Thread: 2 week South Island DIY / Potential US Swap Hunt

Myself and three buddies just booked our tickets from the US to Christchurch for a dream hunt. We'll be on the South Island from March 30-April 14 with packs and rifles. Our plan at this point is to spend a good amount of the trip chasing stag and then spending some time going after tahr and chamois. We have no interest in hunting the giant, high fence "trophy" stags. We're in it for the adventure and would be happy to have an opportunity and any good representative stag/tahr/chamois/or anything else for that matter.We didn't enter any drawings for roar or tahr blocks, so we'll be hunting open permit areas. We may try to chopper into the tops for a few days, but otherwise, we'll be packing in with camp on our backs for the majority of the trip. We're still looking over maps and are deciding which areas we would like to concentrate on and where to avoid(easy access/crowds and recent 1080drops).

We're all experienced hunters in good physical shape and are not afraid to pack in a good distance if it means a better chance of seeing game. Our last Elk hunt ended with us packing out two elk on our backs for 8 miles(12.8km). We figure if we can get in far enough to get away from the day hunting crowd, our chances will go up.

We would love to find someone interested in taking us out and showing us the ropes in exchange for us doing the same for you in the US. Two of us have great Turkey and Black Bear Hunting with a lot of whitetail deer just off our doorsteps about 4 hours north of New York City. Another of us runs a guiding business in Missouri geared towards giant whitetail(see pictures below) and one guides in Northern California for ducks, salmon, striped bass, and sturgeon. We hunt elk/mule deer as often as we can and would be happy to help with that in any way, or try to get you in on one of our trips. Take a look at some of our photos below. Send me a message if interested in.

In our research, it seems that the West Coast has rougher terrain, more game, but a higher chance of having to deal with bad weather, where the east coast has less animals, but generally less severe weather and terrain. Is this generally true? I'm thinking at this point we should maximize our hunting time and spend most of it on the East coast, but maybe chopper into the tops on the west coast for a few days to experience some different terrain. It seems like James Scott is pretty highly recommended. Should be be looking at anyone else in particular(I understand this partially depends on location)?

As far as gear, we'll likely be packing similar gear to what we would take on a September/October backpack elk hunt in Colorado, but planning on more rain. It sounds like South Island temperatures in March/April are similar to Colorado in September/October.



If anyone has any input for us, whether about hunting, fishing, homekill butchers near Christchurch, gear, good restaurants, or you just want to meet up for a beer, it would be much appreciated.

My public land archery bear from this past September. No bait allowed in New York


Me and Mike with two elk we shot within 20 seconds of each other. They died 75yds apart, 8 miles from our trucks.


Mike's 2018 Archery Missouri buck 187"


Zack's 2017 Archery Missouri buck 140"


John with a bunch of ducks


My archery Eastern Wild Turkey 2017