Rescue dog Bomber homeward bound
Bomber the Kiwi search and rescue dog stuck in the United States is homeward bound.
The curly-coated retriever based in Queenstown has been stuck in Colorado for the past nine weeks without his owner Brad Saville after his flight was cancelled during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Saville made it home to New Zealand on a separate flight and has been trying ever since to get his LandSAR avalanche search and rescue dog home.
The 38-year-old ski patroller and his 18-month-old dog-intraining were in Colorado undertaking avalanche training as part of a ski patrol exchange programme.
Saville said his friends Tim and Hannah Sinclair drove Bomber 15 hours from Colorado to Los Angeles to drop him off for his final vet checks so he could get on a plane home.
‘‘There are some good people in the world. I was joking about how I was going to get Bomber to Los Angeles and suggested they take a road trip. They said they knew how important it was and would be honoured to help Bomber finish his last stage in the US.’’
Bomber flew out on May 22 from Los Angeles and was due to land in Auckland yesterday.
He would remain in quarantine in Auckland for 10 days.
‘‘I still need to work out how to ultimately get him down south to Queenstown. I’m hoping for a direct flight to Queenstown.’’
The pair would be back up the Remarkables Ski Area from June 8 where Saville worked as the head of the ski patrol department.
‘‘This year our team has consolidated into one ski Queenstown patrol team rather than a Remarkables and Coronet team.’’
He would concentrate on rekindling the bond with Bomber and rewind the training, he said.
‘‘Rather than expect him to be where he was, I’m going to rewind training and bring back some fundamentals and make sure he’s still having fun. Any drill I set up for him, I’ll make sure I set him up for success.’’
By September, he hoped to have Bomber signed off at a novice standard, which meant he was deployable in the Queenstown Lakes region but nowhere else.
‘‘I can’t wait ... getting back on the snow and back to work and reestablishing the bond and just having fun ... taking your best mate to work every day is awesome.’’