Canterbury stormchasers to take Kiwis in trip of a lifetime in US ‘twister alley’

March 2, 2019

Twister tourism is growing with people keen to eyeball nature’s raw edge up close.

Wild, windy and stormy weather sounds like a nightmare while you're on holiday - unless your vacation is with the Kiwi stormchasers.

The crew of keen Canterbury weather watchers are about to take some Kiwis on the trip of a lifetime, right into the heart of 'twister alley' in America.

Steve Burrows will lead the stormchasers to tornado alley in May for an up-close and personal encounter with twisters.

“The storms are huge, they can be basically the size of Canterbury,” he told 1 NEWS.

“Twisters are the main thing we look for, twisters and big storms, lightning, hail everything that comes with a thunderstorm.”

The group, who capture wild weather here in New Zealand, have been to the US before and are now offering up spaces to keen Kiwis wanting to join them for some drama.

Lesley Bayliss is there for the photos and will join seven others, travelling a 1000km a day in 4WD rentals.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do as a kid really and America is the place to go for tornadoes, my colleagues all think I’m mad, they are just hoping I come back in one piece," she told 1 NEWS.

With twister tourism growing, the group say they're saving money doing it themselves, instead of joining an organised tour.

“When I found this group in NZ they said we pretty much do the same thing but split the costs between us so it works out a lot cheaper and its quite nice going with a group of Kiwis," Ms Bayliss said.

“There's no science behind what we do, we are more into the photography side of stormchasing and capturing the awesome moments," Mr Burrows said.

There's no special gear either, just a few years of experience, listening to the local media. 

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