Thread: Motu River Hunting

Hi guys anybody hunted the Motu river.


Thinking of going in via jet boat. What are animal numbers like?

I assume the bush us thick as ... and steep.

Have a great night.

There seems to be quite a lot of videos on youtube of people hunting in there. Looks like there are plenty of pigs, goats, and deer according to videos from last year. Some videos people just cruising on the river with a paddle boat and shooting animals from the boat. Never been there myself. All the best.

Thanks Jessica. Yep saw a couple of videos last night.

Ive have been up the river on a jet boat, typical motu bush and very step in places. Didn't go hunting it was with the local jet boat guide. You would need a little local help to put you in the right catchment
Hasn't had 1080 yet so should be a few kicking around.. Usually the top of the Motu river on doc land see's a lot of traffic this time of year

Just remember the river can come up very fast and climb meters, its not to you see the debris up high on the cliff faces. So make sure you are well out of the high tide mark

Went in a few roars back. Pretty steep to get around. If you had you're own boat would be best.
River was waist deep and thats low water.
Good experience though and shot a nice stag

Thanks for the advice guys. Yep figure it will be hard hunting but i figure ad its hard and remote less chance of been as busy as queen street.....Will be an experience. ��

The Matawai pub could tell a few stories if the walls could talk.

In the 1960's while on animal surveys with F&RES two of us got caught out i the head of the Opato in a fierceome storm. We headed downstream all day to the Waioweka gorge bridge. My mate thumbed a lift to the Matawai pub to borrow a landrover from another crew due out. I stayed under the bridge with my blue heeler Kim. She was as cold and wet as me. I threw a stick for half an hour to try to keep us warm but eventually we both ran out of steam and I knew I had to get somewhere warm. I emptied my pack a put the dog inside and then my sleeping bag on top and buckeld it up. I left her under the bridge and thumbed a lift in truck to Matawai. The truckie said I passed out within a few seconds of getting aboard. The other crew were at the bar and said my mate had gone in the landrover to get me. When he could'nt locate me he looked in my pack for any note. He found Kim and just in time too as he reckoned she was nearly gone.
Lucky that time.

@Woody the opato sure would changed in there since the sixties, i have done a fear bit of hunting in there over the years. Its been selective native logged 3 times in the last twenty years on the private land in there. Still enjoy going in there for a wonder just vehicle security is a worry.
Same the Matawai pub closed it was a hub for the locals and when it was been managed properly the beds where full most nights with the truckies and a few road works guys.

@Woody many years ago i ended up dropping in the head water lost,had some how down a circle on the ridge and dropped in to the wrong catchment, didn't know where we were. had a compass and map that didn't help us. So headed down stream a few hours hit a couple out bully tracks then they disappeared carried on until we head a side stream we had been up before. It was a long walk out and that was on a fine day

Yep figure it will be difficult will take gps, compass map and plb. Hopefully only have to use 2 out of the 3 items..

Yeah. That particular week was wet from the second day in. We were always on the move and on the third night the headater creek we camped in rose 15ft in about 10 minutes around .id ight and we had to shift uphill pretty quick. Our meat issue was only a pound each so we depended on getting a deer or pig mid trip but that trip we found no game and ended up eating a possum that the dog treed. We persisted to try to get our survey lines completed but by the time we fi ished conditions were really bad. Getting out of there wte could'nt stay in the Opato bed and were forced to bash along halfway up the ridge sides. The stream was over 50 m wide in places with a lot of debris coming down. At the bridge there was barely room to get under. Bit of a wild time. Never saw rain again like that except up the Karangarua one time, but we at least had a hut that time. It pissed down for eight days solid and we ran out of tucker because our airdrop was delayed a few days. BIG noshup when it did arrive though

Thanks for the honesty and stories sounds like a tough pkace to hunt. Anything positive about the place?

The Opato comes lut of Ureweras. I do ' nt know a lot about Motu catchment but I gather the areas at the top end are easier.

Have rafted and shot it a couple of times from the top down. The jet boats only get you a bit of the way up, and there's certainly more animals around when you are away from jet boat access and Otipi rd access. But having being raised on the Tararuas, I concur that that place is "whats not vertical is overhang" territory