The Northland-made TV series The Hunters Club stars five top hunters. Photo / supplied
The Northland-made TV series The Hunters Club stars five top hunters. Photo / supplied
A TV series produced in a spare bedroom in Northland is about to be streamed to a potential 96 million American households.
The Hunters Club – which starts its fourth series this month – is filmed in New Zealand's wildest places by Dave Shaw, the show's cameraman, director, producer and editor, and is put together in what used to be his daughters' nursery at the family home in Kerikeri.
Shaw worked overseas for the likes of the Discovery Channel before returning to New Zealand and landing a job with Matt Watson's ITM Fishing Show, a global success which also started modestly in a Kerikeri garage.
Cameraman Dave Shaw is caught in an unexpected snow dump while filming a chamois hunt in Westland. Photo / supplied
He had never been hunting until filming an episode for Watson's show based around a shoot in Otago. That experience shattered his preconceptions of hunting and opened his eyes to the potential for a new TV series.
''I didn't know about the work and dedication and physicality of hunting, and how often you let animals go.''
Shaw caught up with the hunter again a few weeks later and talked about making a show for the US market, where hunting is hugely popular but also heavily restricted.
''They see New Zealand as a bastion of wild, wilderness hunting. It's also a Lord of the Rings hangover, people still love New Zealand for its scenery.''
Shaw made a pilot and shopped it around the US, where broadcasters said they loved it but wanted to see a whole series first.
Cameraman Dave Shaw films a red stag hunt in Central Otago. Photo / supplied
Now, four series later and with the show already in more than 20 countries, he has finally landed a deal in the USA via Amazon's streaming service. With 96 million households subscribed in the US alone, the service is second only to Netflix with 130 million.
''It's not a massive coup financially, it's more about showcasing the sport and getting a following so we can keep going,'' Shaw said.
The show is fronted by five hunters with Shaw usually appearing on camera only when something goes wrong, for example when the glint of his lens startles a deer after days of tracking.
What sets it apart from other hunting shows is that it's not made by a hunter.
''It's like Top Gear, which is about cars but you don't have to be a car enthusiast to enjoy it. With The Hunters Club the appeal is the journey. Sometimes the failures are as compelling as the successes.''
Shaw saw the show as an ambassador for New Zealand and for ethical hunting, helping to dispel the image of hunters as ''blood-thirsty, trigger-happy guys'' and countering the damage done to hunting's reputation by the controversy over Cecil the lion.
A kea takes flight as the crew crosses a saddle near Hawea. Photo / supplied
As well as the hunting itself the series showed how as much of the animal as possible was used, and the way the meat was shared with friends and family.
''Then there's the sport of it, the sheer physicality. It'd be nice to park up, walk a few kilometres and see your deer, but usually it's a few days walk in the rain ... Hunting as a sport is on the up and up. People want to re-engage with where their food's from and women are getting into the sport in huge numbers.''
The series is filmed all over New Zealand with the Far North featuring for the first time in the upcoming series, thanks to quail and pheasant shooting on Karikari Peninsula and spearfishing at the Three Kings Islands.
"We got a 45kg kingi, that should float a few people's boats up here," Shaw said.
■ The Hunters Club screens on Sky Sports 2 at 7.30pm on Mondays from July 16 and later this year on Prime. This month it will also start streaming to Amazon Prime Video viewers in North America, the UK and India.
