On Adventure and Empowerment

Hannah Rae | NZ Hunter Magazine | August/September—Issue 102

Britt Davies embodies the spirit of adventure and empowerment.

A passionate advocate for women in the outdoors and the female representative for the Fiordland Wapiti Foundation, Britt’s journey from North Island beach dweller and ocean lover to discovering a love for the vast wild places of the Southern Alps and Fiordland is equal parts inspiring and instructive.

I had the pleasure of meeting Britt on the Wāhine and Wapiti trip, a five-day wilderness expedition organised by the Fiordland Wapiti Foundation earlier this year. Her story offers valuable insights and practical advice for anyone looking to embark on their own hunting adventures or pursue ambitious outdoor goals. Let’s get to the highlights of our conversation.

Learning from those I trust.

What role did the outdoors play in your life growing up?

I was brought up in Tauranga, on the ocean, we weren’t really mountain people at all. We’d go camping but not really hiking. I grew up surfing and fishing and hanging out in the boat. My grandad, two uncles and my dad are all commercial fishermen, and mum ended up working in the fishing industry too.

We grew up duck shooting through Mum’s side of the family and we had access to a pond on a farm near Te Awamutu. It was just a little pond with a little maimai and we’d made another maimai up on top of the hill. The best year I had there was shooting with my Poppa and my family. I just love duck shooting - because it’s always been a family tradition, bringing everyone together and all hanging out, and it’s not Christmas Day.

I got my firearms license when I was 18. It was empowering being able to get out there and do it for myself.

How did you go from ocean gal and duck shooter to big game mountain hunting?

My first real big game stalk was with one of my now best friends, Tracey. We met through my partner at the time and she was a keen hunter who’d learned through her ex-partner and his friends. Soon after we met she entered us into the Ashburton hunting competition. I came away with a beautiful bull tahr, and Tracey came away with two nannies. It was my first experience of that style of hunting. Canterbury was amazing, beautiful and just so different. It had me hooked. You spend all day climbing mountains, and you’re pretty buggered, and then you get something at the end of it. It was pure elation.

To top it off, I won heaviest bull tahr for the females. And after seeing the entries in the male category - with the bigger and better prize pool - Tracey entered her nannies and won the heaviest nanny tahr for the males section.

From there it was a mixture of learning from different people who were very knowledgable, just going out and doing it and saying yes to opportunities when they came up. There’s also a difference between learning from people by listening, watching and them helping you, and then you doing that by yourself. I would make sure to go on solo walks and hunts too, to put into practice what I’d been learning.

My most recent chapter of learning was with my ex-partner Josh. He taught me even more and developed my skills so much further. I’m very lucky to have had someone be so patient and willing to spend time teaching me, showing me, and answering my questions.

My first stag, a beautiful Red I shot during the roar of 2023 with my ex-partner.

Starting something new can be intimidating for anyone, but particularly if you’re a female entering a male-dominated sport. How have you found this journey?

Mum had three brothers and she had this constant battle of them being allowed to do stuff that she wasn’t allowed to do. She has this real ‘girls can do anything’ perspective on the world. She ingrained that message in my sister and I from a young age, and made sure we had exposure to all the typically blokey activities.

I definitely understand and have empathy for how intimidating it can be. But if we want to make change, if we want to go out there and actually do something, there’s nothing stopping us. No one’s telling us we can’t do it. There’s no rules against it.

We have the ability to make that change, we have the ability to go out and do it. Yeah it’s intimidating but that’s mostly mindset, right? It’s a mindset we’ve absorbed or had pushed onto us from social constructs. It’s up to us to change that narrative.

It can be hard at first to find like-minded people when you’re a novice hunter. It’s the same with anything, like starting a business or moving to a new place - it’s finding those connections and making friends. Hunting as a novice female is no different. It’s a male-dominated sport, but there are so many females out there doing it, it’s just about finding them.

To me, apart from carrying meat out, I don’t see the difference in potential hunting skill levels between women and men. If you’re a small woman (even if you’re strong) you’re still at a disadvantage with it comes to carrying a heavy load compared to a huge guy. But apart from that it should be a pretty even playing field.

From your experience, how do you go about finding the right people to learn from?

