Thread: American Hunter Needing Advice

I know the Karangarua well and have shot some very good bulls in there.
Its very big country and yes it does get a lot of hunting pressure.
But thats mostly because there are a lot of good animals in the area.

The Douglas is really only an option for fly in.
But its a fairly direct flight from James Scott's heli base and gets you into some very good country.
There is a good weeks worth in both locations for a couple of guys.

Its all big, mean and scary country for a first time hunter in NZ and there have recently been a few foreign hunting visitors come to grief doing solo / unguided hunts into that very location. One Australian was pretty experienced having been over a number of times hunting.
But don't let that put you off because I have guided plenty of foreign mates ( for koha / gift ) into there and other areas and the only person to get seriously broken was me.
So you will need to have a Personal Locator Beacon ( PLB ).

Don't waste your time pouring over google earth maps ..... when you get there you will realize that what looked like a nice hunt is really an epic undertaking and not on a human scale.
I have taken guys into areas like that who wanted to nip up this or that gully and then realized it would take a massive effort and was well above their skill set.
Some of the country is "hours per km" not "km per hour".

So long as your expectations are realistic any success would be a bonus.

This is a 14 3/4" bull I shot in the Karangarua. That is a 150m vertical drop he is perched on.
400m shot in evening. Went back next morning and it took 5 hours to get to the bull from where the shot was taken from and 3 hours to get back.
So an 8 hour round trip to recover the trophy ..... just added that to give you an idea of how hard the country can be.
But having said that you might get lucky and bump into one on the track.


Results from a recent South Westland fly in trip with 3 mates from Germany.


You need to have good gear to camp out at altitude in that country but its worth the effort and discomfort if you can be more than a days walk away form the nearest hut.

Even if your fit, experienced, have all the best gear and totally comfortable in that sort of country things can still go wrong.