Thread: Hunting around Dunedin?

My wife and I are going to be relocating to New Zealand next year and we're thinking of settling down in Dunedin. What is the hunting like down there? Looking at the DOC map it looks like there's Silverpeaks, Chalkies, Taieri Gorge and Hope Hill close to town. Are these decent spots if you're looking for deer and boar or do you typically have to drive further out? I can imagine being close to the city these locations may have a lot more competition, but I'm not really sure.

Great choice of city!!! Very good for general outdoors, but no super close deer stalking. There are deer in those spots you've mentioned, but you're MUCH better of driving a but further. For good public land hunting is about an hour or so drive in any direction....well not so much to the east, although you could catch a blue cod!

Yeah, drive a bit further out. Saw the odd deer and pig at Waipori Falls when I first started hunting while living in Dunedin. I'm sure there are more deer mooching about in random places now.

The Blue Mountains aren't that much further if you want to be frustrated by Fallow deer. Hunting into Central Otago and then into Southland will open up even more options.

A four hour drive will be much more useful, may I ask why Dunedin? Timaru or Oamaru are closer to some decent hunting spots, Chamois, Tahr only an hour or two away.

I was just talking to someone today and they have bought a block of land backing onto silver peaks and they are re-fencing the whole block in deer fencing, to keep the deer out...

Originally Posted by SmokeyJason

A four hour drive will be much more useful, may I ask why Dunedin? Timaru or Oamaru are closer to some decent hunting spots, Chamois, Tahr only an hour or two away.

We've got a 3 year old and my wife is looking to do her MBA at Otago so we need to be in a city of some sort. I also run a remote company from Canada so I need a fast internet connection to be productive. As much as we love the outdoors it's not ideal for us to live remote or in a really small town. Dunedin seemed large and sophisticated enough for us, with better access to nature than what we had in Wellington (we hike, fish, scuba, sail, etc), and also much more reasonable house prices compared to Auckland or Wellington. We thought about Christchurch as well but it's so flat and boring. Nothing is set in stone and we're willing to look around, but we ideally want to find some place that's got young people, business, cafes, entertainment, etc, while also having enough access to the outdoors to get away from it all when we want.