Flying in New zealand (lower half of south island)

[Bustnthru]

you asked for it.........well ill just lay it out there for ya: (this is my area of op, lower south island)
60+ percent of the country has no radar coverage below about 9000' about 50 percent of the country (including the whole area i did my training in and almost all of my hour building so far) has no radar coverage at all, that includes the queenstown milford sound area which is constantly packed with fixed and sling wing aircraft, all of course navigating between the alps.
VFR Navigation is done with the E6b and a pencil on a map. and in the hills if one gets lost then they ether make it out or run out of fuel trying. and if you get on the radio the guy on the other end can't help.  the only way out is to turn east reach the coast then turn north and hope you hit one of the AD's before high octane avgas is replaced with low octane air.
All flight planning and fiscom is done thru a central infomation center thea serves the whole country, all they can do for VFR down here is take progress reports. if you can reach them that is. Its power to idle, best glide speed, get on the cell phone and call the hotline to let them know that you got the WX and you want to extend the all important sar time. when around the controled AD you can talk to them  but even close to QN the mountians obstruct comms, the problem is compounded by the fact that most of the time some sort of WX prevents one from getting to where comms can be established   
My home airport NZDN is home to some of the worst windshear in the world.  and the range to the West can make the downwind leg of the circuit turbulent as all hell. wind is high there at least 80 days of the year.
Ive had a 152 strait and level going up at 2000 fpm in the up draughts, of course comming back i got 2000 down.
I once moved a 172 from Dunedin to Alexandra, tookoff from 21 at DN into 42 knots headwind got to LX to find wind was calm.
took a tb10 to invercargill went down, cloud base 5000+ came back 2 hr later base solid 1400 whole way 
Night flying. totally VFR  no usage of ground based instruments just the lights of the AD, Dunedin city and the AH, TC, VSI and altimeter to keep from the murky black.

and to top it all off Balclutha AD is 666 meters long.

Makes for some challenging and fun flying, no two days are the same. and you know, I wouldnt have it any other way!

ive made up a map to add some clarity to where im talking about using a 3488*2616 photo of the 1/1000000 visual planning chart on my wall and mspaint,
unfortunately photobucket downsised it so much that  one can not see the detail.  if you want it post email and ill send it to you 

Edit: hope its coherant now

[happylanding]

Wow, it surely look as a demanding environment with no help from the outside: no way you can tell the information you got lost and your last position was backtracking a rwy!

But it surely is useful, since in a situation when no flights in a row are the same, you sure as hell learn a lot of things and gain confidence and wisdom and knowledge.    Already in Switzerland, the alps flight is sometimes demanding, but at least it's almost always possible to speak with a centre (you just risk to lose the connection in some places), who gives you indication about new QNH and traffic and peculiar things if there are some to remember and - once you switch your transponder on - they also know where you are! I like much less flying on the italian flats where every place just looks like the one you just have passed and the one that will come. I get bored and usually my concentration risks to drop, that's surely no good.
On the contrary, the shame in NZ is that with strong windshear, it surely happen that you have to cancel a lot of flights, when flying cessna and piper and light airplanes. You will have to post some pic of what you see when flying, I'm thrilled! thank you very much for the description and keep us posted!    

[Bustnthru]

ill make sure i tax my camera next time im up

[Voidhawk9]

Ive had a 152 strait and level going up at 2000 fpm in the up draughts, of course comming back i got 2000 down.

Surfing!  Had a bit of that operating in the Alps, based from NZCH. If you work it right you can get upstairs really fast. 1500+fpm in a Traumahawk!