August National Board Reports

NZDA National Board, photographed at the 76th Conference and AGM in July 2024.

With the dust settling after conference, we are looking to settle into our work for the last quarter of the year.

The Sika Show

The Sika show is approaching and NZDA will have a stand as we have done for the past couple of years. The show is a great event and gives the sector a great opportunity to catch up between organisations and engage with the public, I look forward to another successful event and hope to see our members there.

Board Progress

Our new board is settling in and we have our first in person meeting in Wellington mid September for 2 days. This will give the board a chance to engage with each other and NZDA staff. We have a strong and passionate team and im excited to be a part of more progress.
We have seen firearms come under the spotlight again this month with associate justice minister Nicole Mckee wearing the brunt of it. There is still a lot of confusion and uncertainty from the public about the registry and firearms in general, I believe education is key here and we have some fantastic people in place to spread the message, as always it is incredibly important that Licensed Firearms owners continue to lead by example.

Woodhill Fallow Management Committee

My role on the Woodhill fallow management committee continues and we are nearing the end of another season. This year’s balloted hunting has been successful so far and I believe we are already seeing better quality animals taken due to a recent rule change. 2 year old bucks or Sorels (typically 8 points) have been added to the permit as non-shooters. The success this year can only be down to one thing and that’s waiting for the younger Buck to walk past and seeing a mature buck follow. This ballot system is a great resource only 1.5 hour’s drive from central Auckland.

Auckland Branch

I have continued to assist in organised hunts with my branch where we have seen good success. Personally I am still chasing a decent Rusa, this rut saw some good action but unfortunately no big stag (yet), it is only a matter of time.

Spring is in the air – literally here in Nelson with pollen all over my ute and up my nose! And it’s meat hunting time amongst other things. Whilst in some areas finding animals can still be difficult, in a lot of places now deer are certainly more abundant than a decade ago and taking some hinds (before the fawn) for meat from these places makes good sense for the larder, the herd and the habitat they, and thus we, depend on for our hunting future.

Hunting Ballots

Ballot season in the South Island kicks off with the Haast South Westland ballot opening 3rd September, the Wapiti Ballot is already underway and other regions (e.g. Wanaka, Southland) will come online over coming months. DOC are reviewing the often-mixed way these are operated as well as the open areas permit system as well. In October I will be one of a panel test driving the first test case ballot system developed. It is envisaged that these will be less demanding for information, more generic across conservancies and be far easier to navigate including on a smartphone that most people use these days. Hopefully this will encourage more hunters to participate and be permitted year-round for their favourite public land hunting areas.

Molesworth

Finally, in the interests of finding a way to see a few more hinds removed from Molesworth for meat, where there is some serious walking to do (vehicle and heli access is prohibited as it is a working farm), I recently collaborated with a local horse and mule man to get a DOC activity permit and some beasts of burden involved. While a very narrow weather window (it has been very cold and snowy in the region lately) meant only two nights in the block we managed to shoot two big fat hinds and a nobby that looked female from a “Molesworth distance”, as well as four pigs and 11 hares. That was 50 kg of boned out premium meat from far too far to normally carry. In Canada, due to moose being a native species and highly managed, it is compulsory to retrieve the meat and using horse teams (outfitters) is standard practice. I hope its something more people will think about, I am planning next mule mission already!

Well the big announcement in the South this month was from DoC advising of appointing ZIP to remove rats, cats, hedgehogs & possums with 1080 in a 10,000 ha trial at the southern end of Stewart Island, with deer not being a target species. The NZDA supports Predator Free Rakiura & welcomes the clarification of the next steps in this project on Stewart Island, specifically the protection of the White-tailed deer.

Goat Competition

The Goat Competition is in full swing with Branch hunts organised pre lambing around Wanaka with more to occur around the southern lakes region after lambing & pre fawning.

Fiordland Wapiti Foundation

The Fiordland Wapiti Foundation (FWF) Roadshow in Queenstown at the start of August was a great success with 115 attendees & over $16,000 raised. Congratulations to the Southland Branch in raising over $21,000 at their Wapiti Roadshow at the end of July.

I attended the FWF AGM the next day & was interested to hear how the Herd of Special Interest objective was progressing as well as how their normal annual operations had gone, including increased demand for selling wapiti meat to WithWild for on supply to the menu on AirNZ international flights and with the BurgerFuel burger promotion. A meeting with Forest & Bird was due to occur following the pause in court proceedings.

The Upper Clutha Branch is hosting a Wapiti Roadshow in Wanaka on Wednesday 25th September.

HUNTS and Upper Clutha

HUNTS courses are progressing around the southern region with South Canterbury recently holding theirs, Southern Lakes is ½ way through & Upper Clutha’s is starting mid-September.

The Upper Clutha Branch was privileged to have Chris McCarthy, Owner of Lake Hawea Hunting Safaris & President of the NZ Professional Hunting Guides Association speak to our August General Meeting.

Chris also donated a copy of his new book “Otago Red Stags - Yesterday’s Trophies Today “ to the Branch to raffle & this achieved a good premium over the retail price through some vigorous bidding ! Thank you Chris. Details of the book are on his website.