Look for people who you trust, who you feel safe with, who have the knowledge and who are willing to teach you. They can be hard to find, but they’re out there and it’s worth finding them.

It’s about networking, talking to people and connecting through organisations like NZDA, going to your local branch. When you walk in, potentially you’re the only woman in the room, but just show a bit of confidence and interest, and next minute you’ve made some mates with these guys so it’s no different to any situation really.

There’s also nothing like jumping in the deep end. And just being willing to go for a walk with people, to watch, listen, observe and absorb it all. Another great lesson from Mum is that you have to earn your right. I’d never give up my fishing spots to a random, right? So when I ask people if I can join them on a hunt, I’m mindful of that too. It’s about establishing relationships and friendships, and earning their trust that you’re not going to go and ransack their spot.

It’s a balance between being confident enough in the first place to ask to tag along, and earning your right to even be there asking that question.

Anna and I enduring the famous Fiordland rain.

There’s a lot to learn about hunting, but it teaches us a lot too. What have you learnt about yourself through hunting so far?

I’ve learnt that I’m always learning. It’s also allowed me to push my own boundaries - or, more accurately, to find my boundaries and then push them. And building my self-trust and self-belief; knowing when to push and when to call it quits, when to back track, when to sit down and think about this properly. It’s definitely given me more grit and more confidence because the ocean is my natural space and the mountains are a big new learning environment for me.

That was some advice I was given before going into Fiordland - know your boundaries and be safe, but don’t be afraid to push your boundaries either. That’s all part of the adventure!

What has been your most memorable hunting experience?

There’s been a few! The 2023 roar with my ex-partner Josh when I shot my first beautiful Red stag, the Wapiti ballot 2024 where my friend Anna and I spent ten wet days in Stillwater for 4th period, and the Wāhine and Wapiti trip with the FWF in February 2024.

But there is one experience that really stands out for me. In 2021 my family couldn’t make duck shooting opening weekend so I decided to invite a bunch of my mates from Wānaka to join, many of them had never been hunting or shooting before.

There ended up being eleven of us all meeting at the Te Awamutu pond. It was a great opportunity for chicks to get into it and understand it, and it opened up some interesting conversations. For example; ‘I eat meat from the supermarket but I can’t handle the fact that we’re here killing dicks right now,’ and having that experience prompt some deep thinking about where what we eat comes from.

Another one of my friends has a partner who hunts, but she’d never been out because she’d never been invited. So it was a cool opportunity for her to learn the basics of a shotgun, get comfortable in the maimai, and have a shot at some ducks when they came through.

I just loved it, it aligns with my whole philosophy of empowering women to do cool stuff!

Our all-girls opening weekend hunt.

How did you become involved with the Fiordland Wapiti Foundation as the female advocate? And how has this inspired your future vision?

I started last year by volunteering my graphic design and communications skills for the inaugural Winter Wapiti Weekend. I didn’t really know anything about Wapiti but I’d been to Te Anau a few times, and thought ‘Oh, I’ll help them out with this.’ I helped them with social media and communications for the event. Unfortunately, I must have done too good of a job and they gave me more things to do beyond that weekend.

Then we started to share ideas on how to broaden the reach of the FWF and how we could reach more females, and this is where the Wāhine and Wapiti concept, a 5-day all-women trip in the Glaisnock area guided by Roy Sloan, was born. That evolved into becoming a female advocate to the committee.

It’s a neat way to be involved and I’m very proud. I’ve been creating comms and sharing the Foundation story, social media, helping plan and execute the Wāhine and Wapiti trip in February 2024, and designing the booth for the recent NZDA conference. Plus any other crazy ideas we have or that Roy puts on my to-do list!

The Wāhine and Wapiti trip inspired me in terms of seeing what kind of links are missing still between hunting and conservation, and I’d like to bridge that gap some more. Doing things like that trip helps to educate both sides and bring them together, it shows that we’re actually gunning (pun intended) for the same thing.

I’d love for there to be a summit for females in hunting, to connect and develop some camaraderie and relationships to then take away. The great thing about the FWF is that we have the vehincle to be able to do that and now it’s just about connecting the dots.

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A huge thanks to Britt for sharing her experiences and wisdom, and thanks for being an inspiration to seek genuine connection, push our personal comfort zones, and soak in adventure.

Sister Ash in the family maimai.