From a young age, John Barker developed a keen interest in deer hunting around the Gisbome district in which he grew up. But it was the lure of hunting the bigger Fiordland wapiti that inevitably drew him to a job at Milford Sound where his spare time was spent shooting deer and hybrid wapiti in the Fiordland mountains. Not long before his arrival, helicopters had started being used in the venison recovery industry in the same area and by the early 1970s John formed a business partnership which was among the first of the smaller independent operators in the industry. However, his involvement was not without controversy as can be heard during the interview which focuses almost entirely on that period of his life. It is therefore not a full oral history recording.