Thread: Hunting in Wellington Pt. 2

Hey team.

The move to Wellington has gone well. The family has all settled in and I am starting to look toward heading out for a hunt.
My question is around the necessity of a 4wd to access most hunting blocks around here.
I have a 2017 Triton that I love, but our time in Wellington has shown it’s not the most practical vehicle for the majority of its daily use. I have the motorbike now as a second vehicle, and my wife is using the truck more than me. The truck was mint for the South Canterbury terrain, it just seems a bit surplus up here.
We have started to consider the option of selling the mighty Triton, and potentially looking into a more family friendly, city focussed/light adventure vehicle.

Before I seriously consider it though I want to make sure I can still access decent blocks.

Appreciate your thoughts.

Cheers



Pfa

If you are hunting public land a good robust car will work fine. You can get to the car parks no problem. Private access might mean farm tracks and dirt access so the ute would be useful. Im in Wellington. PM me if you want and we can meet for a coffee or something.

Lot of people run suv/familycar +cheap quad on trailer combos.
We have a 2022 PHEV 4wd outlander, works well as town runaround on electric mode. Can do Wellington and back on a charge so we go weeks without fueling up. It does the long family road trips in hybrid mode, got quite an efficient petrol engine. Tows up to 1.6t so can take our honda sxs to private blocks.
I am in a different boat from you, the way my work goes I have to move back to a ute. Got too much stuff to cart around at times.

I'd keep the ute if i were you, far more practical to biff an animal on the back and not have to worry about blood ruining the carpet, wet packs and muddy boots etc...

agree with Sika 8 keep it bloody nice ute you would I am sure come to regret it

Easy to sell it...plurry hard to go buy another one...

Originally Posted by Delphus

I have a 2017 Triton that I love, but our time in Wellington has shown it’s not the most practical vehicle for the majority of its daily use. I have the motorbike now as a second vehicle, and my wife is using the truck more than me. The truck was mint for the South Canterbury terrain, it just seems a bit surplus up here.
We have started to consider the option of selling the mighty Triton, and potentially looking into a more family friendly, city focussed/light adventure vehicle.

South Island driving is far more relaxing than Wellington driving, no doubt about that.

I don't want to make any assumptions, but if shes using it more than you and putting pressure on because larger vehicles can be a nightmare in some of Wellingtons twisty tight roads, she'll absolutely get used to it.
Doesn't take long to figure out how to sus good parking spots in a chelsea tractor there, And also when to floor it on the both side doubled parked less than single lane width hill roads to get through before a bus is forcing you to reverse.


Ute looks nicely setup, but a smaller 4wd capable vehicle will cover alot of ground in the NI as well.

You can drive a few places near Wgtn but nothing like the SI

If you want some help thinking about it just youtube wellington 4WD spots and you'll see, or blow a couple of dollars buying this
https://bookhaven.co.nz/products/158...56413e65&_ss=r

Aorangis you can get in to with a quad
Ruahines and further North it opens up a bit

My 2c is keep it and buy a cheap $3k hatchback runaround for around town then get a quad/sxs on a trailer for getting into the bush

Best of luck

Hey mate, welcome to Sunny Wellington! Glad you're settling in okay. Get in touch at some point and I can introduce you to a few spots to get you going, then you can decide for yourself whether a ute is necessary.

Alternatively I could always sell this and spend $20k on a half decent family car, and the rest on a cheaper knock around 4wd. Potentially buying someone else’s problems then though

That's not silly.... Your big enough n ugly enough to suss out a half decent wagon by now. As you won't be using it a lot/ everyday ,it doesn't have to be in tip top condition,just able to do the job,some would say the rougher the better as long as mechanically sound.less likely to be half hitched.

A lot of the the hunting around Wellington that has driving access gets flogged and is far too popular.be worse now everyone has thermal gear.
I did fine out of a station wagon and walking in.
Haurangis are best.
Rimutakas are good for pigs,goats.
Tararuas for big hills and little action.
Generally speaking.

Originally Posted by Scortched earth

A lot of the the hunting around Wellington that has driving access gets flogged and is far too popular.be worse now everyone has thermal gear.
I did fine out of a station wagon and walking in.
Haurangis are best.
Rimutakas are good for pigs,goats.
Tararuas for big hills and little action.
Generally speaking.

These popular places within driving distance of Wellington. The most successful hunters still get a deer 90% of the time out of them. Better to go to a popular place you know well than an unpopular place that you dont know. Look at You Tube and you will see a particular guy who leverages all of the popular places through intel, gossip and favours and has a high success rate. And if they weren't so well known before he got there and started publishing vids, they certainly are now. No shame in it really. The best spots keep producing deer.

@Thar yea I see all the YouTube vids.I always avoided these areas for just that reason.yea they still produce but who wants to roll up to a carpark with 20 other wagons there and a YouTuber on every vantage point ?plenty of better options.
The dudes just moved to Wellington so he doesn’t know anywhere well.

Haurangis for numbers.
Rimutaka -goats&pigs few deer around the edges
Tararuas for lots of walking.
Pretty good starting point I’d say.

Bike, WCC haven't been keeping themselves busy and ratepayer's poor for nothing, building all those cycle lanes.