Thread: Arthur’s pass

Hi everyone, chasing a bit of info..
I’ve been doing a bit of research into Arthur’s pass and I’ve learned that there a tahr in a few places through Arthur’s pass. Has anyone hunted tahr in there? Are there decent numbers? Long walk to get to them? That said I’ll be targeting reds too.
I have a week off towards the end of the month and I’d like to have a crack at a tahr and check out the Arthur’s pass region. I’m based in Nelson so the travel to Arthur’s pass isn’t all that bad, provided it’s worth checking out..
Any info would be apreciated
Cheers

I would have thought that was way too far north for the big hairy goats??????

I imagine any tahr found in Arthers Pass will be dealt to pretty quickly by DoC. Well outside there area.

Very odd juvenile bull has wandered in there but as 300wsm says they get the bad news fairly smartly.

Mmh, I read that white horn pass, Harman pass and browning pass had tahr.. looking at the maps it’s not all that far from hokitika and Rakaia areas. Could be old information too. Any idea what deer number are like in there, is it wonder for days to bump into them or are fairly evenly spread throughout? It’s just a little far for weekend missions to get to know the area so all the help I can get would be greatly appreciated

If your after Tahr you would better served going up the Rangitata, try Bush stream up to Crooked Spur hut

Arthurs Pass is north of the Tahr Area boundary, so any tahr reported, seen, found etc are shot by DoC. DoC may even still have their Judas tahr programme going. Over the years the occasional bull has been shot in the AP region, but winter aint the right time to find wandering bulls. Need to be earlier, from about mid march through to about mid may, when the bulls are on the wander looking for nannies. They've pretty much found them now, so your chances of actually bumping in to one are pretty remote.

For the little extra cost,head south to the Rangitata upper river valley or the top of Lake Tekapo.Better numbers of tahr around.

They turn up way north of the Tahr Area boundary from time to time but are usually dealt to fairly quickly by cullers or opportunist hunters. Best to stick to recognised Tahr areas to increase chance of success.

Done a bit of hunting in arthurs pass its mostly chamois country in there, tahr can appear but very very rare(i have seen 1 in about 15 trips, and have heard of a couple of others being seen) If youre looking specifically for tahr anywhere south of the rakaia river will have you right amongst them.

Originally Posted by Trout

For the little extra cost,head south to the Rangitata upper river valley or the top of Lake Tekapo.Better numbers of tahr around.

Is that early reaches or back main devide area? Not been up there since last winter.

Originally Posted by DBD

Is that early reaches or back main devide area? Not been up there since last winter.

There is good numbers of tahr right through the whole Rangitata catchment, all the way from Mt Peel to the Divide, just gotta put in time behind the bino's. But like most of the tahr area this year it has received an absolute hammering from the guiding fraternity. Unfortunately this now means that come spring, or maybe sooner, there is a whole heap of nannies and kids that will be shot for offsets on trophy bulls - 6 per bull. I would suggest to get out and make the most of it before this happens, cos who knows what next season will bring. One thing is for sure, there wont be too many big bulls for the next year or 2.