Well the temporary concessions are out for the comming season untill 30th September.
The exclusions state, - EXCLUDING THE FOLLOWING ACTIVITIES
1. Live capture of wild animals.
2. The shooting from the helicopter by any person during the Concession Activity (except
that the guide only may use the helicopter to shoot from the air to humanely kill any
animal that has been wounded and would other wise be lost)
3. The use of the helicopter to herd, haze or drive animals
4. The killing of any deer species during the period 23 March - 09 April 2010 inclusive

Also no helihunting is too be carried out in National parks or wilderness areas, which are the majority of the Tahr's range.

If you plan on using a helicopter for a Tahr or Chamois hunt, or both. Ask your guide very carefully where you are being taken, and specify that you must stay within these rules.
Its a very hot issue at the moment, and examples are going to be looked for for testing in court I would wager.

Folks I've had a request from Shankspony to make this a temporary sticky and I think its a good idea. This information is handy for those contemplating a hunting trip to NZ. If anyone seeks clarification of the above feel free to ask on this forum. I'm sure Shankspony and the other Kiwi's will be only to happy to pass on any relevent information.

quote:

2. (except
that the guide only may use the helicopter to shoot from the air to humanely kill any
animal that has been wounded and would other wise be lost)

HMMM thats open to a "flaunting of the rules"

Not good in my book!

Cheers Bakes, Yep any questions, just send them mine or Weathereds way, and we will be glad to help.
Gryphon, I imagine the odd guide will try, but its the least important part. It's the herding and hazeing peice that is important.

This is a copy of the temporary permit that helihunts will operate till October 1st

Note Conditions and ask your outfitter if he is going to adhere to them.

Temporary Helihunt Concession

Applications Summary

Permit Offer Letter

It is unlikely there will be any helihunts in New Zealand after October 2010

Today the permits are current but be warned, some operators are in dispute with the Govt.

About half of the operators want herding and hazing included in their activity they also want access to the National Parks included in their concessions.

The current concessions do not allow access to the national parks or herding and hazing the animals.

Don't be involved in a legal test case, do not allow your guide to herd and haze, do not let your guide take you into a National Park.

Todays Newspaper in Christchurch
Christchurch Press Newspaper


.

As of 3rd march 2010

The helihunt operators are still in dispute with the govt over the terms of their concessions and there have been no helihunt concessions signed and taken up.

I guess staying out of the national parks and hazing the animals is what the dispute is over

The New Zealand Department of conservation has informed us that one possibly several more operators have signed their concessions and are helihunting.

As of this morning, the following have been issued Temporary Helihunting Permits:

* Backcountry Helicopters (Backcountry Safaris NZ)
* Central South Island Helicopters
* Station Air Ltd

Permits were signed unaltered - conditions on the Permit stand as written.

DOC understand more signed permits are in the mail. 10 of the applicants have now had the short term permit offered to them, having met all the insurance/ CAA requirements etc.

The conditions on the Permits are strict
No herding, chasing or holding animals
No helihunting in national parks

Do not allow your guide to engage in these activities if another hunter or DoC catch you breaking the law it is your name on that flight roster.

quote:

The conditions on the Permits are strict
No herding, chasing or holding animals
No helihunting in national parks

Excellent start eh!

The latest update list of temporary helihunt operators

Alpine Helicopters

Mount Hutt

Station Air

Amuri

Backcountry

Alpine Hunting adventures

Central SI



Heli hunting is not authorised in Westland National Park.

Heli hunting is not authorised in Aoraki Mount Cook National Park.

There has been a legal challenge to the temporary concessions by the helihunting operators. Pursuing, herding, hazing and holdng animals with a helicopter till clients can shoot them is now legal till the 1st October 2010.

Anyone that takes an alpine trophy in New Zealand in 2010 regardless of fair chase or not or will have the integrity of their trophy challenged by this change in the concession conditions.

In other words New Zealand ground hunters are not impressed with this loss of concession integrity and neither should you the hunting tourists coming to New Zeaalnd be happy either.
Best avoid NZ helicopter alpine hunting till we get this sorted out, unless you are happy to hunt or be associated with hunting like this Helihunting NZ style

quote:

Originally posted by Weathered:
There has been a legal challenge to the temporary concessions by the helihunting operators. Pursuing, herding, hazing and holdng animals with a helicopter till clients can shoot them is now legal till the 1st October 2010.

Anyone that takes an alpine trophy in New Zealand in 2010 regardless of fair chase or not or will have the integrity of their trophy challenged by this change in the concession conditions.

In other words New Zealand ground hunters are not impressed with this loss of concession integrity and neither should you the hunting tourists coming to New Zeaalnd be happy either.
Best avoid NZ as a hunting destination till we get this sorted out unless you are happy to hunt like this Helihunting NZ style

Thats pure shite Weathered,I`m not impressed with such bullshit by these chopper people...or the people as well that use their services to take game animals in such an unfair manner....fugg em all!

