No completely free hunt, only cost of chopper to fly in and out, free DOC permit to hunt and free DOC hut to stay in. DOC is our Dept. of Conservation who administer our public land including National Parks. My two nephews and their friend all saw a lot of animals, some impossible to get to, but many others in shooting range but they were only interested in trophies this time. The older boy, his father and myself are hoping to get back in there in the winter.

Any one can get a permit to hunt in these areas even obtainable online now for any public conservation area you want. Many wilderness huts are free but some huts on popular tramping routes do cost a small fee per night. You don't really need a guide, the chopper pilot knows all the areas and the animals, tahr, chamois and red deer, are spread thoughout the Alps. Just a matter of getting reasonable weather, being fit enough and patient enough to get results once in these areas. Hunting in the Alps of South Westland is completely free range and having a guide is not necessarily going to produce any better results. It all comes down to the hunter's own fitness, skill at spotting and stalking and good shooting.

The chopper operator is James Scott, a long time pilot flying out from the Fox Glacier area, ex chopper meat hunter, now mostly flying tourists and hunters around. I have flown with him on numerous occasions even shot a couple of animals from his chopper for a German professor's research project many years ago, as below.

Picking up 3 stags shot earlier by his professional shooter, and a couple of chamois shot for research, James Scott and his 500C. Note the live animal capture net gun mounted on chopper skid.