I got back from NZ 11 days ago after a 3 week fishing and hunting trip. The fishing was spectacular, even though it is at the end of the season. It was quite cold, wet and blustery but I managed 11 browns in 4 days (lost about 6 too), all on the fly. Biggest was one was 5lbs. We fished the mataura, near Gore and the Clutha rivers. Highly recommended. The winter licence cost $73.00, so cheap as chips!
The hunting, however, was a bit of a disappointment. I'll explain why in a moment.
We were hunting with a couple of guys who came to the UK last October/November on a swap hunt. They are friends of a mate of mine. They shot 23 deer with us in 2 weeks, roe, red, muntjac and Sika and said they couldn't believe how good the hunting was in our country.
After our first weeks fishing, we went to the West coast to hunt Chamois on public land. You have to get a licence but its free! The weather was a bit dodgy and the helicopter had to turn back the first time but we eventually got dropped off after a day hanging about. The weather cleared so we had warm days and bitterly cold nights. Our tent was pitched at 4058 feet, 500m from a glacier.
The first morning I shot a young buck chamois, 45 minutes from camp, above the glacier. Cracking stalk. I caped him off and we returned to camp where we ate his loins for lunch. We went out again in the afternoon and spotted 3 more the other side of the canyon at 700m. The guy I was with (Stu) then spotted a nanny below us which he promptly shot. Whilst he was off retrieving it, another one appeared above me. A 220m uphill shot had it rolling down through the snow grass. I marked where I saw the last movement. By the time Stu got back with the meat from his, the sun was going down. It got pretty hairy coming down the mountain in the dark.
It took the best part of the next day to retrieve the one I had shot. It was pretty much a sheer face. Luckily the roots on the snow grass are strong so we had something to hold on to. The next day I woke up and couldnt stop throwing up, so I couldnt hunt. Stu went and checked out the 3 Chamois we'd seen on the first day but they were all smaller than what I'd already shot, so they were left. Apart from my day being sick it was a great adventure. I'll be honest, I was terrified about 70% of the time. I am not a mountaineer, I'm too scared of heights! Also, get fit if you want to hunt in the mountains. I lost a stone during training before I went and lost another half a stone while I was there! It would have been a killer if I hadn't prepared.
My criticism is that I feel that the public land is over hunted. We saw 9 individual chamois in 3 days in what was a big, big area and no mature bucks. I'm not saying they weren't there but I expect they were nocturnal. Twice while we were hunting, a helicoptor buzzed us and it had guys onboard who were helicoptor hunting. Apparently this is common. They fly around the mountains, spot the game then either shoot it from the helo or they get dropped off, then the helo herds the game to the hunters! This happened while we were there, it even made the national press. Not only this, but there are no close seasons and the government don't want any non-indigenous animals in the country so they also go out shooting animals from helicoptors when they deem numbers are getting too high. The government also put down tons of 1080 poison for the deer and possums.
It is such a shame. If the animls were 'managed' as a sporting asset, the hunting could be so much better. At the moment its a 'free for all' and thats why game on public land is either scarce or very difficult to get. There are thousands of acres of beautiful hill country, not unlike Scotland, but higher hills and mountains, and more rugged but with hardly a deer on it. Talking to the locals, it seems most of the deer live in the thickest, nastiest cover such as the river bottoms. I like a challenge but I think I've been spoilt living in the UK because believe it or not, most of us look after what we've got and that's why we have a lot of deer about in most places! It seems the best 'free range' hunting in NZ is on private land/farms but most of this is let to safari operators who charge accordingly. A bit like a lot of the places here I suppose. Of course, the the biggest advantage to kiwi hunters is that the hunting is free on public land, and as explained, this is also part of the problem. I hope I havn't offended any Kiwi's. It's just my observations from actually hunting there.
Our last week was spent Tahr hunting. The weather forecast was terrible with 12" of rain forecast in one night! This stopped us going to the areas where Stu thought we had the best chance of getting a good Bull, so we had to go to an area which, again, was subjected to a fair bit of hunting pressure. We had to hike up the boulder strewn creek for two and half hours with all our kit in the most spectacular country imaginable, to a hut which would be our home for the next 4 days. We arrived at 1800 on Sunday night and it started raining. It didnt stop again until 0500 tuesday morning! The creek cam up 4 feet but dropped again by mid morning on Tuesday. We spotted 18 Tahr from our hut with one bull in the group so decided to hunt them. After what seemed like a near vertical 2500 feet climb we reached the top quarter of the mountain. By this time, only 6 were visible and they were 1km away separted from us by numerous vertical cliffs, so impossible to reach. On the way back down we saw a young bull at 400m. My mate declined the shot but I was up for it (I'd practised longe rang, uphill and downhill shots at Orion, formerly WMS, before I went). When Stu informed me that the tahr would be unrecoverable because of the terrain, I declined the shot. That was the only chance I got as we hiked out again in the morning because it had started raining again and we we didn't moved , we would have been stranded by the creek and the Ranitata and Clyde rivers.
Sorry if I've hijacked the thread somewhat but at least you have some first hand knowledge of what to expect. Great country, great people, Great fishing, challenging hunting.
Would I go again? In a flash! Will I go again. Definately, I want a bull tahr!
