the Last Great Southern Adventure

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 ceased in most locations. Fiordland and South Westland today remain the only areas with a viable venison recovery industry. Several helicopters are operating, weather permitting, under a DOC and industry group plan. Professional photographer Olivia Page was given the opportunity to record WARO (Wild Animal Recovery Operations) in Fiordland over the summer of 20102011. The result was over 7000 images, the best of which are shown in this book, recording an industry which is going through significant changes and may one day soon be gone forever.