Thread: Haast Roar Ballot

Originally Posted by Camel

DOC reply :

Morning xxxxxx

Your email has been passed onto me to respond to, I had heard of a similar situation in the Waiatoto Valley so was interested to hear of your experience as well.

I have gone through the Permissions Database and can see that Northwest Livestock Ltd (with those party details) do hold a WARO permit for the South Island. Conditions of this permit allow WARO activity in the area with the exclusion period for the ROAR being the last Sunday in March until the last Saturday in April or the dates as in the table below.

Roar Closure Periods

Standard Closure Dates (Inclusive)

ADDITIONAL CLOSURE DATES (Inclusive) where Easter falls outside Standard Closure Dates

2024

29 March – 15 April


2025

29 March – 15 April

18 April – 21 April


2026

29 March – 15 April



2027

29 March – 15 April

26 March – 28 March (Easter Monday is 29 March)


2028

29 March – 15 April

16 – 17 April (Easter Sunday and Monday)

In addition to the Standard Roar Closure Period in Schedule 4 item 1, the Concessionaire must not undertake the Concession Activity in the South Westland Roar Blocks
listed below during the period from the last Sunday in March to the last Saturday in April (inclusive) annually:

WARO permits were renewed in 2018, and this timeframe was agreed upon with stakeholders and the Department. Unfortunately, with the Ballot periods being fluid this wasn’t taken into consideration, and it would have been more prudent to refer the permit holder to the website for the specific dates each year. I acknowledge that this is not ideal, that our information on the ballot pages of the DOC website could be updated to include this information and that it is not ideal timing for recreational hunters. The only work around for this is to change the ballot dates for 2026 onwards to occur in the WARO exclusion times or recognise that WARO may clash with the ballot timeframes and ensure recreational hunters are aware of this when booking their blocks.

I do appreciate you raising your concerns, whilst not ideal timing for yourself it did raise awareness of the issue for us, and we will endeavour to resolve the situation happening again to others.

Regards

xxxxxxx

Forward this to the National Office NZDA with an explanation. They need to know so they can advocate.