Hutt Valley Hunting & Fishing

The recent change of ownership of Hutt Valley Hunting & Fishing New Zealand see's two new characters welcomed to the ranks of the Hunting & Fishing store owners group.

The new partners are PETER FOWLER and CHARLIE McFARLANE along with their wives Gillian and Shelley. Whilst they are new owners, they are old friends and fishing and hunting buddies. They were both long term residents of Palmerston North and are familiar with many of the popular hunting and fishing areas in the lower North Island.

Peter has been fishing since he was knee high, introduced by his father Mick who himself is an angling identity in the Manawatu. Whilst Peter enjoys all sorts of fishing, he particularly enjoys the challenge of fresh water fishing and the scenic locations this takes him.

Peter started working life as a builder, but he developed a particular interest in New Zealand native timbers which led to him becoming a designer and manufacturer of high quality native timber furniture. This in turn saw him become an award winning retail shop designer and fit out specialist. He also enjoyed the immediate challenge of upgrading the newly acquired Hutt Valley premises.

Whilst Peter is also reasonably proficient with both rifle and smooth bore already, he is looking forward to doing more hunting and gaining a greater local knowledge in this respect. Charlie claims he can sometimes get the better of Peter in the shooting department, but this stands to reason as Charlie has been involved with things that go BANG for a long time.

Born and educated in Invercargill, he left his home to spend 22 years in the Army with the Royal New Zealand Engineers. His Army career took him from the extreme cold of the Antarctic to the extreme heat of Central Australia with additional postings to Singapore, Cambodia, East Timor, Mozambique and Bosnia in between.

During his army career, he acquired a taste for explosives and blowing things up, which led to five years spent as a mine clearing contractor in several of the worlds well known trouble spots. He dug around looking for mines and unexploded bombs in the deserts of Sudan, through the jungles of Kenya and across the mountains of Srilanka, Cyprus and Nepal, with varying degrees of cooperation from the local residents.

Having eventually tired of the thrill of mine clearing, he is now looking forward to the challenge of broadening his fishing experience in saltwater techniques and in particular becoming the shop expert on Softbait fishing.

Yes! The local residents are friendly!

The official opening of the new store on Saturday July 5 proved to be a huge success. The support from the public who turned up in record breaking numbers was awesome. Whether it was the store opening specials, the upgrades to the store layout or the mix of the enthusiastic new owners and the popular long term staff, the level of shopping that took place can only be described as sensational. All the work on the appearance of the store from the new window design, to the suspended ceilings, new lighting, new display stands and the investment in a much wider range of stock seemed to impress.

The end result being that the sales turnover for the day was the biggest ever in a single day for the Hutt Valley store. As Peter and Charlie point out, these results were achieved only with the help and skills of their well proven Hunting & Fishing team.

They say "Thanks a lot" to the team, "Thanks" to the customers - we look forward to getting to know all of you a lot better over the coming years!

Location

444 Cuba Street, Alicetown, Lower Hutt
Phone: 04 5899 500

Hours

Monday-Friday - 8.30am-5.30pm
Saturday - 9.00am-4.00pm
Sunday - 10.00am-4.00pm