I've lain here a while thinking about this hunting trip. My son and I did a fair bit of research on New Zealand before we came and we've found it pretty much as we'd expected. The mountains are strangely benign. There ain't no bears to put the hair up on your neck and you'll never see a mountain lion sneaking away. The worst discomfort are little black sand flies but even they are nothing really to worry about. They cause a bit of itching. Not like the ticks I get all over me when I go for a walk through the long grass back home. Maybe the animals here carry ticks but no-one's talked about that yet.
Time to get up I reckon...I'll have a shower and then head on out to the kitchen. My son agreed to meet me there at about 8.00 am. I have a great view of mountains out the window. The day looks fantastic although I can see the clumps of grass are thrashing around in the wind but this lodge is so solid you wouldn't know what the weather was like outside.