Thread: DIY Questions from a Canadian

Originally Posted by Timberdoodle

For years & years, I've been reading articles & watching videos about hunting tahr & chamois in the South Alps. I've discussed the idea of making a trip to NZ a few times with my CFO, who has indicated she will not sign off on the expenditure request. With some reluctance though, she seems to have given luke-warm consent to an unguided adventure, if I can figure out the logistics of it all. Coming from Canada, I've tried to read as much information as possible from DOC, these forums, etc. as I can find. The more I read, the more questions I have, so I thought I might just ask some of them here. I can share info that I have about hunting in many of the western states in return, if that helps any.

For background, I'm in my mid-40s. I prefer bowhunting (have bowhunted for 30+ years), but also rifle hunt on occasion. I'm in relatively decent shape, have gear for most situations that I've run into thus far, and have DIY hunted throughout Alberta and most of the rocky mountains & Alaska for a variety of species. I can't seem to entice any of my associates to want to get out into some of the weather & steeps that you have there, so I most likely would be going solo, unless I can convince someone else to join. For an unguided adventure, I'm thinking I could allocate ~2-2.5 weeks to get to the South Island, and back to Canada. I would guess that would leave me with ~4-5 days for travel, and ~10-14 days for hunting, depending. Due to gun laws, I've been pondering leaving the rifle behind (possibly a completely foolish idea). Due to time & lack of familiarity with any areas, I was thinking that I would just book a heli to taxi me into some off-the-beaten path hunting areas, and possibly still have time to do 5-6 days in two separate areas, just to add to the overall experience. With vacation schedules, this would be planning for 2025. Initial areas that I've looked at include the Landsborough, Mt. Cook, Fox Glacier area. I've also been doing a bit of research about the Canterbury area, just in case weather would be poor on the west coast.

Priority is on 1) getting back home safely, 2) being able to see "mature" animals, 3) hunting when pelts are more prime in condition.

Questions:
- Would it be a fools errand to bring only the bow, and not my rifle (can you get encounters within ~60m of tahr & chamois within a week of hard hunting)? Or is the added range worth going through the paperwork?

- Would it be more of a norm, or an exception, to be able to find tahr & chamois within the same basins/catchments? (would it be best to try to focus on those possible areas, or to allocate a number of days looking for tahr in a specific area, and allocate the other days looking for chamois in a specifically chamois area?)

- Is the hunting/hunting pressure/quality of animals that much better in the balloted areas than the non-balloted areas?

- Do the body sizes/trophy quality/ genetics (particularly for tahr & chamois) vary much from basin to basin, or from the west coast to east? (e.g. I read somewhere that the tahr on the west coast are much bigger in body than farther east - true, or no)?

- Are pelts "prime" from May on? June on?

- Does the weather get more consistent as you go into winter? I prefer snow to rain, FWIW.

- Would a good time of year to plan to come over be late May/early June to catch the end of the Chamois rut, and peak of the Tahr rut? Or are the animals moving so much during that time that the rut could actually be more challenging than slightly past peak of rut as they focus in more on feeding again?

- Due to weather concerns over that short of a window of time, would it make more sense to plan for Canterbury region hunts than the west coast?

- Are there any other major factors I should be considering during my planning?

Any feedback that any of you could provide would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

I'm definitely no expert but happy to answer what I can:

There are bow hunters in NZ who regularily get onto Tahr - I think more in the west coast though (more scrub to stalk in with) follow MontyNixon on instagram for example. Obviously easier with the rifle - that will have to be up to you.

Don't need to have the Tahr balloted areas to get into good tahr especially if you will be getting flown into a spot, tbh that might just complicate things - I've not been to one yet however we have a balloted area for later this year (Abel lake).

The weather here can be pretty feral throughout the whole year.. its MEANT to be more consistent summer and winter but we've just had a pretty mental summer. Hard to say.

Tahr and Chamois skins are best in Winter yes for sure.

If I was coming from the states I would look to have several spots to potentially hunt if the weather came in. We often get a ton of weather systems hitting the west coast but the east can be much less affected (i.e. have a back up plan or two on the east side of the main divide).