In late 2006 we packed up our home in Norfolk and moved to the other side of the world and this of course included the family pets, Matty the cat and Mac the Trailhound.

Luckily the process of shipping pets to New Zealand is not to difficult as apart from a couple of blood tests it is the same pet passport requirements as Europe although of course much more expensive travel costs!

Mac seemed to have coped with the 24 hour flight remarkably well with a mid flight stop over in America and after being shipped from the airport in Auckland to our new central North Island home we where reunited although we think he must have been howling a lot as he was suffering from a sore throat, to those that have been to the Trailhound days at Faith you will remember he can be noisy at time!

Then it was just a case of getting him use to the new sights and sounds of a new country and he soon became the source of much admiration as no one had ever seen a Trailhound before. This included the local vets and council as when we registered him (all dogs in New Zealand have to be registered with a yearly fee to pay) there was no listing for Trailhounds so he had to be listed as a Foxhound instead!

Mac loves his walks around Lake Taupo, the biggest lake in the southern hemisphere, where he has plenty of room to run and play although not that keen on the warm geothermal beaches and water! There is also lots of gullies around the lake to explore reminding us that that this use to be a giant volcano!

He has also become very attached to our new kitten Kimmy who came from the local rescue shelter and was very poorly with cat flue so seemed to adopt Mac as her new dad!