Forty thousand hunters are expected to head to the country's estuaries and lakes to try their luck as duck shooting season begins tomorrow.
Photo: RNZ / Conan Young
From first light tomorrow morning the outdoors will ring with the sound of shotguns on the famous first day of the season.
It's a busy time for Gun City staffer and Olympic shooter Chloe Tipple.
"We refer to it as our Christmas, it's absolutely crazy, it's our busiest month of the year so it's been hectic but fun."
It was fun for the whole family, she said.
"What's so exciting about it is anybody can do it... young kids going out with granddad, you've got a massive number of people who can participate. There's not a lot of sports where you can do that."
It was important for more experienced shooters to pass on their knowledge to those starting out, said Andrew Greaves, who has been been shooting for 25 years.
"Yeah young guys need to go and just get taught how to handle a gun because they get the old blood lust when they see a bird.
"You read about it in the paper, a gun accident, there was one a few years ago, a guy stood up in the boat and the other guy didn't see him under the barrel and blew the top of his nut, and that's just through not being aware of your surrounding," he said.
A newcomer to the sport, Nicole, who was planning to head out shooting tomorrow with her partner, said it was the ideal date night, although that depended on the catch.
"I suppose it is, can be if we get a good day and get lots of ducks. We were friends first but share lots of outdoor hobbies together like whitebaiting and hunting."
Fish and Game's Don Rood Photo: Supplied
It was an exciting time of year, said Fish and Game spokesperson and keen shooter Don Rood.
"A lot of families see this as a reunion time with several generations getting together, the grandfather, the son or daughter and the grandchildren all getting together to keep that tradition alive and hand down the skills that are required to be a successful game hunter."
And duck shooting is not just for the sport.
Once they are plucked there are a number of ways to eat them.
"Pot roasting is always good because you ensure the moisture is there, you can confit them, some people like to make a Thai curry out of them, some make waterfowl like swans and geese into sausages or salamis."
But there's also an increasing need for shooters to take care with new figures showing an increase in incidents on the opening weekend of the season.
Five years ago about 35 percent of incidents happened in the first two days of the season, said the head of the Mountain Safety Council, Mike Daisley.
That number had now grown to 45 percent.
"Flashback and powder burn are very common, instant hearing loss, so we're talking about a fire arm being discharged quite close to someone's ear and accidental [firing] and ricochet, so the firearm going off inside the maimai and pellets ricocheting around where other duck hunters are."
The season continues through until the end of July in most regions.
