NZ Hunter

It’s that time of year again, as the days begin to shorten and night time temperatures drop, certain species start to think about procreating and the hills are reverberating with their roars! First Wapiti, then Reds, then Sika and Fallow – with chamois only shortly afterwards and finally tahr beginning later in May. And don’t forget the waterfowl and upland hunters also getting underway the first weekend in May. Man, it’s such an enjoyable and busy time of the year! Fi and I spent the weekend running round putting up trail cameras in our Kaweka haunts, and I’m flying south tomorrow to head off on another South Westland Red roar adventure. The only fly in the ointment is I’ll have to leave the rest of the team in the hills…

As I said last issue, a trophy stag in classic country, shared with my son – could a moment get any better? On the next morning of our adventure, I photographed a yearling on the riverbed and a few hardy beasts were seen above the beech, but nothing to entice us to climb. Our mission for the afternoon was to lighten our trekking loads, so we headed downriver to where Garth and Tony were camped to take down the antlers, chamois horns and meat for their chopper pickup. The river gorged, but we did a good job of staying on the deer trails and got down there in good time. It was great to see the lads and they were certainly pleased with our success. They were getting onto the…

This next trip was a week with my wife, Amie. She has been on lots of hunting trips with me, but this was to be her first actual roar trip, and she was very excited and keen to see us roar a Sika stag in, so no pressure! The next morning, we loaded the truck up and headed off toward Taupo. We had a 12pm fly time with the helicopter, and before we knew it, we were loading up the H500 and setting sail for a helipad that has become a favourite of mine. We came in to land about 700 metres above sea level, and with a quick unload of the helicopter and a handshake with the pilot, he took off into the distance. We stood on the helipad…

It was quite refreshing to go back to my roots after several years of South Island high-country roars. First up was the home game, the Pureoras I look at every morning from the kitchen window. Our friends, the Coles family, had renowned American bowhunter Dan Pickar and his wife Eva over for a couple of weeks and asked if I could help out with some filming. Always keen to meet new people I jumped at the opportunity. The stags had just begun roaring well, the days had finally started to cool off, and wreaths of mist signalled a still autumn morning to make a start on our adventure. That first day we began as a group, climbing up a ridge until the thermals switched and we could hunt down into…

At the heart of this initiative is John DeLury, a dedicated volunteer, hunter, and author of two books about hunting on Stewart Island, who has played a pivotal role in establishing and maintaining these vital facilities. John has been a member of the New Zealand Deerstalkers’ Association (NZDA) since 1973 and holds both a Southland Branch Life Membership and a National Life Membership. In this interview, he shares the origins of RHCT, the challenges faced, and the ongoing mission to preserve both the hunting tradition and the island’s unique environment. How did your connection with Stewart Island begin? I was living in Greymouth, where I grew up, and along with my brother and a couple of good hunting mates, we’d tried for several years to get into the Wapiti blocks…

This was my first step on the road to subsonic hunting. At the time, I was not setup for reloading so had to rely on ammunition off the shelf being subsonic and with a 225gr offering from Hornady, I committed. The rifle arrived and I sent it straight to Hardy Rifle to have a Stealth suppressor fitted. Then it was off to the range to sight it in. I could barely believe my ears - man, this thing was quiet. Well, an A4 target at 25 yards revealed that not all shots could get on the piece of paper. Some very quick and easy research revealed that the Survivor Rifle was designed to fire a 410 shotshell as well, the one-inch jump to the rifling was not doing my grouping…