Thread: Murumuru Conservation Area Raetihi

Hi anyone hunt there -looking at aerial photos with boundary looks like clearings in places to south east and a larger area of clear down the access track to the north next door to the ex Bill Cornelious block - worth having a look or very heavily hunted

I've been going there the last 5 years or so to harvest goat for the dog and I.

What are you hoping to hunt there? goats deer or pigs?

goats are in good supply most of time.

I've only seen one pig and that was too close for comfort.

Never seen a fallow in there, but they're there apparently.

as for Reds. hunt the car park or in places that most others won't go. (note my last deer out of there took 6 hours to relay out(stags take longer))

the whole place is mostly regen native, so stay out of the guts and creeks and use the ridges to get where you need to go

If you go in the warmer months take lots and lots of water. One time the dog got campylobacter from the watering holes there.

The block is closed for hunting 1 September 31 October FYI

Take a rod and go fishing at the ruatiti domain

Good luck

Place was good with reds, fallow, pigs and goats. Even got my first pig there.
But once it featured in the Spot X books it got hammered.
Animal number are much lower now.
Lots of old paddocks now turning to scrub. If you can get down to them down the valley, you'll get an animal.
As above, many of the ridges have game trails or old fence lines still visible. Good way to drop down to the creek that way.

Can you access the track that goes through the middle of it? Looks scrubby as hell much like the rest of the area.
I've found further west that often the ridges are impenetrable and it's the bottom of the valleys which are eaten out and pretty free traveling. So pick your poison in this area.
Spent a rough couple of days recently a few ks west of here making way through a very hard to follow and poor track. Can be slow and hard going sometimes.

I concur with carry your water! or at least take purification tablets or something. I've had to drink from some pretty dodgy wallowed up muddy streams around here in summer. Luckily carry purification tablets. Still didn't take the yuk factor away knowing where I had to collect the water from...

I know every single landowner along Murumuru Road all the way to Mangatiti. There’s a great many reds in the area and they stay close to the farms, which they raid at night.

It is imperative that anyone going in there does not stray off DOC land onto private. There is a history of confrontation with landowners and some unsavoury incidents. So know where you are at all times and don’t be tempted to follow sign into somewhere you shouldn’t be. In recent times a network of very high quality cameras were installed in certain prime areas for poaching, inadvertent or otherwise, as well as on the road.

Some pics over the years.

Like @dogmatix Said used to be pretty good, we used to always come back with a deer or pig and plenty of goats. Gets hammered now, especially since the gates been completely removed, and anyone can drive down and spotlight it now. Still a few goats about and bit of deer and pig sign, but a farcry from what it was.

Originally Posted by mawzer308

Like @dogmatix Said used to be pretty good, we used to always come back with a deer or pig and plenty of goats. Gets hammered now, especially since the gates been completely removed, and anyone can drive down and spotlight it now. Still a few goats about and bit of deer and pig sign, but a farcry from what it was.

So if I'm reading this right there is no locked gates at either the start of kahura track or down to cornelius's place?

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Still a locked gate to the Cornelius place but, the track that goes right through the Murumuru block no longer has one.

Originally Posted by mawzer308

Still a locked gate to the Cornelius place but, the track that goes right through the Murumuru block no longer has one.

Do Coles have a locked gate onto their block at the bottom I wonder?

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Haven't done a walk down to the end in a while but yip, was there last time I did.

I was down that way on Saturday , really interesting area with lots of history. No signs anywhere and I was using my phone to check public/private land boundaries , ended following the track way down through the native to some cleared country where an locked gate has been ripped out . Track appeared to be on boundary of private/public land so carried on through and then back into native before finally hitting a locked wooden gate and last cleared block before the river. Anyone able to give me some info? Message me if preferred, cheers fellas.