Does anyone have any recommendations for New Zealand stag hunts?

Are you looking for a New Zeland hunt or stag here in Texas ?

Too rich for my blood... but on the bucket list.

I hunted in 2008 with Kiwi Safaris on the South Island. They were bought by the Westervelt group from the original owners. I think that some of the local guys who were part of it bought it back and it is still in operation. The local guys were very good to hunt with. There are several really good hunting outfitters on the South Island.

I have found one here in texas already, but wanting to go on the real deal also.

Your going to shoot your stag inside a high fence weather you do it in Texas or New Zealand.

I hunted with Kiwi Safaris on the South Island in 2009 and had a great hunt! I would recommend them. Lots of stags viewed. Just hang onto your pocket book if you're wanting gold medal or higher! I took a Stag, Tahr, Ram and Goat while I was there. Great hunt. Beautiful country!

Depends how you want to do it mate.
That is if you want to shoot a "real" red deer or a farm raised one.
I'm all for people doing whatever they like I just hate seeing Americans always being jipped by the kiwis.
Those Gold Medal things with crazy points and mass aren't real wild deer, most of them are either high fenced or as I've seen in my own personal experience penned deer bought by outfitters and released. This year on my DIY tahr hunting trip we visited some friends of one of the blokes I was hunting with who was a deer farmer. We were looking over a gold medal stag in a 20 acre paddock that had just been sold for $15k to a guide service which I won't name for an American hunter that was coming over the next week. The poor bugger would never know it was a penned deer up until a few days before he arrived there. But if you dont mind that sort of thing it is a great place, the scenery is beautiful and you'll definitely see big deer.

If you want to hunt truly wild deer, you can bust your guts for a week and hopefully take a 10 or 12 point stag.

I do know a very affordable hunt for reds over there, he has big stags under high fenced and also free range hunts and charges the same price for both. I was really keen to do one myself with him but always find something else that tops an NZ red stag on the list of things to hunt.
Happy to pass on the details if you want to PM me.

You can hunt Stags on open range in NZ just not going to get the quality you will see behind a HF.

I never saw a high fence the whole time I was there. I'm sure they were present somewhere, but I didn't see them. I saw some low 3 strand barb wire fences, but didn't see a high fence. So it's not like you're hunting in a 300 acre field. And, every step is vertical. Aside from walking along the creek bed glassing for my Tahr, every step I took was either up, or down. And mostly up!

I hunted with Jim Hunter of Glenroy Lodge near Queenstown in 2000 for Red Stag, Fallow Deer, Thar, Chamois and an Arapawa Ram. His lodge was first class with meals served by a chef. At that time he had around 6,000 acres under high fence, but I talked to him at the Dallas Safari Club show two years ago and he said he had added more land to his high fenced area. I didn't to the helicopter part since he had everything I wanted in the fenced area and it was outside my budget. We agreed to silve medal class animals when I booked the package and I ended up with gold medal chamois, thar and red stag. He also let my wife and daughter shoot management animals for a hundred bucks each. He said that's what he paid for them.

While there he talked about buying the animals and releasing them, and also raising them himself. Another outfitter called while we where there and asked if anybody wanted to shoot the new world record red stag. He wanted $300,000 for him. Other outfitters also came by to visit and have dinner with us, which was fun because they talked hunting.

Just like there is no place like Africa, there is no place like New Zealand. You don't just go there for the animals, it's more then that. You go for the experience and seeing it first hand. The trophy quality is incredible. Thick massive antlers with dozens and dozens of shooters to look over and decide on. There is never a doubt of getting one, but looking them all over and deciding on what one to take and then making the stalk was what I enjoyed. Kind of like Mule Deer hunting on a great property where you see bucks all day long and holding out for the best one.

I've hunted a couple of ranches in Texas and haven't seen anything that compares. It's just different and highly worthwhile. Nobody who has been there will disagree.

Eddie