Aiming to please

Mike Birch, from Hunt the Sun in South Africa, carries a red deer trophy he shot at Glen Dene...
Mike Birch, from Hunt the Sun in South Africa, carries a red deer trophy he shot at Glen Dene Station.
Joe and Ronnie Mazukelli from Washington, at Glen Dene Station. Photos by Stephen Jaquiery.
Joe and Ronnie Mazukelli from Washington, at Glen Dene Station. Photos by Stephen Jaquiery.
Trophy stags at Glen Dene Station, Lake Hawea.
Trophy stags at Glen Dene Station, Lake Hawea.

Hunt tourism can make a high country station sustainable, as well as thrill the trophy seekers, writes Sally Rae.

When Joe and Ronnie Mazukelli return home from their New Zealand holiday, they will have more than postcards and passport stamps to remember it by.

Trophies of a red stag and an Arapawa ram will soon adorn their home in Auburn, Washington, a permanent reminder of a ''fantastic'' time spent in the South Island high country.

''We have two trophy rooms: a North American one, a South African one, now we're going to have a New Zealand one. We're going to have to build a new house,'' Mrs Mazukelli says, laughing.

Standing on a hillside on Glen Dene Station, with expansive views of Lake Hawea on a near-perfect autumn day, the city-dwelling couple speak enthusiastically about their New Zealand experience.

Such a trip, incorporating some hunting, is the sort of holiday they prefer.

''When I come to a different country, I don't like to do the tourist stuff. You're in the town, it's all touristy. I'd much rather do this, go and stay on somebody's farm,'' Dr Mazukelli, a veterinarian with his own practice, says.

The couple were drawn to New Zealand because of its beauty, and, when it came to hunting, the prospect of a red stag. They discovered the former without difficulty and Dr Mazukelli bagged the latter.

So will they return? ''Oh yeah, you better believe it. Without a doubt,'' he quickly responds.

''Next time we'll bring the kids. Then I'll try and talk Richard [Burdon] into selling me an acre on the beach there ... then build a house.

''We can winter here, spend three months here, three months in South Africa, six months in the US,'' he says laughing.

Hunting in New Zealand is a big industry, yet its economic contribution goes relatively unremarked.

New Zealand Professional Hunting Guides Association president Gerald Telford, of Wanaka, says 70 operators in New Zealand bring in about $45 million of revenue, and it is now recognised by the tourism industry.

For the Burdon family, of Glen Dene Station, a trophy-hunting business on the property has developed to the point where it plays an important role in its overall operation as a working high country station.

''It's actually made the property sustainable. If we ran a traditional sheep and beef model, it wouldn't be sustainable,'' Richard says.

Glen Dene, a 6000ha property bounded by Lake Hawea on the east and Lake Wanaka on the west, has been farmed by the Burdon family for three generations.

Originally the northern portion of the original Mt Burke Station, Glen Dene is now run by Mr Burdon, his wife Sarah, and their two children Georgie (10) and Charlie (9).

Deer first arrived in the area in the 1860s and the Burdons' farmed-deer operation began about 1976, with the first deer for the operation caught on the property.

Various outfits have hunted on the property since about 1980, something Richard Burdon has developed further since taking over the property's management, building up the client base.

Back in 1980, hunters were predominantly New Zealanders and Australians, with the occasional European. Now, he estimates between 65% and 70% are North American.

There is no such thing as a typical hunter, apart from the fact that they all share a passion for hunting.

Clients ranged in age from 8 to nearly 80, from Alaskan helicopter pilots to truck drivers who have worked hard and saved all their lives, earning $18 to $20 an hour, Mr Burdon says.

Dr Mazukelli said American hunters were drawn to New Zealand and South Africa, where hunting was very different from what they were used to.

It was a lot tougher and competitive in the US, with ''tags'' typically required for hunting big game.

To get a good trophy elk, a hunter could wait 15 years to get a tag - ''so we can just come here for a week and shoot a lot more animals than we could at home'' - while you could spend a lifetime trying to get a moose tag, he says.

''In the US, it's actually easier to shoot an intruder coming into a house than a deer out of season.''

''It's a jail sentence,'' Mr Burdon added.

Dr Mazukelli tends to mostly hunt ducks and geese at home, a pastime that does not appeal to his wife.

''To me, that's work. I have to get up early on a Saturday and I don't want to,'' she says.

She is herself a proficient hunter, with an impala, zebra and springbok - ''I would have a bontebok but it's still in Africa'' - and now an Arapawa ram to her name.

Hunting with the Mazukellis were their friends Mike and Natalie Birch from South Africa.

They run a similar hunting operation in South Africa, called Hunt the Sun, although it is not mixed with farming like Glen Dene.

Based in central South Africa, in the Kimberley district, they also have a second lodge on the Eastern Cape.

About 30 different species are hunted, including zebra, kudu, springbok, impala and warthog.

Mr Birch is a biologist who has worked for the South African Government's Department of Nature Conservation in management of protected areas, which has included veld management, game capture, eco-tourism and trophy hunting.

Projects have included the breeding and introduction of black rhino and buffalo in the natural protected areas they once roamed.

His wife has a doctorate in rangeland ecology, and together the couple also manage an environmental company called Ecological Management Services, which specialises in the wildlife industry in South Africa.

Mr Birch, who has been hunting professionally for 18 years, has been running his own operation for eight years.

Like Glen Dene - ''it's pretty similar in a lot of aspects'' - Hunt the Sun attracts clients from all over the world.

For Mr Birch, it is good to see other hunting operations and to hunt in different places, which is a good holiday for the couple.

Dr Birch is not so keen on hunting - her hobby is ultra-marathon running - but she enjoys walking in the New Zealand mountains, particularly as they are snake-free.

''She gets her exercise, I get my hunting. Perfect allround,'' Mr Birch says.

It was his first trip to New Zealand and he had achieved his aim in taking a red stag.

''It was a good hunt, I'm a happy man,'' he says.

He had been glassing for fallow deer when he saw the stag moving along the skyline.

He liked the look of it, ran up the hill and got into position and got a good shot at it.

Even after so many years, the excitement of a successful hunt has not diminished.

''If I didn't get excited ... I wouldn't do it. It's an absolute thrill,'' he says.

The hunt will be recorded on his story board in the lodge back home, which he hopes will provide further exposure for Glen Dene to hunters, he says.

 

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