Your host’s Bob and Mary Redpath will make every endeavour to ensure your time spent on our farm is a memorable & enjoyable experience. Wairata Station is a vast peaceful mountainous wilderness within reach of New Zealand’s main centre, Auckland. Wairata Station is a large hill country farm ranging from lush river flats up to towering open peaks. The station runs over 400 head of Angus cattle and 1500 Perendale sheep.
As Wairata Station borders National Parks we get a lot of wild game venturing out on to our property. The hunting of Red Deer and Wild Pigs provides hours of enjoyment.
Red deer (Cervus elaphus scoticus) are vastly populated and live throughout New Zealand. They originated from some of the prestigious game parks in the United Kingdom. Until 2003, wild deer were commercially harvested by helicopters and the venison marketed overseas. And before that, up until the 1970s they were hunted by professional government cullers employed to control deer numbers. Since the helicopters have stopped the deer numbers on and around our farm have increased dramatically. Hunting is no longer just a sport but a way of keeping down the constantly increasing population. The prime hunting times are spring (October - December), when the yearlings are being weaned off their mothers and autumn (late March - April), when the valley echoes with the roar of the stags.
Pig hunting in New Zealand had its origins when European sailors released pigs. Captain Cook’s liberations of pigs (Susa scrofa) in the 1770s, while not the earliest, were probably the first successful releases. Wild black pigs, supposedly similar to the original type have become known as Captain Cookers. Today wild pigs come in a variety of colours as a result of interbreeding with domestic breeds over the last couple of hundred years. Pigs are a major problem on the farm as they dig or ‘root’ up the ground with their snouts in the search for bugs and insects to eat. They are also a problem at lambing time where they will kill and eat the lambs. Pigs are most commonly hunted with a pack of dogs.
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$350.00 - Half day
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$200.00 - Take the animal/meat away
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$60.00 - Motorbike Fee
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Wairata Station
Wairata, Opotiki, New Zealand
Phone and Fax: +64 (0)7 315 7761
Email: mary@wairatastation.com