Central OTAGO. Yea or Nea?

Afternoon all.

Currently living in Taupo and pretty happy here but have also been here for decades and the wife and I have developed itchy feet in the last year or so. If we are going to move, then we need to do it before the kids hit intermediate.

Looked around Aussie and was pretty keen on Mansfeild Victoria, nice little country town in the Vic high country. Man from Snowy River country.

But a job opportunity has also popped in in Cromwell as well. I'm going down next week to have a look at the job and spend a couple of days looking around Alex, Cromwell and the sounding area.
House prices look kinda similar to Taupo and the schools are pretty good from what I can gather.
So, my question to the brains trust is what's the hunting and fishing actually like around the area? I know there is some excellent hunting but is it all on private land that an outsider would never have access to?
Any decent bush hunting within an hour's drive, i looked on the maps and there appears to be big islands of bush further south.

Is the hunting all walking up colossal hills for half a day to get up and into good glassing country or is there accessible tracks that you could get a bit of altitude before setting out on foot?

Is all the public land balloted during the roar?

Is there trout in the local lakes?

Any advice from anyone who actually lives there would be appreciated. Doesn't have to be hunting related. Advice on cool pubs would also be well received. :)

Just to note for everyone, I'm not after your hard-won possies, just general advice on hunting, fishing and other cool outdoor options in central Otago. We are also keen on hiking into huts with the dogs, mountain biking and game bird hunting. Not keen on wild pork, your pigs are safe from me as a rule. I've never laid eyes on a chamois yet either so the idea of shooting one of them appeals....

I'm keen to embrace some change in my life and push myself with some new challenges rather than live in the same town for all my adult life and end up in the local cemetery at some point.

The recent passing of a close relative who wasn't that much older than me from cancer has made me think about what I want from my life, and how time goes quick and before you know it your time is up and your gone.

Cheers lads

Marty

Went through this last year. Based in Arrowtown but looked at Cromwell, Alexandra and surrounds.

Rainbow and Brown Trout and landlocked salmon are in the Clutha River catchment. Also not hugely far from the Tekapo Canals.

There are certainly hills to be walked, but there are lots of places where the walking is not too hectic to glass around. In Cromwell you'd have really good access to the back of the Remarkables for hunting. Then again, around Queenstown/Glenorchy there are a reasonable number of deer. Last weekend admittedly I climbed over 900m in elevation before really get into the hunting area, I saw over 30 deer for the 2 days I was out and about so some things require a bit of walking uphill. You would not be too far from the Blue Mountains for Fallow Deer (balloted).

From Cromwell you have a pretty good run if you want to go to the west coast for hunting or it's not a huge issue to head down to Fordland. I get my bush fix down there, then kick around tussock if I want to see deer before they see me.

If you can make it work, go for it!

P.s. Cromwell Mall (outdoor mall) I think was originally designed not to be a destination by Electricorp when the Clyde Dam was built and the Old Cromwell was replaced with the new town . You'll see when you get there. Sometimes it seems I should be seeing tumbleweeds!!!

@Joe90 is down that way

Cromwell is VERY central to all the fishing and hunting youl ever want.Thirty minuts-two hour drives will keep yr freezers fill.Its just take you a wee while to find yr way around.

Terrible hunting and fishing

Mate lives in hawea and loves the place. I'd live in otago in a heartbeat

few years ago i would have said christchurch, since the rebuild its just another city

Made the move down here 5 years ago now. Best decision I ever made although it was a shock to the system moving to Roxburgh at the start of winter! I live down southland now as houses were cheaper, it's more my style down here with the bush hunting. If I were to live anywhere in Central it'd be Omakau, nice little town not far from Alex. Cromwell is ok but windy in summer and foggy in winter

Bit of a culture difference down here. I'll translate some of the native language for you. A crib is a batch, luxing is vacuuming and belgum is luncheon. 'Not ideal' is a common phrase along with 'piss crook' which means you're hungover. Going for a 'piss cruise' means loading a falcon up with the boys and beers driving the country side 'pissing up' which mean getting drunk �� also don't get caught drinking a Waikato down here! You'll get laughed out of the pub, it's speights or dB draught(for seasoned veterans only)

Jokes aside more than happy to point you in the right directions if you do make the move, you won't regret it!

Cheers.

The cold will be biggest thing to get used to.ratahi or waioru are cold but this is next level in winter.

