All right welcome back to the wild turkey I've just set an eel trap





behind us here and right at the top we're currently camping and cooking up some of that wonderful trout that we just caught in the river so this is a camping and cooking and hopefully an eel trapping kind of an adventure it's Christmas time here in New Zealand and we decided that the best way to celebrate wild table style was to pack the truck and go camping better yet we're doing it back at tui farms and already after half a day on the river we've managed to nab a spectacular rainbow trout and naturally, this amazing fish is going to make dinner we get a butterfly up crank up the osprey pit bray which pretty much travels with us wherever we go anyway and before long this fish is sizzling away filling the afternoon air with an enticing smell of wood smoke and wild cold fish while I have a good time slinging some arrows with my youngest brother Chris and his partner shinai once the fish is looking cooked enough I'll take it off the heat and   throw a few basic veggies in a pan directly in the hot coals underneath the grill we've got corn greats mushrooms capsicum and all that gets a good dose of heat and butter nothing fancier needed here butter then also gets heated with some garlic and the fish goes on the pan to get a little sea some salt and a squeeze of lemon and voila it is day two starts with the excitement of a different kind well a different kind of animal that is while we were lazing about in typical holiday mode sipping coffee and enjoying rare and sweet nothingness some goats decided that the bank not 80 meters from our campsite would be a particularly bright spot for a morning snack right so it just so happened that we saw two goats up on the bank so my brother actually just took two shots and nailed two goats two bullets super stoked to get that those first couple animals on board um and just before we get over the other side and retrieve those goats we're actually going to have looks we set up the eel trap in here yesterday um so just have a quick look  before we get up there and see if there's any meal in here looking at that nice thick eel yesterday we caught a massive trout we just shot a couple of goats and we got a big beautiful eel in there all right what a weekend tomorrow I know

he brings it so let's go back and we'll just go to from the top and be able to see from up there there's an amazing opportunity and like I'm super stoked that my brother got to squeeze the triggers then and get his first couple animals on deck and we didn't even have to go for we're just going to pretty much go up here through the fence and locate the animal just what a country we live in this is so cool so uh summer hunting in new Zealand holy smokes man this flies absolutely everywhere we're gonna try and get these animals over the other side and butcher as quick as we can because its horrendous but uh well-done bro first animals on deck now come to the Mahi

here we go come on with the goats on deck we're well and truly set for a wild table fixed first thing first of course I build a fire using the trusty Jenga tower method and get it ripped roaring hot then I set up the camper and add some fresh blocks of oak wood the campfire comes with these super handy baskets and I put the better half of a whole goat inside this one the whole lot goes on the fire and soon the rich smoke envelops the meat promising a flavorful meal meanwhile I'm also frying away some good old bacon and eggs with Becky and everything is looking really quite peachy ah all right bloody fantastic we just got um got that goat cooking over the fire um quite a big trout yesterday cooked that over the fire and uh right now I'm just going onto the to the creek to retrieve the fight trap or the eel trap  which we already know has eel in I um so we're going to bring a that bad boy back up top here as well and process it's just unbelievable just that you can have like you know three wild foods all like that just at your fingertips and it's not even difficult you know it's not like we had to like surge high and low to get to these goats or all these eels or freaking amazing how lucky are we

trout going and eel one day two days so good all right let's get

all right here we go we used a little bit of fish that we uh fished previously for bait put it in there and of course, the eel would have smelt that from miles  away and found its way into this trap and it's a sizable eel as well

it's got to be one of the most beautifully tastiest meats that you can

get your hands on anywhere in the world I would say I'm

really excited to process the seal and make at least a couple of really nice

meals with it and then the rain came come camping this set in summer in New Zealand they said all right so this is done let's hope it's cooked I guess

it's wet everywhere we found the solution ben brought the shelter I think then so we're going to take these two beautiful eels now put them in a bucket with lots of salt and basically like really try and cover them in the salt

and it really helps to draw some moisture and some of the sliminess away

from the skin so in a few hour's time or tomorrow we can just take paper towels or a towel and just rub a lot of the slime off the eel because that's sort of the hardest part to get rid of and then the eels will be ready to cook

it's three species on deck all in the space of a couple of days how freaking

cool and while we never show you what we do with this hill suffice it to say that the sun came back out after all to smile and I managed to finish cooking the goat there you go it turns out all you got to do is go camping in a faraway place shoot a bang from right across the campground bring it back cook it for six hours on the bbq fire whatever and then knead it come on day three coffee on the third day of this little trip we're back at the river and in truth, we never end up catching anything major but none of us cares the sun is shining the pristine water Gil gas blissfully around our feet the car slowers we fall in the water we laugh and we watch the dogs have a great time too at this point I have harvested all the wild game I need for a little while and my thirst is quenched instead I focus on feeling great

grateful for this amazing country the abundance of game and fish and nature the carefree holiday I'm having and most of all the people I get to be with having had the pleasure to hunt and fish with my brother has been a blessing all in itself and standing here in this clear water I do ask myself why don't we do this more carefree family time nature recharging

being happy it's all here for us all we need to do is take a little bit

more care and make the effort to go and enjoy  you