Nestled against the northern end of New Zealand's Southern Alps, Glazebrook Station is the destination for trophy hunters who enjoy challenging hunting amid breathtaking scenery. Here, they will find wild herds of red deer, fallow deer, chamois, goats and pigs freely wandering 23,000 acres of some of the steepest and most magnificent mountain views New Zealand has to offer. The Hunting Report first reported on Glazebrook Station in 2007, when a subscriber returned with a rave review on the operation's first hunting season. (See Article ID 2066 in our online database.) Formerly a sheep and cattle station, Glazebrook had just been purchased the year before by the US-based Westervelt Sporting Lodges. That company acquired a number of properties and hunting operations in New Zealand, Argentina and Canada with the goal of creating a global network of high quality hunting lodges. (See Article ID 1622.) For the last few years, the company has focused on Glazebrook's management of wild game populations, eliminating all the sheep and significantly reducing the cattle. From my perspective, however, what really makes Glazebrook unique is the high country hunting experience provided by its location.
Glazebrook is at the head of the Waihopai Valley on the South Island. The property is best described as long, narrow and steep, with two parallel rivers, the Waihopai and the Spray, that run down either side of a central chain of hills. Mountain peaks from the Southern Alps dwarf three saddles leading into New Zealand's South Island interior. Most hunting occurs on the north-facing central chain of faces and valleys.
The narrowness of the property allows clients to hunt from the time they drive through the gate, as large herds of free-range game live on the Waihopai River hills above the road. It can take a long time to get to the lodge, as game is regularly sighted round each road corner. These hill faces have numerous gullies, gulches and basins running along their lengths, and this is where deer, goats and pigs hang. That means stalks have to drop down on them from above. The vegetation is a........(continued)
