BIG GAME OFFERED FOR SPORT

Press, 7 July 1977, Page 26

BIG GAME OFFERED FOR SPORT

By

BEN HOPE

Whether you shoot the lowly rabbit, hunt the sporting quail or stalk the noble red deer stag, Marlborough can offer the rifle and gun sportsman sport. Shotgunners can find sport in the duck or game bird season. At the mouth of the Wairau River is the Vernon Lago.ons, part of which is sanctuary. It has an amazing variety of wildlife — all the major duck species, black swan — but it has been under a cloud with mooted plans for salt work development there. Conservationists and outdoor sportsmen have reacted sharply and the plans have met major opposition.

Nevertheless, the Lagoons are a major wildfowl habitat area for the South Island. From the Lagoons, ducks radiate their flight patterns up the creeks and streams and there are many spots where the duckshooter can find grand sport during the duck season.

Quail inhabit the river beds and scrub areas and provide fast and exciting shooting. In the tussock hill country there are some coveys of the chukar partridge, although many suspect Pest Destruction Board 1080 poison operations have made inroads into numbers. Rabbits are to be found, as are hares, and both can provide good sport. The big game hunter, as anywhere in New Zealand today, will find commercialism has affected numbers. Helicopter operations have reduced game numbers, but the careful and sporting hunter can find chamois, red deer, wild goats and wild pigs in Marlborough. Chamois probably offer the best chance of a trophy head but, usually, a hunter has t

to climb high to the upper bush line.

Marlborough is not noted for its excellent red deer heads as the Nelson herd strain has never been endowed with strength in the quality of its antlers. However, the Rakaia herd strain has penetrated from the south and occasionally excellent heads have been taken from the Kaikoura Range area. The Nelson Lakes National Park offers good red deer and chamois hunting. A permit is necessary from the Nelson Lakes National Park Board at St Amaud. The country is magnificent with beautiful beech forest rising to the jagged peaks and cirque basins of the true alpine zone. Deer can be found on the lower bush edges, where river flats offer pasture, but probably the better hunting is to be found on the upper bush line. Certainly the chances of a chamois trophy are much greater there." The New Zealand Forest Sendee adminsters much country and visiting hunters can seek advice from the Blenheim office. Permits are obtainable from the Forest Sendee for State Forests.

The Lands Department also administers large areas of Crown Land, but some areas such as Molesworth and Glazebro.ok are unfortunately closed to the sporting public. Wild pigs are probably most plentiful in the bush areas of the Marlborough Sounds. Dogs are usually necessary, although occasionally a careful hunter may encounter pigs rooting on an open face.

It is essential that visiting hunters seek permission of land owners, whether it be private land or Government Department administered territory.