Hi from Whangarei.

Hi all,

I have been been a member for a year now and thought I better introduce myself. I have been hunting for the last 15 years chasing Reds, Fallow, Sika, Goats, Pigs and Wapiti. The main areas I hunt are taumaranui / National Park, Te Ureweras and Fiordland. Living in Northland has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is the fishing is awesome but it is a bit of a hike to get to the deer. Luckily we have a few goats and pigs running round and I have also managed to hunt the odd wild bull. I have recently had family members move down to Canterbury so I hope to spend more time down there and hopefully tick a Chamois and Tahr off my bucket list. I joined this forum to learn more about reloading and advance my skills in long range shooting. I enjoy reading the gear reviews, hunting stories and rifle restorations / builds. This place has been a great learning platform with so much knowledge from experienced members. Thanks everyone for the help and I hope I can help others too.

Cheers Liam

Welcome! I'm also in Whangarei. You're dead right about advantages/disadvantages. Fishing bloody awesome, hunting not so much! If you're ever looking for a hunting buddy, send me a PM, but having read your post, it sounds like you have way more experience under your belt than I do.

Hey MB, I’m always keen to head out for a hunt although finding time has been a bit challenging lately. I’ll pm you when it looks like I will have some free time and we’ll go from there. Cheers

Hey Guys,
I just moved to Whangarei recently and not yet bothered with any hunting up here as i usually head down the line, but this year i'll be staying abit closer to home with a young family around.
Has anyone heard if there are still sika floating about in the Russell forest or am i wasting my time? Also whats the consensus on parking vehicles etc at road ends, can any one recomend a good/ safe place for access? i was told by one person not to park my vehicle anywhere unless i plan on it not being there when i return

welcome, i used to live there in late 88-89, though spent allot of my time there as a kid with the grandparents.
are the abbey caves still open to the public ?? went thru them in a flood once diving from air pocket to air pocket ( i was young and stupid)

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Originally Posted by Ryanwiggins

Hey Guys,
I just moved to Whangarei recently and not yet bothered with any hunting up here as i usually head down the line, but this year i'll be staying abit closer to home with a young family around.
Has anyone heard if there are still sika floating about in the Russell forest or am i wasting my time? Also whats the consensus on parking vehicles etc at road ends, can any one recomend a good/ safe place for access? i was told by one person not to park my vehicle anywhere unless i plan on it not being there when i return

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Deer - I honestly don't know, and I think it unlikely those that do would say anything. Goats are getting hard enough to find on public land, but I think there are plenty of pigs around if hunting with dogs is your thing. As for parking, anything can happen anywhere, nowhere is safe, but some parts of Northland are worse than others.

Welcome along.

yep abbey caves are sill open with heaps of tourists checking them out every day

I’m not sure if there are any floating around in russel forest but I’m guessing numbers will be low. I haven’t tried to try find them so I don’t know what access is like. I also think doc 1080 Russell Forrest at the end of last year but you might have to double check that.

Yeah, Russell Forest 1080ed :(

Gday mate. Didn’t realise we had so many of you guys up so far north!

I’m surprised how many memebers live in northland as well!

Nice looking head you have there on your Avatar.
That would not be those Cape Reinga bulls by any chance?
Had a crack at them when a mate of mine used to work on a farm way up there. All we found was big hoof marks and even bigger poo:thumbsup: not much fun in that tight Manuka and gorse.

Hi Sideshow, no the bulls were from taumaranui.. Those Cape Reinga bulls sound interesting though. It’s a hard carry out. Had to lug it approximately 500m up a hill to the Ute. Took about 8 trips haha. Some of the meat was quite tough though. Cheers Liam

Not sure if there's any left?
This was a while ago had back in the late 80's early 90's way out by Surville cliffs.
Think its probably all pines now. Big chunk of land in there though, so who knows could be a few still running about;)

I have heard ther are some in the bryndewyns but I haven’t had looked for them yet. They are very cunning and can move very quietly through the bush at quite a pace.

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Originally Posted by Ryanwiggins

Hey Guys,
I just moved to Whangarei recently and not yet bothered with any hunting up here as i usually head down the line, but this year i'll be staying abit closer to home with a young family around.
Has anyone heard if there are still sika floating about in the Russell forest or am i wasting my time? Also whats the consensus on parking vehicles etc at road ends, can any one recomend a good/ safe place for access? i was told by one person not to park my vehicle anywhere unless i plan on it not being there when i return

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There's meant to be at least one stag and a few hinds running around but doc employs at least one full time hunter apparently to chase them. Especially in the roar.

