Thread: Introduction

Take it easy first few times in the NZ bush. A nice walk would be round the Atene Skyline Walkway. Takes quite a few hours but straightforward. Often there are a few goats up there but only take a gun if you've worked out the boundaries of public and private land. Don't go into the Tararuas or Ruahines on your own at first. New Plymouth / Wanganui hunters seem to often go to those two ranges and the Kaimanawas for deer.

Getting a NZ firearms licence is straightforward but takes about 6 months. There will be threads on this and the other forum how to do it. Also on NZ police web site.
To check hunting permit areas go to the Dept of Conservation web site and you can get hunting permits there. Check there and OSPRI web site for 1080 poison operations. Ignore the ground based ones but steeer clear of places that have had aerial 1080 in the past few months.
To check detailed boundaries and public access on unmarked "paper roads" go the Walking Access Mapping site (WAMS). Not all paper roads are actually completely public access if the surrounding land owners don't want you.

To find public access hunting areas in the Wanganui / Taranaki try posting a thread in the Hunting section. No one will tell you their best spot but you'll get a few OK suggestions. There are a lot of fallow deer in your region but mostly on private land. People pay and fly or quad bike in for these but it depends if you like to pay for it.