I tried a search so as not to waste anyone's time but could not find the information I wanted.

My wife and I are Canadian citizens. We'd like to visit New Zealand, hunt big game for a week or ten days with an outfitter, then rent a house or condo and a car and spend six weeks or so sightseeing and touring.

I'd also like to be able to hunt on my own occasionally, mainly for small game and game birds but possibly big game as well.

What we'd like to know, is this a feasible plan at all? Would we be allowed to keep our hunting guns at a rented accommodation and hunt on our own on public land? We'd like to bring three firearms between us, a centerfire rifle, a rimfire rifle and a double shotgun.

Would a time frame somewhere between January - April work? It gets us away from the worst of the Canadian winter!

Thanks for any thoughts or assistance, it would be much appreciated.

If you can, put your trip back a month so that you have april May here. that gives you the best period for big game, and also allows you to shoot gamebirds legally.

Best idea is to have the contact details of a kiwi with a firearms licence who is prepared to store your firearms when you cant look after them, and I'm sure we can help you there.

Good information and advice, shankspony, thank you!

Try this website to rent house/condo www.bookabach.co.nz

Just heads up you can't use rimfire rifles on crown/public land in New Zealand.

What game birds do you want to hunt? Turkeys and Geese have no seasons,May-June is a better time of year as everything is open.

TOP PREDATOR, thanks for the link, and for the information on rimfires and crown land. Maybe it would be better to leave the .22 Magnum at home and bring a .22 Hornet.

My first objective while hunting with an outfitter would be for red stag and some of the other big game species.

The rest of the time, six weeks or two months, would be spent sightseeing. I know from photos taken by friends who have been there (and from the LOTR movies!) that New Zealand has stunningly beautiful scenery and much to see.

At the same time I can get enough of sightseeing at times, and would love to be able to hunt something at least one or two days a week. I'm assuming it is possible to buy ammunition locally.

Turkeys and geese would be fine, and I've read there is good small game hunting, e.g. rabbits. Don't know if a non-resident is allowed to hunt big game without a guide, or if it is practical, but I'd do so if I could.

Thanks again, this is just the sort of information we needed.

No need for an Outfitter to hunt any animal in New Zealand,i can help with game birds and some big game hunting.Ill be in Canada in a few weeks what state are you based?

We have a farm in Saskatchewan, we also have legal immigrant ("green card") status in the U.S. and have a condo in North Dakota. We split our time about evenly between the two.

I'd be delighted to meet you. If you like you could PM me your itinerary in Canada and we'l see if we can get together, or if I could be of assistance to you.

I'm not a Kiwi, Dave, but once did something similar, touring for three weeks in a campervan before sending the wife home and spending the next four weeks hunting.

You could spend a lifetime seeing NZ, I'm sure, but I'd tell your dear one that more time is needed for hunting

Never thought of a camper van, good idea! We'll look into the costs. And yes, the hunting time may need to be extended.

We've never been to Australia either but it is definitely on our to-do list. Thanks for the suggestions.

Campervan is a good choice if you don't mind these type of vehicles and it also removes the need to find accommodation / booking ahead etc which means you can do things at your leasure, not to some timetable.

We did both Islands of NZ in the early 1980's
in a Campervan and it was awesome and that was before the really comfy campervan's came out. I think ours was one of those VW Combi type - still great for 2 adults and 2 kids who were used to roughing it but that was then, vans are a lot more comfortable now !!!
.

We did NZ in 2006 with three small kids in a small van/bus and stayed in 2 bedroom Motels. Friends took a campervan with 5 kids and the costs were about the same. It can cost $90 a night to hook up a campervan and parking a larger one is a nightmare. The vast majority of motels in NZ include a kitchenette as standard which makes self catering a breeze.

Visitors must have a secure place to store firearms when not hunting in NZ or you could face prosection.

Try house sitting as an option to renting a house. You will get plenty of offers to go hunting if you mix with the locals in the country pubs.

NZ. Its almost heaven on earth.

505G and Code4, thank you for the information. All these options are giving us lots to think about!

A cousin of mine who is 73 (10 years older than me) has traveled a lot, e.g. Europe, China etc. He and his wife spent a month in New Zealand. He said if he was a younger man he'd go to New Zealand and beg to stay forever.

If you pick the right van (in built cooker etc) and the right equipment (lights etc that draw very little power), then you should be able to avoid having to get a powered sight every night,
especially if you are prepared to eat out in restaurants as well.

Anyway, sounds like you have a good trip planned.

.

The volcano just erupted in NZ as reported in todays news...still want to go ha ha!

"The volcano just erupted in NZ as reported in todays news...still want to go ha ha"

Volcanoes, never thought of that before! Not a lot of volcanoes in Saskatchewan, or mountains either.

Reminds me of the survivalist guy in the movie "Tremors" when he says something like, "You think you're prepared for anything, and what happens? Gol dang underground monsters."

Hope no one is injured by the volcano, and hope it settles down soon.

You're obviously not very adventurous if a little volcano would scare you away

A campervan would be a good idea , as long as remember that they are slower than other road users , and that distances cant be covered here in the same time that you can at home due to the terrain and the closeness of our towns to each other.

