Thread: What the deal with the roar

Hi @Chelsea, well I can fully understand your comment about a grumpy pig hunter because there are three or four guys around here at the top end of the Kaimais who are utter dickheads. Having done a lot of work with some of the land owners in the area on access agreements, track building and various resource consent type stuff, I know how they feel about the behaviour by these guys, using farm tracks to access DOC blocks that are landlocked by private land, without permission, treating DOC land like they own it.... cutting locks, removing signs and one case of simply driving over two fences to get round a staunch gate. The age old "paper road" type arguments.

What makes it even more frustrating is that I can think of one father and son combo in particular who simply don't care that everybody knows who does this - them! The old man will park the same old ute in plain sight as a big fuck you to whoever wants to take him on. Don't bother saying anything about the police and trespassing... I know our local senior sergeant and whilst he finds this kind of thing very frustrating it is close to the bottom of his list of things to do today.

The attitude amongst the farmers I've worked with around here is to try and ignore it, because if you take action against these guys they will come back with revenge actions, probably a long time later, they won't forget. Access to the one DOC block has actually been opened up across private land, but just not advertised, so the local pig hunter(s) can go there without causing any trouble. That they do not stay in the DOC block and stray happily and wilfully into the private pine plantations is another matter altogether... A lot of this stuff has been going on for two or three generations between families, land owners on the one side and local riff raff on the other.

My advice to anyone coming across a territorial hunter with a bad attitude is just to be pleasant and polite and walk away. This is particularly true in areas near traditional "hot spots", e.g. Pipiriki, others. There is absolutely nothing worse than getting back to the trailhead and finding your vehicle has been trashed. It's just not worth the confrontation.