Hard Yards Hunting

Hard Yards Hunting is Joseph Peter's tahr and chamois guiding operation based out of Twizel, the gateway town for the Mackenzie Basin and the lower Southern Alps. Joseph runs hunters into the heart of New Zealand's wilderness for Himalayan tahr, chamois and red deer on the wild country around Twizel and the surrounding high country. The name is honest about the commitment required — tahr hunting is physically demanding country work, and Hard Yards is pitched at hunters who understand that.

The operation's ethos is poetic and grounded: standing over braided glacial rivers, dense forest canopy, silence, and the kind of wild country that makes you feel smaller and more alive. Joseph's writing about his hunting territory reflects a genuine connection to the landscape rather than a sales pitch, which tends to attract hunters of a similar mindset.

Twizel sits at the edge of the Mackenzie Plain, a short drive from Aoraki/Mount Cook and in the middle of some of the best free-range tahr country in New Zealand. The Mackenzie Basin tahr population — on both the east and west faces of the Two Thumb and Main Divide ranges — gives Hard Yards access to a large area with consistently wild, unhunted animals.