Thread: Advice for DIY tahr hunt for nonresident

Hey everyone,

I’ve been starting to work on plans for a trip to the South Island for June of 2021 (if the virus outbreak is over by then). I’m planning to stay for a month to 5 weeks to go explore, but a friend will be joining me for about 10 days of the trip, and we are trying to plan a tahr hunt. Since we are both graduating from college this spring, we’re trying to keep the hunt cheaper and I like learning new places on my own without using a guide (makes the trip more rewarding). So, we decided on making this hunt DIY, and started doing research through articles, podcasts, YouTube, and the DOC website. We are trying to decide between applying for a ballot area or just going and hunting a non-ballot area (have a few general places I’ve been looking at). We figure that using a heli to access a hunting area will be around $1000 but would be willing to pay that in order to get into remote areas. Wouldn’t mind hiking or getting a ride with a 4x4 into somewhere. It seems that the ballot areas have a lot of tahr, but does that make the trophy potential better? It also seems that most of the camping in the ballot areas is done out of tents, so I was going to bring a bivy sack or a small 4 season tent for spike camping. If bad weather kept us in camp, it’d be rough staying in either of those, so I was wondering if there is anywhere that rents out tents that could be used as a base camp? Notice that non-ballot areas tend to contain a lot of huts, but do these areas have good numbers of tahr and have a chance of harvesting a chamois also? Any information would be greatly appreciated, and I am willing to trade information about hunting here in the states.

Sorry to hear that it sounds like hunting is being shutdown there due to the virus. Hope everyone is staying healthy