say something. Maybe you should say something. Nah. I'm crap at that kind of thing, Barry. Yeah, but they're just kids. If we don't say something... (GROANS) Hey, boys? Boys? Why don't you get a lift home tonight? Oh, whatever, mate. I've only had a couple. No, no, no, no. It's too late now. I've spoken to you and I know your mum, so that means our fates are aligned. You get into that car and you get yourself killed or you kill someone else, I become part of it too. How? How? Well, it's like, um, my balls are in your hands. BOYS LAUGH, SNORT BOY: Oh, you want the balls! BOY: Oh, you want the balls! Nobody wants that. Hey, how about I drive you? What? Oh. What? Oh. BOYS LAUGH, DANCE MUSIC PLAYS ON RADIO (SWITCHES RADIO STATION) (SWITCHES RADIO STATION) YODELLING MUSIC PLAYS I like it. We're in the Southern Alps following the trail of two government deer cullers, Jock Fisher and Lew Sutherland. While no trained government culler was ever shot by another culler, a couple managed to shoot themselves. One dropped his rifle, which then went off. The bullet crest him right up the thigh, entered his waist, and came out of his shoulder. He climbed down, retrieved the gun, shouldered his pack, before walking 20 miles to the road and hitching a ride to the hospital. Oh, look at this. That was the sort of toughness that made the deer cullers famous. Oh, wow. That's really cool. So well set up. You got your sleeping platform over here, your big fireplace here. This is gorgeous. This is gorgeous. Bet a few deer have been sizzled on this barbecue. When Jock and Lew were coming in here, you know, they'd happily spend a month in the hills, trying to find the deer. There was a hut further down the valley, but it was this very same rock biv that they had to use as, well, their last staging point or their base before they went into the creeks or further up into the valleys looking for the animals. It makes perfect sense, right? I mean, this place is dug into the side of the slope. It's kinda snug. Huge overlap keeps the rain off. It's great. It's great. The only problem is the sandflies, but guess that's what the fire's for. but guess that's what the fire's for. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You should get started on that, because` You should get started on that, because` Four star? Four out of five? Definitely. It's one of the best bivs we've stayed in, yeah. Just about warm your feet up. I think we're gonna upgrade this place to four and a half stars. The weirdest thing about today has been carrying a gun. Yeah. Yeah. It feels very strange. But I guess my point is that for them, holding a gun wasn't that unusual. They were very used to it because they've just come from the war. They were very used to it because they've just come from the war. That's right. Shooting animals this time. It's a weird kind of life. You gotta be part hermit, part physical freak, you've gotta be an Olympian. Yeah. Yeah. You gotta be a sharpshooter. I tell you what I did learn, though ` just the different sorts of deer. You've got your red deer, wapiti, sika. What do you call a deer that doesn't have any eyes, though? What do you call a deer that doesn't have any eyes, though? I dunno. I've no idea. No idea. (LAUGHS) So bad. (YAWNS) MUZ: Good morning. Oh man. Well, it was pretty comfortable for the first half of the night. Uh, and then it started to get a bit cold. I dunno how they did it in wintertime. But day has started and we gotta get going, cos those deer don't walk into the bullets themselves. Actually, those deer don't appear to be walking anywhere, but then that's down to the success of the culling programme. By the 1960s, commercial culling operators had become involved. They would use helicopters to fly into open alpine areas and shoot the deer from above. This was so effective that there are stories of men shooting so many deer that the barrels of their rifles would get too hot to touch. So now the deer that remain have a vast wilderness to roam in. Been on the trail since first light this morning. I think finally we're on to something. We've seen a lot of fresh deer sign. But also we've heard a lot of roaring stags. This time of year, the stags are trying to challenge the other stags to a duel. And we've been hearing that for a while. We think, in fact, they're just over that ridge. TENSE DRUMS Yep, can you see them? Yep, can you see them? Just down there on that grassy patch ` little meadow. Four deer. That'll be three for me and one for you. > TENSE DRUMS CONTINUE There are three just over there. > OK, OK. TENSE DRUMS INTENSIFY I think I've just become a vegetarian. Maybe we should let this one live for another day. It's good enough to know that you could've done it. It's pretty exciting, though, eh? It's pretty exciting, though, eh? Oh. Amazing, your blood pumps. Amazing, your blood pumps. You feel the heart pumping. Amazing, your blood pumps. You feel the heart pumping. Yeah, yeah. I guess it's something a bit primeval. There's the caveman inside you that just loves to hunt. The other thing, though, is, you know, we've been working our guts off climbing these hills. We've found these few deer, and it's been really exciting. It makes you wonder ` back for Lew and Jock, they must have