Back in court again this week, the helicopter operators lawyers contested the concession conditions excluding herding, hazing and chasing, apparently crown law has upheld their challenge.
What a mess.

as a Canadian that is just starting to research an Tahr/chamois hunt (unguided/no outfitter), does this mean that using a helicopter to get a lift up to the huts will be prohibited too?

No, helicopter use to access huts is not under threat, never has been despite what helihunters claim

If you ask me, helicopters should be banned even for access. The mountains in NZ are no more difficult than many other areas of the world where you can't use them.

If you are too old or too fat to hunt without a helicopter, then you are too old and fat to mountain hunt.

quote:

Originally posted by AnotherAZWriter:
If you ask me, helicopters should be banned even for access. The mountains in NZ are no more difficult than many other areas of the world where you can't use them.

If you are too old or too fat to hunt without a helicopter, then you are too old and fat to mountain hunt.

So because you cant use a helo for transport in one part of the world means that you shouldnt be able to in other parts??? Sorry .... I fail to see why the hell you would want to impose such a ludicrous provision on a free country such as New Zealand????????

Talk about disrespectful to others as well - What about the disabled?? To fucked to hunt so fuck them eh???

Temporary helihunt concession were signed off by the Minister of Conservation for 2010.
Another year of temporary concessions have been allowed by the Minister of Conservation for 2011.

Full govt approval has been delayed because the concessions are not acceptable by the Conservation Authority the regional Conservation Boards or all New Zealand hunting organisations.

These temporary concessions now legally allow herding of animals by helicopter, chasing animals to exhaustion and shooting animals from the helicopter.
Check carefully and avoid hunting alpine animals in New Zealand unless guides assure you they do not helihunt. New Zealand hunters are still working to shut down this travesty.
SCI New Zealand chapter have come out in opposition to guide concessions using these helihunt techniques.
NZDA are opposed to this technique.
The New Zealand Conservation Authority are opposed to this technique.

Gary Herbert of Ahuriri Lodge has been photographed and spidertracked by the Department of Conservation helihunting. Avoid using his services unless you want to be known as supporting helihunting.
Helihunting is legal but do you really want to support and be part of this type of guiding industry?
There are three other SCI affiliated NZ guides who also secure trophies for their clients in this manner their names will go up as facts are confirmed.
Would I name names without legal basis ? Herbert has his lawyer on speed dial and I am not worried by that.

quote:

Gary Herbert of Ahuriri Lodge has been photographed and spidertracked by the Department of Conservation helihunting. Avoid using his services unless you want to be known as supporting helihunting.
Helihunting is legal but do you really want to support and be part of this type of guiding industry?
There are three other SCI affiliated NZ guides who also secure trophies for their clients in this manner their names will go up as facts are confirmed.
Would I name names without legal basis ? Herbert has his lawyer on speed dial and I am not worried by that.

quote:

Originally posted by Matt Graham:

quote:

Originally posted by AnotherAZWriter:
If you ask me, helicopters should be banned even for access. The mountains in NZ are no more difficult than many other areas of the world where you can't use them.

If you are too old or too fat to hunt without a helicopter, then you are too old and fat to mountain hunt.

So because you cant use a helo for transport in one part of the world means that you shouldnt be able to in other parts??? Sorry .... I fail to see why the hell you would want to impose such a ludicrous provision on a free country such as New Zealand????????

Talk about disrespectful to others as well - What about the disabled?? To fucked to hunt so fuck them eh???

No-one in New Zealand says you can't helihunt on private land.
NZers are not talking about stopping using a helicopter for transport either.
How about shooting the big five from a helicopter too, its safer quicker and allows the disabled to hunt? are you in favour of helicopter hunting in other countries too then maybe the USA

To all the guides and pilots and fat fucks that partake in this sick style of killing a game animal. I hope all your choppers fall out of the sky and kill the lot of you. To all you people reading this thinking you might like to try it....keep you fat lazy arse out of my country!!!

We were in New Zealand for a week of Tahr and Chamois hunting 3 years ago. We had planned to stay in the mountains in a hut and spend the whole 7 days hunting but this bad front moved in and the weather was terrible. So much rain we couldn't access the area we were going to hunt. Finally there was an 8 hour window in the storm and we had the Heli fly us into the area and we hunted about 4 hours each in a diffrent valley. We were both successful oin good Tahr but no time for the Chamois. I am sorry that we didn't get to spend the week in the mountains in the hut but the Heli was the only way we could have accessed the mountains in the limited time we had. We called the Heli back and were back down before the next storm came through. I don't feel it was any less of a hunt because we flew into the area instead of driving.

Hawkeye47

Hawkeye there is no issue with how you hunted,the problem is people shooting animals from the Helicopter.

Top Predator,

My friend showed us a video of the Tahr being shot with buckshot from the Heli's by the culling people. It almost made me sick to see what they were doing to those beautiful animals.
I can't see why this needs to be and why so many people say kill them all. Especially when they don't even range where this endangered flower grows.

