Thread: What kind of boots for NZ?

Originally Posted by Joe Schmo

What kind of boots do y’all wear when hunting/hiking? Crossing rivers/water? What do you wear when you’re going 5-10km up a catchment to capture some food or what not? I’d tell you what I have but that’s irrelevant.

I hunted for Forest Service for five years in Te Urewera and was a senior Ranger in there for 8 years - we only ever wore Skellerup Buller rubber boots - not one of us wore anything else - we used a 5 foot strip of 6 in wide light canvas as a putty around the top to keep crap out - I had two pairs -one pair without holes when we were not going to be river crossing and one pair was prepared for river travel - we burnt two holes -low down either side of instep to get water out once we had crossed river - quarter inch hole does it - dont be tempted to put hole on front - that sucks gravel in - much of Te Urewera is accessed by river travel and 12-15 crossings are not uncommon per day - they really are a superb choice for North Island bush country and even semi farmland -very quiet to stalk in - but Bullers are not suitable for much of the South Island or rocky parts of North Island such as Kawekas -one needs a decent alpine leather boot - Bullers are for soft ground not rocky stuff - my hunting in Taranaki bullers nothing else