Hunters are being encouraged to get outdoors and take photos for a national photography competition being run by the Game Animal Council and Hunting and Fishing New Zealand on Wednesday (November 18).

Get Outdoors Week 2020 is a national campaign encouraging Kiwis to get out and explore the great outdoors, safely.

“We know there are significant physical health challenges across our communities, but going hunting or for that matter getting involved in other forms of outdoor recreation, has benefits far beyond simply getting some exercise,” the council's general manager Tim Gale said.  

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“There are major mental health and wellbeing benefits from going on outdoor adventures and when it comes to hunting there are also significant conservation, community and protein advantages that come from harvesting our game animal species.”

The Game Animal Council has partnered with Hunting & Fishing NZ to provide a $500 Hunting & Fishing NZ voucher to the winner of the ‘Try Something New’ photo challenge on 18 November. 

“With this prize we really want to encourage people to try something they haven’t done before and while that doesn’t have to be hunting, we would love for people to give it a go.”

“Over 160,000 New Zealanders go hunting every year, but even so, it is important that as a hunting community we continue to foster new and young hunters and make the sport as accessible as we can for them.

“I am often confronted with people who are keen to get into the sport but don’t know where to start.”

“There are heaps of experienced hunters out there keen to help new people out and with clubs like the New Zealand Deerstalkers Association running training courses all over the country new hunters can learn to hunt safely and successfully right from the start,” Gale said.

Get Outdoors Week 2020 began on Saturday. More information about Wednesday's photo competition can be found HERE.