New Zealand
 

I'm curious if anyone has experience hunting public land DIY in New Zealand.

When I graduated college last spring I wanted to take a few years to explore before getting bogged down by a real job. I moved out west to work on a ranch for a few months and hunt elk. I plan on going back there this summer and fall. Next winter, however, I'm seriously considering moving to New Zealand for a few months and trying to do something similar; get a job and do some hunting and fishing. I have a few buddies who have spent time in New Zealand but neither of them did much hunting over there. It's hard to find a whole lot of information online about DIY hunting out there.

If anyone has been out there or knows some areas that have lots of public land and descent hunting opportunities for Red Deer, Fallow Deer, Tahr, Chamois, Pigs, etc. that'd be great. It'd be a lot easier to start looking for jobs if I had it narrowed down to a few towns rather then just blindly looking for any jobs.

Can not help you regarding NZ, but more power to you, sounds like a good plan!

I would suggest contacting the NZ tourism department , I would gather they can surely get you in the right direction
the question would be for me, is what PUBLIC lands are open to hunting there?
as without having public access, the hunting part might not even be an option!

pretty simple to find info fo me> took me seconds to find these??

and your a college grad and couln't find this stuff?? LOL
OH BOY

SO?? have you looked here??

https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-re...to-do/hunting/

OR THIS??

https://www.outdoorlife.com/hunting-...n-new-zealand/

OR this??

https://www.firstlite.com/blogs/camp...e-south-island

I have contacted the NZ Department of Conservation. Hoping for a reply from them.

And yes, there is a little bit helpful information online (and a lot of articles that aren't surer helpful in planning this type of trip, like the two you sent me). However, nothing compares to talking to someone who has actually spent time there, which is why I'm reaching out.

Nonetheless, thanks for your feedback.

well I can understand you wanting to talk to folks that have done it already
but there is a ton of info online and that can be found if one wants to put forth the effort to learn it
as for towns that you can look for a job, how about finding public lands, first? find towns near them afterwards and BOOM your on the right track to finding what you want
I have done TONS of self guided trips LONG before the world wide web was there for info
I did so by putting forth the efforts to get me where I needed to be, by making the efforts needed!
in life you get out of things what you put into them>
and I don't mean this as a bash just help!

I would again strongly suggest looking more at public lands and then the adjoining towns for work, and other info, like calling shops there(or emailing) and asking shop owners questions if there willing to HELP you, the more folks you reach out to the better.
the name of the game here for you should be YOU making as much effort as possible to get your goal meet!

I am sure the NZ game dept, conservation, Tourism , all have emails and phone numbers, if one doesn;t work, try the next and keep at it!

another thing you can maybe try is talking to outfitters there and see if any offer mentors like jobs, where they teach guiding/hunting, and or JOBS , might be able to kill two birds with one stone.
I have had many friends that after college wanted to explore as you and ended up in AK< working as a guides helper, AKA pack mule LOL, and as time passed they ended up becoming guides, they basically got PAID to explore Alaska and hunt when NO hunters were in camp, and hunted some places they could never afford other wise!
depending what your degree/degree's were you went to school for, they may help you here as well!
, so again, the more effort you put in the more you will get back!
as finding someone that has done what you want to do might be a pretty low odds deal IMO!
so having a better plan should be what your looking for!
best of luck to you!

We used to have a member who actually lived in New Zealand and offered to help any members who wanted to go over to NZ and hunt. As I recall, most game species most of us would be interested in were regarded as non-native to NZ and therefore could be hunted year round without bag limits. Unfortunately I don't recall that member's name and no longer have a few PMs from him (it was over 10 years ago). From what you've described above, I think he would have been an ideal person to talk to.

You can check out topics for New Zealand hunting at our regional forum. https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/other-areas-29/

There are some members who have hunted NZ and they should have a lot of good info to share. BuffyBR hunted on the South Island I believe. Hunt genious also hunted down that way. Another member you might try to locate is AorakiGuidedHunts (Simon) who is a guide in NZ. His website back then was http://aorakiguidedhunts.webs.com/.

Hopefully some of this is helpful. Your proposed move sounds like a fun adventure. If you do make the move to NZ, be sure to stay in touch and keep us posted about hunting down there. For many of us, hunting in New Zealand would be a bucket list type of hunt.

I appreciate all of your ideas, many of which I've already done before posting my thread. I reached out to NZ Conservation department, researched several outfits and reached out to a few of them, reached out to a sporting goods store, and read about every article I can about DIY hunting in NZ.

I suppose I should've phrased my original question better and omitted the part where I said "there isn't much info online about it." I should've instead said that I've already dug deep into the internet to find information, and continue to; but this is just another way for me to gather some info.

PM sent with some info

Hunting NZ
 

Hi I would recommend you get on HUNTING AND FISHING NZ or DOC NZ Websites Doc block's hunt all year round on both islands. Depending which island you want to go to? South has tahr, chamois reds fallow pigs & whitetail on steward isle, North have reds sika, sambar fallow & rusa pigs too. Our Red deer roar starts in April.