Thread: Arrowtown hunting

Just spent a week in Arrowtown, love the place
From the asian tourists taking selfies of themselves eating pies, to the Arrow River, it's just magic.
However, walking up towards Macetown, got me thinking.
It's all DOC land, and there are a couple of huts up that way
Where can you hunt ?
I assume theres a few fallow running around, as I've seen them driving from Queenstown to Arrowtown.

You werent down there for a wedding at StoneRidge in Qtown on Friday arvo by any chance were you?

Originally Posted by GWH

You werent down there for a wedding at StoneRidge in Qtown on Friday arvo by any chance were you?

Nope, just a week away from all the insanity in Auckland !

I hear there are plenty of goats if you get bored chasing fallow

Originally Posted by StagRyan

I hear there are plenty of goats if you get bored chasing fallow

Cheers for that, but can you hunt up the Arrow River ?

Originally Posted by Frogfeatures

Cheers for that, but can you hunt up the Arrow River ?

The Arrow River used to be Coronet Peak Station on the true right and Soho Station on the left. The properties were bought by Mutt Lange and access to the public closed except for a couple of tracks around German Hill Big hill and the walking track on the true right of the Arrow. There is still the four wheel drive track using the public road to Macetown.
Now the land has been placed in the QEII trust.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_...National_Trust
The point of contact to access the land is rather vague but one particular character appears to manage it for the trust. He is hard to deal with, even for a local to ask. As an Auckland resident and non local I would say your shit out of luck. My advice is give it a miss and hunt Skippers or somewhere with better access.

Originally Posted by Speargrass

The Arrow River used to be Coronet Peak Station on the true right and Soho Station on the left. The properties were bought by Mutt Lange and access to the public closed except for a couple of tracks around German Hill Big hill and the walking track on the true right of the Arrow. There is still the four wheel drive track using the public road to Macetown.
Now the land has been placed in the QEII trust.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_...National_Trust
The point of contact to access the land is rather vague but one particular character appears to manage it for the trust. He is hard to deal with, even for a local to ask. As an Auckland resident and non local I would say your shit out of luck. My advice is give it a miss and hunt Skippers or somewhere with better access.

Cheers mate, hell of a place to go for a walk, even without the rifle.

Speargrass is correct in what he has said above, but has left out one important detail - there is really nothing left to hunt in this area.

In preparation for the land to be reverted back to it's natural state the owner of the land (Mutt Lange) spent 2 years and about $2m exterminating everything that roamed these hills with four legs. More than 16,000 goats were removed ("removed" is spelt S.H.O.T.) along with the few deer, pigs or chamois that were reported to be there. Five years ago it was nice to be able to take the kids out for a walk and harvest a couple of goats close to home, but these days I sit here and have to watch with despair as the helicopters work their way around the hills each spring mopping up any stragglers. The population of animals is effectively zero. A number of locals occasionally trip over the odd mob of goats but they're few and far between.

And this leads to the next problem - the shift of attention to Skippers. Whereas there used to be a large number of animals in the Skippers catchment, the demise of all the animals on Coronet, Soho, Motutapu and Glencoe Stations (now collectively owned by Mr Lange) shifted hunting attention to Skippers. I've hunted there extensively for the last 22 years and what was once hard work, but rewarding, is now just hard work. DOC's Special Reserve area has been hammered and now they only allow "5 guns per day" into the reserve. It's not a big area so you can read between the lines and work out for yourself how many animals are left there.

So... come to Arrowtown, enjoy your walks and your trip to Macetown. Check out the great museum, have fun looking for gold in the river and photo-bomb the asian selfies... but leave the rifle at home because there is very little left here to hunt for.

Sad but true.

Thanks for the info
Still got the Eyre Mountains, hunted there before. And the Taki’s, frankly any excuse to get away from Akld works for me.
And the Southern Lakes, Otago / Southland districts are just bloody magic.

I know the gentle man who was the main pest controller on the property. Lovely guy and dialed in at his job!

Follow this thoughts, they are from a well stablished LOCAL with A LOT of experience in the area…

Mac

Originally Posted by Speargrass

The Arrow River used to be Coronet Peak Station on the true right and Soho Station on the left. The properties were bought by Mutt Lange and access to the public closed except for a couple of tracks around German Hill Big hill and the walking track on the true right of the Arrow. There is still the four wheel drive track using the public road to Macetown.
Now the land has been placed in the QEII trust.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_...National_Trust
The point of contact to access the land is rather vague but one particular character appears to manage it for the trust. He is hard to deal with, even for a local to ask. As an Auckland resident and non local I would say your shit out of luck. My advice is give it a miss and hunt Skippers or somewhere with better access.