Thread: Advice from locals - Nov tahr trip

I'd planned for the last 6 months or so to come over from Aus for a tahr trip in the first week of November, so the recent going's on with the Sage announcement have been of considerable interest and a bit of a concern.

I'd planned to head to either the Gamack or Liebig Raage areas. Looking at the DOC cull maps from winter - both these areas were shot pretty well, but as they weren't (supposed) to be culling bulls then I figured they'd still be worth a look, but with the current going's on, how these areas will be treated over the next 6 weeks or so is the unknown.

In order to sort out the mountain of paperwork required in bringing a gun out of Aus, I probably need to make a call this week as to whether I go ahead as planned, But I'd hate to spend a couple of grand in flights, hire car, accommodation etc to get over there and walk in to an area only to have it culled whilst we're in there or just before. How helpful is the DOC office at twizel on providing info on planned cull operations?

So any advice from locals as to whether you'd bother going ahead with the planned trip in the current climate would be appreciated. I was planning a walk in trip but now that I'm almost committed to the trip I wouldn't be adverse to a short chopper trip to get into an areas amongst a few animals if it other options were looking a bit shaky as to whether they would be on the cull list - or maybe I go elsewhere to look for a chamois and leave the tahr for another trip.

What would you do?