Travel Plans: Any one here been to New Zealand?

[Coues 'n' Sheep]

Questions:

 

What was your path of travel?

 

What things did you do right and what things would you do different?

 

Did you did you do other things besides Hunt? What things were Awesome? What things were not?

 

Who did you hunt with?

 

What did you take along? How did you pack?

 

What time of year did you go?

 

 

 

 

Thank you in advance for any input!

 

 

[Couestracker]

My wife Julie and I and another couple went this past February. It wasn't a hunting trip (big on my mind though). We rented a "camper van" (RV) and drove up from the South Island and took a ferry to the North Island and drove up it. Stayed in "holiday parks" (rv campgrounds) the whole way and did a lot of fun stuff along the way.

I suspect you want only info about hunting, but if you want details about our adventure, feel free to pm me and I'll share it with you. But I still want to hunt a stag!!

Tommy

[lancetkenyon]

Legendary fishing in New Zealand too. Take a pole or 3.

[duckhunter175]

Coues N Sheep-

 

I went almost 10 years ago. My best friend and I saved up through high school and went one summer in college. It was more sightseeing than anything and we spent a majority of time in Australia and then 10 days in NZ.

 

Time of year: Jun/Jul

 

Rights: We planned with travel books, AAA, etc but booked our own airfare at rock bottom prices as they fluctuated. We flew from NC through LAX to Australia and flew to Ayers Rock, Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns and then to South Island NZ. Booking it all ourselves saved a ton. Same with lodging. We stayed in hostels or cheaper hotels but we booked ourselves on our own itinerary. This included rental vehicles. We made those reservations in advance, had our international drivers licenses already and were good to go. I recommend getting the extra insurance. It helped us immensely. We totaled our Ford Escape on an icy patch in South NZ and got a new vehicle brought to us... paid NOTHING (other than a $50 failure to yield ticket).

 

Adventures: If you go to NZ you are close to Australia so I would go there as well. Ayers Rock was amazing, we went to Melbourne and drove the Great Ocean Road, Philips Island is amazing and we watch the penguins land on shore and nest at night. Scuba dove the great barrier reef out of Port Douglas. For NZ-- We started in Christchurch, drove west then south, hiked several of the glaciers (Fox, Franz Josef, etc) and then got to Queenstown. We took a boat tour through Fjorland.

 

Outdoors: I went on a chartered fishing boat out of Port Douglas, Australia and had a blast in the saltwater.

 

For hunting: I hunted with Doctari Safaris in Central Otago (2hr from Queenstown). I only had the time and money to hunt for one day. There was some snow on the ground, it was a little chilly. We hunted turkeys, pigs and ducks/swans. In one day I killed a record book Merriams turkey, we chanced on some wild boars and shot them. And for the evening it was the duck season so we set up on a pond and killed Paradise Ducks (BEAUTIFUL, MUST HUNT) and a number of other ducks, geese, etc. Had a blast, very reasonable and definitely money well spent for one day.

 

Packing: I had all civilian clothes (no camo) but it was adequate for the temps. It was just starting to get cooled off, they hadn't opened the ski resorts yet but I would be ready for temps from 70 to 30 or lower.

 

Wrongs: I wish I had planned more time for NZ but I'm glad I got to both countries. We also didn't budget as much for food as we should have. Things are slightly more expensive than the US. Gas especially.

 

Great trip and I plan to get back in the future!!!!

[yotebuster]

I'm subscribing to this thread as I wanna learn everything I can. I'm going for stag, chamois, tahr and paradise ducks in May 2017.

[lucky2hunt]

My husband and I went in April '12. I hunted a week on the South Island then we rented a campervan and toured the South Island for 2 weeks. Plenty of campgrounds to choose from, we liked the flexibility the camper gave us, we traveled at our own pace, didn't have to worry about hotel reservations. We loved Queenstown, Milford Sound is spectacular, and Mt. Cook is amazing! Two weeks sounds like a long time, we saw a lot but could have spent another week on the S. Island exploring, there is so much to do.

 

Hunting was during the roar so it was really awesome. I hunted red stag, fallow deer, arapawa ram, and feral goat. We did not do any fly fishing, felt like we were way out of our league with that.

 

Camper Van

 

Milford Sound

 

Queenstown

 

Mt Cook & Sir Edmond Hilary (Where he trained and was raised)

[Coues 'n' Sheep]

One more question from the input above...

 

You have to get a special "International" drivers license?

 

Our plan is this.... so far...about a 2 week trip... 2 days travel.... 4 days hunting... 6 days vacation... 3 days home...?? Not enough time I am sure... but probably all I can swing...

 

Still would like to hear more about how you did your travel plans if you have been.

 

Thanks All!!

[lucky2hunt]

 

You have to get a special "International" drivers license?

 

Nope, just bring yours from home...

 

We didn't spend much time in Christchurch, too big for us and they were still getting back on their feet from devastating earthquakes. Along with the places I mentioned, we really enjoyed the Kaikoura area as well. With such little time I suggest picking a place you really want to visit and take off! If it is further south an air charter is an easy way to get around the country. Tripadvisor.com is a great place to help you get some ideas, go to their forums, there a lot of itinerary ideas... That is how I did most of my planning. Good Luck!

 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g255116-i729-South_Island.html

[DesertBull]

There was a post on this forum a while back looking for a guy to round out their group for NZ. They were going totally diy and they claimed the total cost was about $3k per hunter if I remember right.

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

Air fare will be more than 3000,00 I'm sure. My wife went out to visit a few years back and flight was over 4k for 1 person. Maybe she flew first class and tricked me? I have her video and pics and we have good friends there, I will be making the trip next time. Not sure bout hunting but fishing for sure. Have a great trip. Feb is when she went and it was spring time there I believe.

[maximus]

coues'n' sheep,
if you need i can get in you in touch with my cousins boys they hunt every year in new zealand, they live in australia and go every year they got dropped off by helicopter and they hunt from there.

let me know.

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

Looks like a blast. Do it

[DesertBull]

http://www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/43873-last-minute-new-zealand/?hl=zealand

[Coues 'n' Sheep]

Great info Thank You!

 

 

You have to get a special "International" drivers license?

 

Nope, just bring yours from home...

 

We didn't spend much time in Christchurch, too big for us and they were still getting back on their feet from devastating earthquakes. Along with the places I mentioned, we really enjoyed the Kaikoura area as well. With such little time I suggest picking a place you really want to visit and take off! If it is further south an air charter is an easy way to get around the country. Tripadvisor.com is a great place to help you get some ideas, go to their forums, there a lot of itinerary ideas... That is how I did most of my planning. Good Luck!

 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g255116-i729-South_Island.html