Nah, a little volcano doesn't bother me. A big volcano, on the other hand...

I know how to handle the kind of dangers I'm familiar with, such as blizzards and forty below temperatures, but it's easy to get in trouble in strange country.

Once on a bird hunt in south Texas I was pawing around in a thorn bush, trying to recover a quail I'd shot. The Texan who was hunting with me said, "What the hell do you think you're doing? Don't you know on a hot day like this the rattlesnakes are out?"

Naturally I thought about rattlesnakes for the next few seconds while treading air (as Pat McManus would say).

I was glad for the information on roads and travel time. Here with four-lane highways and interstates we can cover a lot of ground fairly quickly.

In Utah, for example, speed limits on the interstate south of Salt Lake City are 80 or 85 mph, or about 130-135 km/hr, and you can maintain such speeds for hours at a time.

A drive of say 350 km we tend to think of as about a three-hour drive, including time for pit stops. I take it one would allow more time for the same distance in New Zealand. But if you're on holidays and sightseeing, there's not much point in being in a rush.

Speaking of the volcano, is it true there are no poisonous snakes in New Zealand? I read that somewhere, also that in Australia you can't toss away a cigar butt without it hitting a deadly snake.

quote:

Originally posted by Dave Anderson:

Speaking of the volcano, is it true there are no poisonous snakes in New Zealand? I read that somewhere, also that in Australia you can't toss away a cigar butt without it hitting a deadly snake.

Thank god there are no snakes of any kind in NZ, in fact there is nothing here that you could call poisonous. We have a spider related to the Aussie red back but it is not really poisonous, only an irritant bite and you probably would never come across one in a lifetime.

NZ is not called godzone country for nothing, plenty of game, mostly all free to hunt at any time of year with no limit on numbers (except gamebirds subject to season and national licence)and no nasty things to bite or irritate. We don't have ticks, leeches, etc.

Probably the most deadly thing we have is our high UV content sunlight. Very clear atmosphere and one can get badly sunburned very quickly when not covered up or protected in the outdoors even during winter months. Unfortunately we do have a relatively high incidence of skin cancers and melanoma.

quote:

Originally posted by eagle27:



Probably the most deadly thing we have is our high UV content sunlight.

Don`t forget the MM boys

Dave its true about the snakes when you live in country as I do with four 'good ones' that live here as we are in a mix of hills and creek flats.Another reason I suggested to you that April can be marginal depending on that years changing weather patterns.

Shankspony is still getting over his encounter.

quote:

Originally posted by gryphon1:

quote:

Originally posted by eagle27:



Probably the most deadly thing we have is our high UV content sunlight.

Don`t forget the MM boys

Dave its true about the snakes when you live in country as I do with four 'good ones' that live here as we are in a mix of hills and creek flats.Another reason I suggested to you that April can be marginal depending on that years changing weather patterns.

Shankspony is still getting over his encounter.

Tell you what, I am still getting over the knee high grass around your letterbox, a pair of short boots, a spade that wasn't long enough, and a potentially pissed off brown snake. Creepiest feeling I've had in a while.

The odd weta seemed to stir some folk up a bit. I once stirred up assembly something by letting one go. Copped six from old "Toothpaste" for that stunt.

Thanks everyone again for all the very interesting information. I'm really enjoying all the comments, and learning from them.

No ticks! That is nice to learn. I really hate ticks. Here we finally get through the long winter, spring arrives, and immediately the ticks are out. After every trip to the range, or shooting prairie dogs, you have to do a careful "tick search".

They are mostly just annoying but I did have a friend, Jim Cirillo, who was very sick with Lyme disease from a tick bite, back in the early '90s. It took about two years before he was 100% again.

I have two cousins who were raised in New Zealand (they now live in Canada) and they always spoke of NZ as "heaven on earth". My aunt married a NZ soldier she met during WW II, she was in the Canadian navy.

I read an article somewhere (maybe by John Keegan) in which he said the NZ soldiers were considered by many, including the Germans, as the best soldiers in the whole conflict.

shankspony, that must have been quite an experience with the snake. Any poisonous snake is nothing to mess with but from what I read the brown is right near the top of the list.

I had to do a search for "weta". They look like the crickets we have here, but on steroids.

Thanks again all.

Dave a couple that I have taken around home here and yes the Eastern brown is right up there,they are bad bastards alright and can be very fast and aggressive.
Check the eyes on this close one,and a tiger as well,both pics taken at home here.

Tiger first.




Brown

And a Black,complete with fly and then a Tiger nestled up tight.

gryphon1, those are terrific photos. Those are snakes to treat with respect. I notice the photos are nice and sharp so your hands must have been steady!

I've been lucky not to have any snake encounters, though once while hunting not far north of the Rio Grande, a hunting partner had to act fast to grab the dog before it went after a rattler.

The snake went into a burrow and we never saw him though we could hear him rattling. We killed a smallish one (3 feet or so) later on, I have the rattles somewhere.

On our farm in Saskatchewan we sometimes see garter snakes, they are a non-poisonous species which mostly eat insects, generally around two feet long (the snakes, not the insects).