The Halcyon Press imprint: 26 books

Student hunter is about the three years the author spent as an undergraduate student at University of Canterbury. Hunting and exploring the hills of Canterbury and South Westland. Living as a poor student should, money was always a limiting factor. Harvesting meat was reason enough to spend every last...

Fishing to sighted trout is surely one of the most exciting and satisfying ways to trout fishing known to man: even when everything seems perfect the fly, presentation, the cast who can tell if the trout will accept the offering, or ignore it!  This fascinating book sets out to clarify some of the...

There was a time in New Zealand’s recent past, when almost every country town had one or more helicopters based there, involved with wild venison recovery to feed a growing export trade. As the wild deer population was reduced and deer farming became widespread, helicopter recovery operations slowly...

Graeme Sturgeon left the New Zealand Army after returning from Vietnam and landed “the best bloody job I ever had.”Seeking to avoid civilian life Graeme became a deer culler in the Ruahine Ranges. Deer culling was a perfect fit for a man with his background and training. New mates regularly passed...

The era of deer control and venison recovery in New Zealand has often been likened to the American Wild West and the boom-bust tale of the demise and near extinction of the bison. Subsequently both bison and Red deer have survived the slaughter, and attitudes to both species have altered dramatically....

“This is real deer country, right from the start of the bush edge. The walk is soft, thedirection is constant, and you are just looking and tuning in to being in the bush andcarrying a rifle. The roar is here, and anything can happen.” James Passmore explores some of New Zealand’s greatest wildernesses...

Ross Curtis shot his first deer at the age of 8, by the age of 12 he was keeping the family in meat by hunting and doing his schooling by correspondence. Naturally as soon as he was old enough he became a Government deer culler. This book covers and era of deer control under the direction of the Internal...

Pioneers were not all at the turn of the 19th century. Pauline Davey grew up in Wellington as a Protestant in an all-girls Catholic boarding school. One of three children, in a broken marriage, childhood holidays were to be looked forward to and remembered with warmth and affection. Times at Grandmothers...

Ever since their release at the head of George Sound in March 1905, nothing has aroused hunters’ passion more than the greatest of all the deer species, the magnificent wapiti. A big bull taken in Fiordland’s demanding terrain is New Zealand’s premier big game trophy. Rampant commercial exploitation,...

Hawks is the tale of New Zealand’s wild south-west, set during the early years of the venison recovery industry. This was the era when the cowboys rode choppers instead of horses and used semi-automatic weapons, not six guns. They lived, worked and often died in the most rugged, inhospitable and spectacular...

Fly fishing for trout has been written about for hundreds of years. There are easier ways of catching trout but the fascination of fly fishing endures into the modern era. Despite major advances in equipment and countless variations on patterns of fly the actual method is remarkably faithful to that...

Call of the Kokako is a journey of discovery into what makes the kokako tick in order to save the species. This journey and work resulted in the restoration of the largest population of kokako in New Zealand with the help and dedication of many down to earth conservationists. Jeff Hudson spent 20 years...