Thread: After a South Island Big Red

Will keep that in mind thanks matt

Hi there I'm a guide from Wanaka. The best advise has already been said 'walk out further than most would. That rule always works for me! as for good areas, anywhere from south Canterbury to bluff and you could find a good stag but the hard yards need to be put in and a bit of right place right time on public land. there is a few good places around Glenorcy that have good numbers of animals and i have seen and know of a number of not bad heads come out of there

Originally Posted by Neil0293

Hi there I'm a guide from Wanaka. The best advise has already been said 'walk out further than most would. That rule always works for me! as for good areas, anywhere from south Canterbury to bluff and you could find a good stag but the hard yards need to be put in and a bit of right place right time on public land. there is a few good places around Glenorcy that have good numbers of animals and i have seen and know of a number of not bad heads come out of there

Thanks very much neil! Cant wait!

I'm doing same trip mate welcome to convoy down behind me, I usually hunt my way south down the west coast
Right down to manapuri for a week or two then hit kaikoura for a dive on my wY back
Got a few spots but it's Southland we'll be walking 20 k to get there on hills not theses northland speed bumps
And I have always found locals to be a lot more forgoing face to face bloody lovely ppl the southlanders ( rural anyway)

Originally Posted by Full noise

I'm doing same trip mate welcome to convoy down behind me, I usually hunt my way south down the west coast
Right down to manapuri for a week or two then hit kaikoura for a dive on my wY back
Got a few spots but it's Southland we'll be walking 20 k to get there on hills not theses northland speed bumps
And I have always found locals to be a lot more forgoing face to face bloody lovely ppl the southlanders ( rural anyway)

Sounds awesome! Could be the go for a first time down there. Have pmd you

Obviously don't expect to come down here and knock over a wall hanger on your first trip, although stranger things happen, and seem to be happening more often these days!

There are plenty of deer about down south - finding a deer is easy. I saw 9 yesterday from my truck, glassing public land from a road. 1 stag with 4 hinds - and chasing them about interestingly enough, a lone stag - nice 10 pointer, a spiker and 2 hinds.

Keep in mind that a lot of the public land in Otago, West Coast, Southland, Fiordland is balloted, so I would suggest applying in the ballots and then if you are successful you can start planning your trip into that specific area/block - makes getting info and planning your trip down so much easier. Canterbury is all open roar public land, so no balloting required.

Even with the ballots there are still plenty of public land areas that are 'open' block during the roar, and consequently these are pretty busy during the hunting season. Hunting is a big thing down here, and during the roar its not uncommon to pass several vehicle with deer on the back if you go on a road trip around the region! Most main access routes into public land turn into highways.

Look at areas where there is decent looking tops country to hunt but with good amounts of bush/scrub in the valleys where stags can hide out from the helicopters. Not many public land areas are free from WARO down here. In every public land block I hunted over six weeks this roar, I saw a machine working on each trip!

If you have any 'specific' questions on certain areas of land feel free to flick me a PM. I'm happy to offer some advice on any places I have been into on Otago/Southland/South Westland/Canterbury public land - quite a few places....

If you were me, I'd be looking at getting well off the beaten track in any of the large river catchments of Canterbury. Like well off the beaten track.

Start googling for information, and have a decent look on the DOC website.

Have pmd you josh