Thread: Molesworth

Originally Posted by woods223

Now that a few bits of information are coming to light maybe now people will realise that Jim wasn’t about unnecessarily restricting public (hunter) access to Molesworth Station but was working under sometimes restrictive guidelines. He’s quite passionate about farm land management of public land for the benefit of everyone. Maybe a few individuals that have ‘spouted off’ about restricted hunting access etc will realise how the system works and pull their heads in. If you have a problem regarding hunter access, lobby DOC etc and participate in submission processes, don’t bag the farm management on toothless forums such as this one that carry no weight in the public domain.

On one of my Molesworth hunts I coincidentally got to meet Jim and ended up having some enjoyable conversation. Our chance meeting happened only because I did something silly which Jim decided to sort out and I wasn't expecting any sympathy but Jim handled it with much civilty. Yes, his passion for Molesworth was genuine and blatantly evident. His strong view was that Molesworth belonged not to him, DOC or the NZ Govt but to all Kiwis and he wanted and welcomed visitors to come to Molesworth for a taste of perhaps a unique backcountry experience. I was surprised. Definitely the most welcoming attitide I've encountered from any land owner / manager. When we discussed the block I was to hunt Jim was forthcoming with some helpful advice.
My return from the block just happened to run into a stock drive on the main Molesworth road with Jim on his motorbike. He recognised me and came over for another chat. He was very interested in details of my hunt which I was happy to divulge. I was surprised again to learn Jim is also a very keen hunter so we probably ended up chatting longer than anticipated. He was keen to have Chamois on Molesworth but felt that hunters had generally hit the resident population a bit too hard as he had noted fewer trophy bucks for several years.
Of random people one gets to encounter or meet briefly I rate Jim highly among those who cast a positive and favourable impression. A person one could easily listen too for their life stories.