I went in middle may last year. just right for tahr, could have gone a month later for more wintry hunt. THe tahr get a nice frosted white mane by later into the winter.. great trophy when contrasted against the jet black snout of a mature male tahr.

do a search here on tahr hunts and you will find several show and tells from this last fall in NZ.

Too late for stag the Roar is over in April. and by May the bulls are laying a bit low to recover for the winter.

Jameister

Late May should be fine. The weather might be bad ... might not. I shot one in the first few days of June. Great coat, bad weather.



Late May is just fine. You get the good coats on the Tahr, and you can still hunt any of the other species.

This post has quite a bit of useful info.



http://www.accuratereloading.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=737563&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&fpart=1&vc=1



Late May is a great time to hunt Tahr.

As is anytime between April and October.

Re: Weather, expect good or bad weather at anytime in New Zealand. However in May there is usually a little less snow on the ground in the Tahr terrain i.e. compared to July-Sept.

It will be cold, and expect storms at any stage. (This is also the case in mid-summer.)

We are able to hunt on most days by changing location according to the weather pattern, however there is always a chance that a major storm will shut down everything, they usually don't last more than 3 days.

High winds are our greatest problem (Sometimes 100 mph+)



All the rut activity of the major deer species in New Zealand, is more or less over by May, however, it is still a good time to secure a trophy as the antlers/capes are still good.

With the game ranch animals, generally all the best stuff has been shot, so trophy offerings can be a bit ordinary. On the plus side, some of the outfitters will do better deals with their leftover animals.



Location for hunts: You'll only find Tahr in the central southern alps of the South Island, but you'll find good Boar and Red Stag hunting throughout New Zealand.

Hawkes Bay, has Reds, Sika and Boar.



Feel free to e-mail me if you need any further advice.