He and wife Jen Anderson set up New Zealand Hunting Safaris in 2008 and have since attracted some of the sport’s most lucrative big spending tourists to New Zealand.
"I just wanted to do something different before I settled into farming. I sort of farmed all my life and never did anything else. I was shooting deer out of the helicopter for Harvey Hutton here, and he said ‘well, you could do this for a living you know?’."
Until then, Anderson had not really given any thought to turning one of his passions into a money maker, on the side of his 1800-sheep, 500-deer and 30-cow operation on Mount Brown in the Maungawera Valley, where he rented the land from his friend and neighbour.
He began working on the side as a hunting guide for a local company, and would follow the hunting seasons overseas.
Anderson has guided clients in Switzerland, Canada, Austria, Turkey, Mongolia, Pakistan and Tajikistan.
On the offseason he would come home and farm, but never opted to take over his parents’ sheep farm in South Otago.
"I sometimes think sheep farming is a bad habit.
"We’re not too sure why, but we keep doing it for some reason. We probably like lamb chops, and we don’t want them to run out."
However, Anderson said he would not give the farming game up at any cost — he enjoyed the reprieve hunting gave him from the everyday stresses of farming.
"That’s probably more the reason I love it. You get that enjoyment of dealing with people and taking them out and seeing their excitement ...
"You know, you get a bit bored on the farm and then you can go away for a week hunting with some clients and hear about them."
The clients mainly come from overseas, only 20% of his market being New Zealanders.
Americans are his biggest market, so Anderson travels to giant hunting trade shows abroad once a year to sell his product.
These clients will pay upwards of $10,000 for a week-long expedition to the West Coast, the local area and all the hidden spots he can not say on record.
"They’re all over the place and they sort of just have a bit of a bucket list of countries they want to go to, and then they just cruise around the trade shows and choose where they want to go.
"I’ve had a few famous people. But I probably can’t really say though, because they wouldn’t want me to put their name in here."
He employs just one person, so the company is small scale and intimate.
Anderson said, hand on heart, no client had gone home without a successful shoot.
Hunting season generally begins on March 1 and runs to the end of June.
He could afford to do more, but the farm life called for him to shut up shop for the remaining eight months.
"We are always booked up and busy. We sort of only have maybe maximum four hunters in camp at a time."
The hunters were treated to the best food, wine and experiences, Jen showing clients around the area when they were back from the bush.
The business could grow to full-time, but for now it was the perfect mixture of land and entertaining hunts, he said.
Plus, daughter Lilly was keen on farming, and son Riley a keen hunter and fisherman himself.
As for his own hunting skills, Anderson was too modest to say.
"I’m good at finding animals. I’m not too sure if I’m good at shooting them. I’m good at shooting rabbits because I have to on the farm."
