Unlike the winter ballot, the summer programme is "first in, first served'' for a helicopter landing permit from the Department of Conservation (Doc).
The programme is in response to there being an estimated 35,000 Himalayan mountain tahr in the mid-to-lower South Island alpine areas - triple the preferred number - which are destroying flora and contributing to erosion.
Doc South Westland operations manager Wayne Costello said herd size reduction was required and recreational hunters had an important role to play.
"Heavy browsing and trampling by mobs of tahr damages, and can potentially wipe out, the native plants they feed on, including tall tussocks and iconic species like the Aoraki/Mt Cook buttercup,'' he said in a statement.
Applications open on November 5, online only, costing $50 for a maximum party of six, for four one-week hunting periods spanning January 5 to February 1 next year.
Hunters must helicopter in and out, using only a pre-approved operator.
Most sites are in steep, rugged snowline areas at altitudes of 900m-1200m and even in summer can be prone to avalanches and rockfalls.
There are 28 landing sites in total, with four one-week periods at each site, equating to 112 hunting parties.
Doc said while a hunter's chief objective might be trophy bulls, it wanted all hunters to remove nanny and juvenile tahr, to reduce group sizes to fewer than five animals.
