The New Zealand Deerstalkers Association, Game Animal Council and New Zealand Professional Hunting Guides Association are pleased that the rules around COVID-19 Alert Level 2 will allow hunters to access public conservation land and travel to their favourite hunting spots.

“The fact that public conservation land is open again is great news for the tens of thousands of Kiwi hunters that rely on public land to go hunting,” says New Zealand Deerstalkers Association President Trevor Chappell. “Most Kiwi hunters don’t have access to hunting on private land so have had to bide their time during the peak of the hunting year.”

“The hunting sector is also pleased that inter-regional domestic travel is to be allowed,” says Game Animal Council General Manager Tim Gale. “For the many hunters that live in our major centres, this means they can travel to their favourite locations and target tahr, red stags, sika and the other species that provide such fantastic late-autumn and winter hunting.”

“The return of domestic travel and the opening of conservation land is really important to hunting guides, game estates and others within the commercial hunting sector,” says NZ Professional Hunting Guides Association President James Cagney. “Of course, the domestic market can never replace our international clientele but the lifting of restrictions does give the opportunity for some Kiwi hunting businesses to get back up and running.”

“From what we understand the Department of Conservation are planning to reinstate the online hunting permit system before level 2 and we are still working with them on a fair resolution to the issue of ballots,” say Chappell and Gale. “We also expect to receive guidance on the status of facilities such as backcountry huts.”

New Zealand is still at COVID-19 Alert Level 3 and the Government has not yet announced when Level 2 will begin. For information on current restrictions and guidance go to https://covid19.govt.nz.

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