As Mickey points out it gets cold in winter, on Tuesday I was up near Ranfurly where it was -6 in the morning, by 11 am it was 3 degrees but it’s a dry cold

Over winter the day light hours are short.

Summer is hot, Ranfurly in February we were splitting wood outside in 34 degree heat with the days really long.

Daylight hours are shorter in winter than up north and in summer, longer days than up north

50 degree temperature swing between summer and winter, handy skifields, good fishing and boating, good hunting and large DOC areas with good 4wd access, private land hunting takes a wee while to get into, good Cromwell-based hunting & fishing club, a local NZDA branch with a good hut in the Haast, low population, good roads (apart from slow loopies in camper vans on the wrong side of the road!), good food, vineyards, distilleries, etc.. Nah, you probably wouldn't like it!

If you know where to look you can see the occasional Fallow from the outskirts of Cromwell .
. . I ve lived all over NZ and I'd go there in a heartbeat.

People often tell me they - plan to/would like to - retire/move (delete as necessary) to Central Otago. It has a lot going for it. But the thing I caution on is to look beyond the pretty scenery because after you've lived in any town or city long enough the views are mainly background noise and the reality is we still have to get up in the morning and go to work.

Consider the pros - and the cons. The pros you will see for yourself once you're down here looking around. The cons are a little harder to see up front. The biggest cons as I see it are the following:

The high cost of living: I know, its not cheap anywhere these days - but go and have a look at some of the "luxury" items in the supermarket. By luxury I mean... the price of a 2 litre tub of ice cream or a packet of chips. We're at the end of the logistics chain in this area and you will find yourself paying a premuim for everything from fence posts to petfood.

The cost of fuel: Look at the price at the pumps around town and factor that into your budget. I'd be surprised it it's not 20 cents per litre more than where you presently live.

The cost of heating: It gets cold here in winter. Whether you use 1000 litres of heating fuel, 20 cu.m of firewood or a small power station worth of electricity, your heating bill will be huge. My power bill reaches $600 per month for June, July and August. And electricity is not my primary heating source.

The cold: Talking of temperature, it gets cold at times (-15 is the lowest I've personally seen at home) and that can lead to problems you might not expect. Car doors frozen shut (fun, until you rip your door rubbers). Black ice on the roads. Broken windscreens from the grit put on the roads each morning. Burst pipes leading to flooding. Conversely it gets bloody hot in summer but we rarely complain about the +40 degrees... when we get it.

Hospitals: We don't have any full hospital facilities in Central Otago and the "hospitals" we do have are just triage facilities. You have a major whoopsie and you're going to find yourself in Invercargill, Dunedin or Christchurch. You might not think this is a problem until your wife goes into labour and you find yourself driving to Invercargill while she gets an ambulance transfer and you miss the whole event. Or she gets flown to Sydney (I kid you not...!) and you don't see her or your newborn for the next two weeks.

Spiders: Personally I hate them. I put this in for fun but in all seriousness, watch out for Red Back Spiders. Yes... the poisonous Australian kind. They are prolific. By prolific I mean you don't need to go far to find quite a few. When I found 30+ of the friggin' things on one wall recently I lost my sense of humour.

I hope this helps balance the picture. Don't get me wrong, I love Central Otago... but no matter how you look at it there are some serious challenges to living here and its best you go in with your eyes open because its easy to see the good parts... since you asked.

Spend time and buy a house in the winter when you see the sun on it=warm house.Make sure it has a good fire box with a wet back.I did 12 winters building in Queenstown.One winter it was -16c in Queenstown and -21c in Arrowtown.Its was a panelbeaters dream that winter.Cromwell and Alex were nearlly just as cold.

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Originally Posted by Micky Duck

The cold will be biggest thing to get used to.ratahi or waioru are cold but this is next level in winter.

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* cough* * wusses*cough*

I live outside of Te Anau do not as cold over here, but probably more scungy soggy edge of fiordland crap. As stated above choose very wisely when looking for a house down here. The sun is the bringer of all things good. Plus a wet back and a dam good source of heat, plus insulation. We’ve lived in some cold places in high country northern southland like eyre creek and Fairlight and a warm house is the key to real happiness down here in the winter.

My house is facing north looking up the lake with the sun beamingin.Its hot in the lounge n no fire going.
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No Sika……

Just watch fallow out the back window now n then.