seen gullies full of them. Yeah, yeah. It must have been a different kind of emotion. It must have been a different kind of emotion. That's right. But even then, Lew would think, in his quieter moments, if what they were doing was moral ` the slaughter of so many of God's creatures. But if he felt sorry for the animals, he needn't have. The deer were about to get their own back. . Deer cullers Lew Sutherland and Jock Fisher were at one of the most remote spots in their allotted hunting ground. Just to get there, they'd scaled alpine ridges, rope crawled across rivers,... You're doing great. > ...and traversed snow slopes. There's been damage. The chase had taken Lew up a narrow river. It had been a successful day hunting. Now he just needed to get back to camp. As Lew made his way down the river, he noticed it was starting to gorge up, and he was being very careful cos he knew that there were a couple of pretty steep waterfalls coming up. The river was running really heavy. And remember, with all those deer running around back then, they were making the rivers more susceptible to flooding because all the rain was just draining off the hills. As Lew was coming down, he found he was kinda clumsy. He wasn't nearly as nimble as he normally was; he didn't know why. What he didn't realise was that his pack had been filled with the water from the rain and the river. It was bloody wet and very heavy. Whoa. Then Lew made to jump across to one last big boulder, but he didn't make it. He fell into the stream and was swept away. Ironically, it was just like being in the barrel of a gun. Hurtling past boulders, Lew had no way of slowing himself down. His pack kept him buoyant enough to occasionally catch his breath. TENSE MUSIC But it would be the drop at the end of the chute that would be the killer. SPLASH! As the eddies threatened to trap him at the bottom of the falls, he kicked and struggled to get clear. Kev. Kev! Oh, that's good. Sorry, that was good? Sorry, that was good? If that's good, it's good it's over. I feel like I've been in the bottom of a rugby maul or a ruck or something. I might've broken bones; I wouldn't know. It's just so cold. For Lew, he was launched over waterfalls just like that. Miraculously, he wasn't killed, but not only that, he didn't have a bruise or scratch on him. But he did lose his gun. And that was a really big deal because it meant the end of the hunting trip. He would have to go back to the road head and get a lift back into town to replace it, and that meant having to tell Jock. and that meant having to tell Jock. (LAUGHS) Yeah, Jock must have given him heaps of grief about it, and there are probably names for hunters that go out with mates and lose their gun. Mateship is hard to define, but Jock and Lew were most definitely mates. After this adventure they would hunt together again. But eventually, life would split them apart. But they always stayed in contact and would visit each other from time to time, the visitor always arriving with a bottle of fine Scotch whiskey. In 2004 Lew was due to stay at Jock's place in Toowoomba, but never arrived. Lew had died a few days earlier. A week later, late one night, there was a knock at Jock's front door, but when he answered there was no one there. And then he noticed it. Sitting on the doorstep, there was a lone bottle of fine Scotch whiskey. If this was work experience, would you sign up? If this was work experience, would you sign up? No way. I mean, in terms of an office, it's beautiful. It's fantastic, and some of the places that we went to ` absolutely amazing, but in terms of litres of sweat you've got to expend` Oh, man. Oh, man. ...man, this is a tough job. Oh, man. ...man, this is a tough job. I've been leaking. (LAUGHS) I mean, everything they had to go through, and all those nights in the rock bivie... ...for months, grovelling through the scrub. All that altitude gain ` the up and the down. All that altitude gain ` the up and the down. Or the rivers. You know, having to` You did a great job for that river crossing. And I slipped over so many times, I think my gun can shoot around corners now. (LAUGHS) OK, so why did they do it? Were they just here earning a few bucks or were they actually conservationists? I dunno. I think to understand it, cos it's such a tough job, you've gotta look at the era they came from. They grew up in the Depression and went through the Second World War. I think they were happy to have a job. Yeah, I mean, what, 90% of them had a military background. Yeah, there was a real 'band of brothers' thing going on. Young guys having adventures, looking out for each other in the hills. I'm glad that some signed up for this job. Look at the difference they made. Look around, you know? I mean, we wander around here, going on our own adventures, and it's in part thanks to all of these guys who took away so many of the pests. That's right. A lot of the beautiful flowers here wouldn't exist. It would look completely different if it wasn't for the deer cullers. If this was work experience, don't think we'd get the job. If this was work experience, don't think we'd get the job. No way. Captions by Antony Vlug. Edited by Tracey Dawson. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2014