Hawkeye47

Hi there Hawkeye. I don't have a problem with how you hunted and I would have done the same. It's the fat rich pricks that shoot from a chopper, they chase the animal till its exhausted or cornered. Sometimes they shoot it with a shotgun to slow it down and then they land so the fat rich prick can step out and finish it off and be the mighty hunter. Like I said....I hope their choppers fall out of the sky!

I forgot to mention...since the election helihunting has been banned.

quote:

Originally posted by Taupo Hunter:
Hellihunters are the lowest form of crawling scum

Right up there with rapists and child molesters??

I know this is an older thread. I thought I'd try to wade into this one and see if I can avoid stepping in it.

First off, I agree that shooting from the heli and using the heli to haze or herd animals is crap. I despise the person that does that.

But how about using the heli to fly out to extreme remote areas, spot a tahr, jump out and make a stalk? then use the heli to retrieve and fly out?

A agree that the purist in me wants to do it 100% on foot. But I don't see how this latter scenario differs from some of the hunts in Africa where you drive around in the truck to get to a likely area or looking for spoor and then jump out and make a stalk. Using the truck to haul the game back to camp.

I know it's shades of gray. The most ideal would be having the heli drop you and gear off in a remote area for a few days and then return later to pick you and your quarry up.

This being the Internet, you will get answers that span the whole spectrum - from the purist who wants to do it the hard way of climbing with a back pack, to those who prefer to take a helicopter ride as you have suggested.

Frankly, it is no one's business what one wishes to do, as long as it legal in that location.

Each of us have their own limit to so called "ethics".

I have had personal experience with an individual who sounded like the ultimate "ethical" hunter.

In the field, however, he was anything but.

gsganzer, the suggestion rhat you have made sounds very reasonable and workable UNTIL you have seen the country.
Getting set down for a stalk has two big problems: 1/ Actually finding somewhere to start a stalk from that the hunter can be set down on with even a moderate amount of safety. 2/ As the hunter would ideally need to be set down out of sight of the thar, he is going to be a long way away with a stalk being extremely difficult, still requiring a high level of fitness, and no guarantees that the targeted animal wont move in the meantime.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
This being the Internet, you will get answers that span the whole spectrum - from the purist who wants to do it the hard way of climbing with a back pack, to those who prefer to take a helicopter ride as you have suggested.

Frankly, it is no one's business what one wishes to do, as long as it legal in that location.

Each of us have their own limit to so called "ethics".

I have had personal experience with an individual who sounded like the ultimate "ethical" hunter.

In the field, however, he was anything but.

Strange you use the example of a non-ethical hunter who concealed his lack of ethics to condemn ethics in general. Do you suggest this ethical failure as an example of why we should revert to accepting legal status as the basis for all hunting behaviour?

New Zealand has many hunting practises/issues which are legal in NZ but but are unacceptable and illegal if practised overseas. Where the law falls short should hunters not consider legal as the minimum standard but strive for higher values?

Getting a ride into hunting territory is not under threat from opposition to helihunting/AATH, never was never will be, Don't try to cloud this uniquely NEW ZEALAND issue Saeed.


Legal and ethical can and do exist separately from each other. What you are made to do by law and what you do of your own free will have always defined character.

Legal is not even clearly defined in the matter of helihunting or as it is now rebranded AATH. Its certainly not ethical, even SCI banned herding trophy animals with a helicopter in May 2009 Reno.

AATH concessions exist simply on ministerial discretion. The concession activity is still struggling to be installed in the Conservation Management Strategies their release has been delayed over 2 months now. Should AATH be included in the CMS's the CMS's will be legally challenged immediately on release.

The newly formed Game Animal Council is required to produce a recommended code of conduct for AATH by 15 December 2014. The GAC can make recommendation only but should the CMS's be challenged by the Ombudsman's office then the GAC will likely defer to the current CMS's which do not allow AATH in any form. Its unknown whether the GAC will even recommend allowing AATH to continue in its current herd/haze and shoot form.

Sure AATH currently exist's legally under ministerial signature that can change.

Its a significant point, here we are 7 years down the track since AATH/helihunts were challenged and AATH/helihunts are still a legal and ethical phariah. The guides who conduct this activity are sustained only by people, they are certainly not hunters; who consider the minimum societal standard of legal as their benchmark for hunting ethics.

One govt minister who has never hunted and a dozen odd guides who don't know how to ground hunt their clients successfully are not my ethical compass. And they certainly don't define NZ hunters behaviour simply because "its legal"

We hunters can do better. Luckily better men are more common than previously thought

It is absolutely NZ's business as to what happens whether legal or not on public land in our country.

It is our public land and activities on it reflect our national values and aspirations.

I admire the US wildlife codes and look forward to similar values in place on New Zealand public land.

There is no place for herding trophy game animals on US public land, why is that ?

The majority of NZ'ers and NZ hunters do not want or need AATH on public land, this has been established overwhelmingly and repeatedly, time will tell.