camifaj, the New Zealand SAS is highly regarded and currently operates - some in the NZ media consider controversially - in Afghanistan and other hot spots around the world. They received commendation a few years back by US commanders and G W Bush for their work in Afghanistan.
Since the NZ army trains exceptional soldiers, it's no surprise the the cream of the crop who eventually make selection for training in the SAS are among the best troops in the world. The unit works closely with its' British and Australian counterparts in training and combat exercises, but also works with American forces too.
The unit has a history dating back to the 1950's with the long range desert patrol group before being rebadged and structured similarly to the British SAS. Thus, conflicts date back to Borneo, Malaya, Thailand, Vietnam, Kuwait, etc, etc.
Training is fairly brutal as expected. According to
www.diggerhistory.info selection lasts some 14 days and includes navigating at night across Waikato farmland averaging 3 kilometers an hour. Running one or two jerry cans weighing 25 kgs across an extensive sand dune network and a 60km trek through the Woodhall forest, considered to be the hardest of the endurance tests. All on limited food and significant sleep deprivation.
A further 9 months of intensive training ensues and failure at any stage means being returned to unit and many people fail.
Like other special forces units much of the training is as much mental as physical, with the focus being on pushing people beyond what they think or feel comfortable doing. ie not telling them when exercises finish etc, leaving you forced to continue, or give up. Growing up in NZ the terrain is always hilly and mountainous and weather we refer locally as "four seasons in one day" since it is highly fickle and dangerous. Tourists are killed every year on assigned paths underestimating the NZ weather and the confusing geography. Any navigation exercsies you'd need to be spot on in your calculations or end up lost.
Much speculation abounds about the activities of the SAS, and much of what you read can be taken as a grain of salt. I have heard of psychological tests where soldiers are forced to watch a static TV for hours and being dumped off-shore by helicopter only to swim back.
More famous accounts recently can be found in the book Soldier Five by Mike Coburn, a NZer who passed both NZSAS selection and training and the British. He was part of the famous Bravo Two Zero patrol in Desert Storm.
A documentary commissioned by TV3 in NZ on the SAS was aired last year...I have not seen it.
In short they're good, and based on documentary footage I saw a few years back, I wouldn't want to be a bad guy on the wrong end of their MP5's.
