Hunters who bring in heads and jaws are in to win prizes while the purpose of the competition is to provide data on the health of the central North Island sika herd through jaw analysis.
I spent some time with Allan Jackson, who measures the sika heads and collates the data from the deer jaws for an ongoing data program.
I learned a great deal about deer, pests, native birds, and wildlife protection. It's fascinating.
For most Kiwi hunters, and for the organisers of the Sika Show, the top priorities are hunting safety, etiquette and education.
The general public probably doesn't know that hunting in New Zealand is often a family affair. Age or gender is no barrier. Hunting trips offer parents a great opportunity to teach kids how to be responsible in the bush. Basically, hunting is about the love for the outdoors. The main reason people hunt is to fill up the fridge with meat and I must admit, the taste of venison or wild pork is hard to beat. It's also about conservation.
Quite a few people I know think hunting is gruesome, cruel and disgusting. But if these people enjoy a steak for dinner and wear leather shoes, I think they should think again.
I see absolutely nothing wrong with hunting as long as it is done to help maintain the balance of wildlife in our environment and to put kai on the table.
Then there are hunters who hunt for trophies only - people who simply do it for the thrill to kill.
These include the likes of Melissa Bachman, an American TV personality who hunts on camera for a show named Winchester Deadly Passion. On her website, there's a photo gallery where she poses with all kinds of dead animals, from deer to bears and from pigs to alligators. She's known as the "Hardcore Huntress".
But Bachman became the target of public outcry after she posted a photo on her Facebook and Twitter profiles of herself in front of a mature male lion that she shot in South Africa. Her tweet read: "An incredible day hunting in South Africa! Stalked inside 60-yards on this beautiful male lion ... what a hunt!"
In no time, her Facebook page and Twitter feed were over-run with vicious hatemail. Instantly, she became the most hated woman in South Africa and, within a matter of hours, a "Stop Melissa Bachman" Facebook page was set up.
In the description of the page, it says: "Hunting is considered a means to obtain food, however, this is not the main focus of hunting in Africa.
"Daily, people like Melissa Bachman go on organised hunts for fun so at the end of the day they'll have a picture and trophy that says, 'I killed an innocent animal for my own enjoyment'.
"... It has been seen to cause the extinction of animals on a global scale. This is why canned and trophy hunting needs to be stopped."
The posts and comments on the page are full of hate towards the celebrity shooter, but then I stumbled upon a post by Ulrik Orskov who asked the protesters to open their minds for two minutes. He said: "I truly understand why this picture is seen as sad, especially for non-hunters. But there's a tightly regulated amount of lions up for harvesting in South Africa.
"Do you guys have any idea how much money she paid, and how much of that money went to preserve and protect the future lives of these and other beautiful animals through for example anti-poaching programmes?
"If you don't, why don't you try to do a bit of research. I think Melissa knows quite a bit more of wildlife management than most of you guys ever will. Kenya banned hunting in 1977, and has since lost 85 per cent of the wildlife."
Hunting is, indeed, big business. Browsing around at the trade show, I noticed how much hunters happily spend on rifles, bows, and the latest innovations in hunting gear. There are recreational hunters who happily spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to go on a guided hunting safari and shoot animals they have on their wish list.
And guess what, it's not just Africa they travel to. Hunting safaris are bringing in the dollars here too.
There are estates and luxury lodges all over the country, in the North and South islands, being managed as high-end tourism businesses.
Their target market is based predominantly in the US. They offer luxurious facilities, first-class accommodation, including spa treatments for the wife who doesn't want to go bush.
Professional guides help anyone who is happy to pay the dollars hunt New Zealand red stag, fallow, samba, sika, chamois, and rusa deer.
Tourism like that gives our economy a boost and I don't have the slightest problem with that.
