By By ANDY HAMILTON / Niles Daily Star
NILES – It's always been in his blood.
Kent Kaiser has been immersing himself in outdoor activities since he was a young boy in Niles. Kaiser said he remembers catching carp and suckers in the St. Joseph River, bass fishing in Barron Lake and being around when the suckers would run in Dowagiac Creek.
"I guess you'd say that has a lot to do with what I have going on," Kaiser said.
The 44-year-old was born in Niles and lived here until he was 11, when his mother remarried and moved to Fairbanks, Alaska. His father, Ken Kaiser, was a plant manager at Industrial Coils and lived on Mayflower Road until his death. His stepmother, Rosemary Kaiser, still lives in Niles.
Now, Kaiser is running a hunting expedition business in New Zealand called Kaiser Adventures. Kaiser acts as guide and host as he leads hunts of red stag, New Zealand elk, chamois, game birds and fish.
Kaiser said he established a similar business in Alaska. However, he has been in New Zealand on the northwest corner of the south island for eight months now and plans on staying in the Haupiri Valley near The Golden Bay, which is part of the Tasman Sea.
"This is the big deal right here. This is going to be the bigger part of me," he said.
New Zealand offers a unique experience in a few ways, Kaiser said. First, he said every landscape one can imagine existing across the world can be found on one of the islands, including the "golden, sandy beaches" and the dolphins that roam the Golden Bay.
"I'm looking across the bay and it looks like Montana mountains. If I look behind me it looks like the hills of Tennessee," he said.
Second, Kaiser said the variety of animals, and the unrestricted hunting seasons, make for an outdoorsmen's paradise. Many of the animals Kaiser hunts were brought to the island by royalty, not many of which are predators, he said. As a result, Kaiser said the animal population has exploded, and therefore the government sets no hunting seasons and charges no fee.
"They basically encourage you to go hunting," he said.
Kaiser said he tries to avoid customizing hunting packages, and instead allows customers their choice of adventure. Kaiser Adventures also offers scenic helicopter and plane flights around glaciers and boating trips around the bay.
Kaiser said about 70 percent of his customers are from Michigan and he added he always wears his "trademark" University of Michigan hat. Even though he claims his heart is with the University of Notre Dame, Kaiser said the Wolverines hat is good business.