Thread: Hunting in New Zealand

Hi!
Let me know if a post like this doesn’t belong here, I’m using this forum for the first time.

I’m Fabian, a hunter from Bavaria in Germany. I will be traveling to your great country in March/April next year!
The first two weeks I’ll be traveling with a good friend of mine (also a hunter) from Denmark. After that, I can’t decide what to do. The thing I enjoy most about a holiday in a foreign country is being outdoors, living off the land, meeting local people. You could call it “having the local experience”.
Emil, my Danish friend, really wants to go hunting and hiking in the mountains of the South Island and he wants to shoot a chamois badly. I don’t care what I hunt, as long as I can eat it it’s fine for me. I have a big hunting reserve here in Bavaria and I’ve been hunting a lot in a second reserve in the Alps as well so I’m experienced in hunting in the mountains as well as with red deer, roe deer, wild boar, badger, beaver, chamois and a lot of small game like fox, ducks, crows or hares. I don’t care about trophies, neither do I care about the species. I just want to have a nice adventure outdoors 😊
My questions for all of you would be:
Are there any spots or areas you could recommend, on one hand for chamois hunting as a foreigner on the South Island and on the other hand an area where I could go stalking (even for a feral goat would be completely fine for me) by myself or with someone local after my friend leaves?
Do I just have to buy a hunting license and a license for the area that I want to hunt in and then I’m good to go for whatever (legally huntable) animal I can find? Is it possible to rent guns or should I bring one from home? The hunting system in Germany is very different, here you have to rent a reserve if you want to hunt somewhere and then it’s yours for the length of the contract.
What would be the best place to stay? Is it possible at that time of the year to sleep in a tent and go to a lodge or something like that every third/fourth day to recharge camera and phone? Or would it be smarter to rent a lodge or something from AirBnB and just start stalking from there every day?
Does anyone want to join me/meet up? I know it’s quite far in the future but we could talk a bit before I arrive to get to know each other. 75% of the fun in hunting is the companionship for me! And it would be less boring And who knows if you ever want to come to Germany to shoot a roe, boar, beaver, badger, fox, duck, crow, hare or whatever I’ll be sure to make that possible in my hunting reserve!
I’m sure there are a lot of more questions to come but that’s it for now 😊
Thank you, guys, in advance!

Best,
Fabi

http://www.doc.govt.nz

Your starting point for public land hunting areas.

Get a good mapping application with the public hunting boundaries. Memory Map is excellent, with 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 topo maps with the public hunting areas clearly marked. This enables planning your access and exit points, hut locations, routes. It is a very good idea to familiarise yourself intimately with the topo maps before you enter the mountains, map out routes, waypoints etc, so you have a clear idea of your likely daily distances and net vertical climbs. You can carry the maps on your phone.

https://memory-map.com/Maps.html

When hunting in unfamiliar territory, it is vital you know where you are at all times with respect to public / private land boundaries, there's been a couple of well publicised "poaching" incidents recently where hunters have strayed onto private stations, supposedly by accident. And been caught.

Sweet, thanks for the memory map tip

Hi. Welcome to the forum. I might have someone here in Chch who may be able to help. He also has a connection to Germany. I will have a chat to him and see if I can put him in touch with you....

While you are on the internet looking for info from the Police website, check out the DoC website for information on what is allowed with regards to hunting public land. (Yes it is currently public and you can very well meet people out there too...) https://www.doc.govt.nz/

It is a pity you are here in April. While you will catch the "roar with the deer in full swing, you will just miss duck season in May...That is a very social hunting enviroment and could be worth staying for.

If you come to the central north island I can take you out for the red deer roar, goats, fallow and peacocks.

Herzlich wilkommen
When you have an NZ map available, look at Lewis Pass. Perhaps go and stay at Brass Monkey Bivouac and hunt around Mt Technical. It's easy country and there are small numbers of chamois there plus a few Rotwild.

Here is the department of conservation map site:
https://www.doc.govt.nz/map/index.html

The main dangers in the New Zealand mountains are:
Falling
Rivers
Hypothermia in wet windy conditions.
So try and find out about those.
Good safety Information is available at:
https://www.mountainsafety.org.nz/

March-april is roar season (as mentioned above) so a lot of the public land is permit only during that time. you can apply for a ballot on the doc website, most close around october. make sure you dont venture onto balloted blocks if you dont hold the correct ballot for the alloted time.

No, only a small amount of public land is balloted (eg fiordland for wapiti).
Most places are open to anyone, with no controls on how many people hunt the same land.
However, some planning is needed to avoid crowds.

Let me know if you end up in my neck of the woods might b able to sort u out with a couple of hunts

Um there is quite a lot more than just fiordland that is balloted. Often small one off blocks but also all of wanaka, Haast, molesworth blocks etc. They are concentrated down south but pays to check before going.

FaPe,

You have better English spelling and grammar than 90% of the people on these forums, myself included. Anyway, good luck with your hunting adventures.