Just bought an auction hunt with Rivers South Safaris in New Zealand at our local Friends of the NRA dinner. Anyone have experience with them?
http://riverssouthsafaris.co.nz/

They are based in nice part of the country, good on them for supporting NRA.

You will have a great time in that part of the country. I was just down that way hunting for tahr and red deer last weekend up the Havelock River, just north but same ranges as the area you would be in.

A lot of the scenes in Lord of the Rings movies were shot in this area. We passed Mt Sunday on the way into our hunting area which had the castle and village (Edora) built on it for the movies. It had to be completely returned it to its original state after the filming but still a very popular tourist attraction in a magic part of our country.
If the weather is fine it is worth a drive up to the Ashburton Lakes, Mt Potts/Erewhon Station area to savour the scenery, about an hour from Methven and easily accessible by car.

A few shots taken last weekend

Looking to the Havelock River from the mighty Erewhon Station, Mt Sunday (Edora) was just out of left frame down on the flat area. Our hunt area, Growler Creek can be seen in the distance just above the nose of the low peninsula protruding from the right in the photo.


Growler Hut where we spent a night - tough 4WD mostly in virgin riverbed to get there but where track remains after last flooding still pretty rough.


Growler Creek - 10 or so tahr seen including a big bull but high up and too late in the evening to get to - nothing seen next morning.


Further up the Havelock from the Growler Hut

Thanks! Looks like great country. Just gave them the dates of April 22-27, 2018. We always plan some sightseeing before the hunt to get over jet lag and let any lost luggage catch up and we have a friend living in Australia so we will go there for a week or so afterwards.
Should be a great time.