Whitetail Deer Hunting in New Zealand
Whitetail deer are only in the South Island of New Zealand, which has the only herds of white-tail deer in the southern hemisphere. The history of New Zealand Whitetail started in 1901 when a group of deer were released in the Takaka Valley Nelson. For reasons not documented or known this liberation failed, like the Mule deer and Black tail deer that were also released around the same time. But all was not lost when in 1904 the World’s Fair was held to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase, this amazing show in St. Louis, Missouri, was a sight to behold. Covering more than 1,200 acres and playing host to nearly 20 million visitors over a seven-month span, it was up to that point the most spectacular such event in history, and it remains the largest world’s fair ever held today. Nearly all of the then-45 states had lavish displays of their resources, as did around 60 other countries from all over the globe.
What makes the 1904 World’s Fair relevant to New Zealand is that of the many exhibits on display there, one included a herd of whitetails. Reportedly they had been trapped in deep snow in New Hampshire and then taken to St. Louis, though precisely when, how and by whom they were captured and transported no one today seems certain. What we do know is that at the time there were probably only around a half-million whitetails on earth, a crowd likely had never seen one. Apparently President Theodore Roosevelt decided to give these whitetails to New Zealand. And so, at some time in late 1904 or early 1905, a ship carrying them headed down the Mississippi River from St. Louis, bound for New Zealand. Remarkably, of the 22 deer that went onto the ship, 18 of them — four bucks and 14 does — made it across the Pacific alive which was a 12,000 mile journey by boat. On Saturday March 26 nine of the Virginian deer were sent to Pegasus Sound, Stewart Island, and the remaining nine were forwarded to Rees Valley, Lake Wakatipu in the lower part of the South Island. Whitetail deer in New Zealand have 2 main well established herds, and are doing well although the mainly land herds are bigger in body and antler than those on Stewart Island both herds are smaller in trophy potential than those in North America due to the lack of genetic diversity. Today thanks to a private land owners passion for these deer New Zealand Safaris has exclusive access to hunting Whitetail deer on this privately owned hunting property. This herd of New Zealand Whitetail come from both the Stewart Island herd, and Wakatipu herd which has given them a very unique trophy potential. With huge bodies and heavy mass of main beams the bucks have never been harvested until this year when an Australian hunter who regularly comes over took an amazingly old 11 yr old Buck coming in at approx 130 inches of antler. With further development of the property and managing trophy potential of the Bucks this herd is on target to set new records of trophy Whitetail deer in New Zealand.
