The Fiordland Wapiti Foundation allocated its March 2021 ballot on Wednesday (October 28), with just 138 lucky hunters getting the right to share 25 blocks over 40 days. 

Ballot coordinator Roger Foote said a record number of 522 hunters applied this year, beating the previous record of 412 entries. 

Usually, the ballot allocates the 25 hunting blocks in three periods of 10 days. 

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This year, a fourth period of 10 days was allocated because demand was so high, Mr Foote said. 

There were still more than 100 people on the waiting list in case someone decided not to exercise their hunting right next year. 

“We can’t give out 522 . . . this year we added a fourth period to fit people in [and] 138 people got blocks. There will be a lot of disappointed people,” he said. 

The Fiordland National Park is the only place in the Southern Hemisphere where people can hunt Wapiti. 

This year, the roar was cancelled because of the March Covid-19 lockdown, disappointing many hunters preparing for the season. 

One of those disappointed people was Mr Foote, who had finally won an allocation last year after five years of missing out. 

This year, his luck fell flat again.

“I had to race home like everyone else and look for my email. It was quite disappointing really. I missed out . . . But I can go out and chase red deer outside the Wapiti zone,” he said. 

A couple of Australian hunting crews, and one from the United Kingdom, have won the right to hunt a block during the Roar, depending on whether borders have reopened by March.

The overseas ballot winners would hand back their rights if the borders remained closed, Mr Foote said. 

The ballot is only given to recreational hunters.

In years past, the ballot was quite a ceremony, with people gathering to watch marbles being drawn out of a bucket. 

However, the system has been computerised for several years now, and the “button is pushed” by a computer company, sending an email to lucky winners. 

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Mr Foote said the Roar was a “huge thing” for Te Anau, which typically has about 2500 residents and ratepayers, and would typically bring at least 600 to 700 more people to Te Anau between March 20 and April 30. 

“The biggest thing is what it means to our town. Everything got shut down and we missed out [this] year. This year, we have 40 days, which is pretty cool. . .We don’t need another year like [this] year,” he said. 

He was aware of at least one television crew planning to make a documentary about the 2021 Roar and the issues faced by hunters last year. 

Meanwhile, association members have continued to cull red deer from the forests, even though the international market for wild venison has fallen away. 

Rather than shoot and leave the carcasses where they fell, the association has processed the meat and distributed it to food banks around New Zealand. 

Mr Foote said this year’s distribution had just finished and the association was now seeking funding to begin another foodbank project over the next 12 months.