Thread: First time New Zealand hunting - August / September

Hello everyone,

as this is my first post in the forum I'll give a short introduction first:

I'm 26 and live in Hamburg (Germany) and have been hunting for about three years now. Main species we hunt in the area I am active in are roe deer (hunt starts the day after tomorrow ), wild boar and fallow, as well as smaller animals like hare, fox and all sorts of birds... For a much longer time I've been into the whole outdoor / trekking / tramping thing which I did in quite a few parts of the world. From 2005 to 2006 I did a Work&Travel in New Zealand and got to know a lot of the country which was basically all very impressive working in all kinds of environments and jobs. Especially working on the Mesopotamia Station (if anyone knows???) was definitely a lifetime experience!

The reasons I post here is the following: At the moment I have nothing to do until my studies start again in October and I was thinking about going back to New Zealand in the meantime to get the possibility to combine tramping / hiking with hunting. If we hunt in Germany we get in the car, drive to the hide, sit there for a few hours and then drive back. It's very nice but still I guess that the way the hunt takes place in New Zealand is completely different and a way that I would like to get to know. If everything works out I woukld like to stay most of the time on the South Island, mainly beginning of August until end of September.

Therefore I have a couple of questions which I hope you can give me advice on:

- How about the weather in that period? I understand that the season would be end of winter / beginning of spring. When I was in New Zealand in 2005 I was in the North Island at that time, but how is it in the South? As the mountains are not so high, what about the snow? I don't mind a bit of snow and temperatures below 0°C, but if there are metres of snow etc. I guess hunting would not be possible.

- How likely is it for me, given my lack of "local intelligence" to get to the right places to be able to hunt some animals? I am definitely not the "trophy hunter", but I would just like to walk out in the montains and look for animals. I don't have a big preference for any species, as for me its more the experience than the type of animal or trophy.

- I would probably be on my own as my friend with whom I was planning won't be able to join me. Maybe there are people here who would want to join me for a hunt?

- I understand that the regulations are very hunter-friendly so I guess I won't have a big problem? Declaring my gun at the airport, buying a hunting permit at the DOC and thats it, right??

Well, I guess a lot of more questions will be comping up the more certain this whole "project" will be, but I would just like to get some general input from you, if you think that this is crazy and I will most likely not be able to see any animals or whether this could be feasible...

Looking forward for some feedback!
thanks,
Jan