New Zealand!

Well folks, I just arrived back home after an amazing 2
weeks in NZ. Nick and I, along with 2 good friends (Bill – my good buddy for at least 10 years and my guru for all things having to do with firearms, and his wife Kristin) from home, spent one week sightseeing and one week hunting on the South Island. Given that I leave in a day and a half for the Global Limits race in Bhutan, this will mainly be a photo blog instead of my usual witty banter. Hope you enjoy.

So after >24 hours of travel, I arrived in Christchurch at 9:30am right into the smiling arms of Nick, Bill, and Kristin. What does one do on their first day of vacation??? Wine tasting of course! You should always make your priorities a priority!

After soaking in the thermal springs at Hamner Springs, our tired group had dinner at an Irish pub (random, I know), and passed out. The next day had us on the road with a few stops for short hikes, and then the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki.

I have arrived!

My crew:

Pancake Rocks:

After a night in Hokitika, we awoke to pouring rain… This will become a theme for the next 5 days. We all had eggs Benedict for breakfast (another theme of the trip), and then hit the hunting and jade stores. With as much I travel, it’s become more and more difficult to come up with good souvenirs to bring home. But I found a camo hat for my nephew and jade bracelets for my little nieces. We hit the road, and spent the next several days driving about 4-5 hours a day, taking mini hikes, and experiencing NZ in the rain.

A rare moment of clear weather in Queenstown (so this is what New Zealand looks like) :

And then back to the rain in Milford Sound (which made for insane waterfalls):

The worthy vessel that we spent the night on:

A rare moment of (a tiny bit of) blue sky:

More Milford Sound. And the crazy tunnel through the mountain that we drove through:

After Milford, we drove to Cromwell and stayed at an amazing B&B, plus more wine tasting:

Then we went up to Mt. Cook which was silly since the rain never stopped and we couldn’t see anything, not even Mt. Cook:

Our first week of bombing around was now over, and it was time to head to the hunting lodge. We had a few days of sunshine and the views were unbelievable:

And just like that, a year and a half of planning and anticipating was over. A short overnight in Christchurch (which is still pretty devastated from the earthquake in 2011), another looooooooooong couple of flights home, and here I am, back on my couch in Orlando.