Thread: Best realistic walk ins for Auckland hunters?

Fly ins are only worth the money in my opinion if you're already shooting deer regularly on walk ins.

Going to a good area via chopper isn't necessarily going to be a guaranteed animal if you are not shooting them normally

Remember a lot of area around Rotorua lakes is no hunting this time of year. Check on DOC website.

Originally Posted by DavidGunn

I always reckoned venison cost me about $300 a pound, what with multiple rifles, practice ammo, a dog and all it's costs, 4x4 to look the part, fixed and rotary wing costs, the clothing, the list goes on.

Yeh - back in the day, somewhere else, I worked out it was costing me the equivalent of $250/kg to catch fish...

Originally Posted by DavidGunn

If I spent less time supping this and more time hunting


Attachment 125534

That is a darn fine drop to sup.
Was just having a wee tickle of their port tonight. Unfortunately my last bottle is now but empty.

To be perfectly frank.... If you are after a "legit hunter gatherer" lifestyle unless you have a handy spot for deer then it's pretty much a waste of money chasing deer; especially flying in... For a holiday/break? Yup a great idea.

I'm trying to do something similar so I concentrate on goats for the everyday meat supply. Easy and cheap to get to, abundant, good meat and overall way more cost efficient to gather than deer. Unless you have a reliable close spot or a mates farm where you can easily pick up a deer or two.

It costs me about $30 worth of gas and a day to harvest 3 goats, get them out, skinned and in the fridge, That will give me about 40-ish kilos of bone-in carcass.

Hi Land2sea, welcome to the forum and thanks for your good introduction.

Of course people won't be tumbling over each other to post their best spots on the internet !
Some standard, well known, places like Clements Road and Waihaha in the Pureoras will come out but they won't be the best places.

I'd suggest getting in touch with Rushy and taking up his offer of a cup of tea. Then he can suss you out and point you to a suitable area (ie not advise a qick overnight weekend trip to Tarn Ridge in the Tararuas or some place up the top of the Whakatane river).

Flying in typically cost $1000 to $2000 depending how far it is and the size of the helicopter. A good place to start would be to look into joining the sika foundation which is a voluntary group dedicated to maintaining a healthy sika population and forests with some pest control. They run fly in sessions from time to time and those are probably the best value for fly ins at present. My rule of thumb is to only fly in to somewhere I have walked to before.

Guess I'm another Jaffa with country roots. I do most of my goat hunting for meat around Taranaki a couple of times a year. I'm free of full time work commitments now but of course that means I'm old enough to not be fast or durable enough for the hard yakka, young-fella bush bashing. Nevertheless I pretty much get there taking my time and usually accompanied only by my PLB. I've registered recently for DOC permits for upper half of Nth Island. Also joining Deerstalkers so going forward I wouldn't mind a like situated hunting buddy. I'm cool on riugh camping or using a spare barn, happy to cull where thats desired, e.g. private forestry block overrun with goats, in return for taking some meat. Not so fussed about trophy racks these days so can leave those for a block owner if required. An also a reasonably competent cook, house trained, responsible etc etc. Boring eh? Anyway I would not mind establishing a contact or two with chaps in similar frame of mind. I can travel under my own steam but am a bit allergic to the high dollar hi-life hunting gig - but each to their own. PM me if interested in a chat.