Nearly a third of New Zealand is in natural reserve and almost all of it looks like it could be. Parts of the country resemble Alaskan landscapes with glacial bays framed by snow covered peaks. Other areas make you think you’re standing somewhere in Patagonia or perhaps in the Swiss Alps. All around you is a natural cathedral that, no matter what man builds, cannot match this.
For hunters, New Zealand is a long climb up a beanstalk to uncover a world roamed by giants. Hunters are often dreamers longing for the planet’s best game, places where the clock turns back to a time of abundant riches—the kind our grandfathers spoke about and we listened to in disbelief. Thanks to introductions of red and fallow deer, elk, tahr, chamois and other species a century ago, New Zealand has become a big game hunter’s utopia of sorts. Many parts of the world now have these species, but it is in New Zealand where the genetic potential of the species has been optimized—that is, it’s where many hunters go to find beasts of legend.
The author used the Winchester XPR in left hand to take an impressive New Zealand stag.
Winchester’s Copper Impact bullets have proven good medicine from Rocky Mountain elk camps to the New Zealand highlands.
A visiting Florida hunter took this eye-popper with a Winchester 300 Win. Mag., a popular chambering for stags and other of New Zealand’s deer species. Being in the Southern Hemisphere, the stag roar occurs in March—conveniently not competing with North American hunting seasons.
Save for a bat, there are no other indigenous mammals in New Zealand. The rich volcanic soils, lush pastures and temperate climate made the country an ideal place to introduce a variety of European ungulates—such as this fallow buck.
A drone captured this pair of beauties standing in a hillside thicket. The nation’s rich vegetation and lack of winterkill creates the ideal landscape in which to grow the world’s largest ungulates.
Editor’s Note:
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