Cheers everyone.

Thanks for all the encouragement and also the reality checks. The cold i anticipated, I've lived in the Highlands of Scotland for a couple of years back when i was younger so know what that's like. Long summer days and short winter days in the permafrost. Will certainly be looking a buying a house that gets the sun and is double glazed and properly insulated if we move down. My appetite to live like an early settler in a single glazed uninsulated shit box is nonexistent these days.

The cost of groceries and fuel etc is something i hadn't considered and the spiders is something i hadn't anticipated. Having said that, Australia was the other option and spiders definitely featured in that plan....

But all in all, it sounds promising and pretty exciting. Taupo has been an awesome place to live, and it will be hard to leave somewhere that i grew up in and had all the time in the world to go hunting when I was young and single. I doubt I'll ever be able to recreate the local knowledge that I have of this area. There isn't many patches of bush or river that I haven't poked around in over the last 35 years. Especially when I was young and had unlimited spare time and no responsibilities.

But...variety is the spice of life and there is no Thar or Chamois on Mt Ruapehu so if I'm going to have a go, I better do it sooner rather than later and regret not pushing myself out of comfort zone. At 51 years old my knees aren't getting any younger.

As for the Sika i can always shoot up every couple of years and continue my quest for a decent eight pointer. If the gods are smiling on me i might even get something over the winter before I move down....

Cheers lads

Marty

The mentor/person/workmate, I most respected in my life. Who was a legend among his military peers. Said to me, "It is better to thought about it and tried, than to thought about it and not tried at all". It still haunts me to this day, as investment advisers assessed me as being "Recklessly conservative" Take what you think of that. I am now living in an unconsented dwelling in a place I consider paradise. I hadn't even seen the place before I bought it off Trade me. All I can say about life "It's not about the money"

Was only a little cold here this morning - 6 it's only may so gonna get colder

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Originally Posted by Padox

Was only a little cold here this morning - 6 it's only may so gonna get colder

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I didnt realise central Otago was in a different time zone. it's the 4th of June up here in Taupo.
Something else I'll have to take into account I guess 🤔

My bad I'm a farmer every day leads into 1 haha

Depending what line of work you are in Central Otago has a pretty limited number of job opportunities outside of hospitality and building houses. So if you are looking to change jobs that are not in these areas typically need to wait for someone to die.

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Originally Posted by turtleSO

The mentor/person/workmate, I most respected in my life. Who was a legend among his military peers. Said to me, "It is better to thought about it and tried, than to thought about it and not tried at all". It still haunts me to this day, as investment advisers assessed me as being "Recklessly conservative" Take what you think of that. I am now living in an unconsented dwelling in a place I consider paradise. I hadn't even seen the place before I bought it off Trade me. All I can say about life "It's not about the money"

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Exactly, my wife is from Hari Hari and we're making plans to move to Hoki, just need to find the right house and jobs.

Thought id add a bit of an update if anyone was interested. So yep, the big move is on. Went and had a look at the job and around the local area and came back with the opinion that we are good to go.

Start driving down on Saturday and have allowed three days to get there. The wife and kids are coming for a week and then fly back to Taupo to finish the year out and should be back down mid December .

The weather is getting better and i should be arriving just in time for some warmer weather.

Have a couple of months being based in Alex and am looking forward to exploring the local area for hunting and fishing spots and getting stuck into some mountain biking in Alex and Queens town.

Been sitting on the couch in the evenings pouring over the map looking at places to go for my fix of outdoor adventures. Also been put making the most of what the winter fishing on the Tongariro and getting in a last minute Sika hunt before packing up the kit and caboodle for the trek south.

Looking forwards to meeting the locals and getting up into that big tussock country.

New horizons await :)

About to head south for a 4 month roadie two thirds of which should be Otago and Catlin's. Like it down there but don't do cold very well.

@Blackfern, flick me a message if you’re after any pointers regarding areas to hunt. You’re in a good part of the country. Would like to move back up there again one day.

No deer in Central ya are all dreaming haha

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Originally Posted by Snowgrass

@Blackfern, flick me a message if you’re after any pointers regarding areas to hunt. You’re in a good part of the country. Would like to move back up there again one day.

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will do. it's all new to me and it's all fresh.country. super pumped about some new vistas. just hope the 51 yrd old knees can cope. now or never though.