This was off the fish n hunt forum so I don't know how accurate it is

Hi, I've moved to doubtless bay and been up here for the last year. Hunting pigs with dogs is great, lots of areas to hunt and good access, almost every patch of bush up here holds pigs. Wouldn't bother chasing Sika in russell though, 20,000ha of area to look for a handful of deer.

ok, i need to ask a favour you whangarei guys there was a house on the right hand side of abbey caves rd. at the time it was a cottage but got expanded. was the first house on the right. is it still there? if so i would love a pic, its where i spent my holidays as a kid

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Originally Posted by gonetropo

ok, i need to ask a favour you whangarei guys there was a house on the right hand side of abbey caves rd. at the time it was a cottage but got expanded. was the first house on the right. is it still there? if so i would love a pic, its where i spent my holidays as a kid

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Abbey caves road is a long road!
You will probably have to be a bit more specific![emoji846]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by Spudattack

Abbey caves road is a long road!
You will probably have to be a bit more specific![emoji846]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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ok, at the time it was up memorial, passed the turn of to parahaki war memorial road. kept going thru metal roads alots were winding as hell till i hit a left turn onto abbey caves rd. straight ahead was private land
the cottage had a stand alone garage up front and originally was a 1 bedroom until it converted into a 2.
9 years old building a gravity fed water system inc a dodgy waterpump.
in the early years the water cane from a creek from the neighbours property, all sim and baby eels

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Originally Posted by gonetropo

ok, at the time it was up memorial, passed the turn of to parahaki war memorial road. kept going thru metal roads alots were winding as hell till i hit a left turn onto abbey caves rd. straight ahead was private land
the cottage had a stand alone garage up front and originally was a 1 bedroom until it converted into a 2.
9 years old building a gravity fed water system inc a dodgy waterpump.
in the early years the water cane from a creek from the neighbours property, all sim and baby eels

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Sorry gonetropo, I’m not to familiar with that area. Have you tried street view on google maps? You might be able to find it using that.

Hey guys, I'm also up here in whangarei, its interesting how many of us are willing to drive for hours to stomp around getting wet in the bush instead of doing the local thing and going fishing.

Russell forest did hold quite a few deer up till about 4 years ago doc did a massive eradication program and according to there data got them down to around 8 left. They did a press release on it, it was quite interesting reading, not sure if they have bounced back but I imagine they do a fair amount of hunting in there and trail cameras etc to monitor it, and yea don't leave your car any where up there.

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Originally Posted by Sako851

Gday mate. Didn’t realise we had so many of you guys up so far north!

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Yeah, it's a pretty dumb choice for hunters to live (pig hunters with dogs excluded).

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Originally Posted by rusl

Hey guys, I'm also up here in whangarei, its interesting how many of us are willing to drive for hours to stomp around getting wet in the bush instead of doing the local thing and going fishing.

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True. Fishing/diving is a big part of my life. Haven't really come up with a strategy for south of Auckland hunting. I did just drive 10 hours straight not to see a deer! We all know that successful hunting on public land takes time and effort, but it becomes a bit of a logistical nightmare when there is so much travel involved, plus working full time and young family etc.

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Originally Posted by rusl

Russell forest did hold quite a few deer up till about 4 years ago doc did a massive eradication program and according to there data got them down to around 8 left. They did a press release on it, it was quite interesting reading, not sure if they have bounced back but I imagine they do a fair amount of hunting in there and trail cameras etc to monitor it, and yea don't leave your car any where up there.

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DOC are very proud of their deer eradication in Northland, rest of the country, take heed!!!

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Originally Posted by MB

Yeah, it's a pretty dumb choice for hunters to live (pig hunters with dogs excluded).

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Yeah I've lived up here for a year now, pig hunting with dogs is pretty cool but I miss the mountains with deer, 8 hour drive minimum for me.

i drive up abbey caves road just about every day i will check it out there are no metal roads up there anymore are you going up memorial drive turn right that road goes to abbey caves road it winds down a ridge and there is a bridge at the end of it where it joins abbey caves road t intersection you can turn left or right onto abbey caves road is the cottage cross the road from the bridge

there was a couple of nice 8 pointers shot last year on edge of the said forest but i ,m not saying where fuck doc

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Originally Posted by 57jl

there was a couple of nice 8 pointers shot last year on edge of the said forest but i ,m not saying where fuck doc

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Yeah I've heard of 'somewhere' where they come out regularly onto a farm. Heard of another little population of reds in the 'mid north' but the farmer isn't letting anyone shoot them to build numbers up.

Yes I heard another story of red deer located somwhere in the north, allot of bush around Russell is private so doc will never rid the area completely, they may as well embrace them :thumbsup:

There are 'some' about. Not worth hunting unless you know exactly where they are..

There are sika in the Russell forest, doc have a few hundred hours for cullers in there every year but the animals have spread out into private a fair bit. They weee based behind peka peka monument area a few years ago but that was the cullers main area. I’ve bumped into them all over the main forest whilst pighunting years ago. Kaipara has a lot of animals, someone, wont say who, was/is releasing fallow all around there. Cullers are trying to knock ‘em back. Mount aukland has reds I’ve heard, accessing via kayak up the estuary from the west side was successful I’ve been told. Heaps of private land from north Waikato around the Waikato river has animals moving through. Google maps it and ask for access in exchange for a days work on the land? Not sure if your asking for hunt spots or not but if you’re up in whangarei then it’s worth doing a few weekend missions to find a local honey hole as bugger all people bother to look for deer in those areas