Although available year round, this amazing protein has a soft, mild flavor more akin to fine beef than game. The elk are also known as “wapiti,” which is a Shawnee word for “light-colored deer.” Elk are not indigenous to New Zealand (no venison actually is). Eighteen to twenty animals were given as a gift to the people of New Zealand from President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905. In the 1980s, several hundred elk were caught and farmed, more were imported from the US to further diversify the gene pool. That was the start of the modern farm-raised venison industry in New Zealand. These magnificent creatures are grass fed on luscious New Zealand pastures, with the freedom to live naturally, and the result is a unique, true, and delicious free-range protein experience.