Week 2- Part 2

 

Alan, Myself and Michele

 

My weekend continued at Atahua with Bex and Kirsten; daughters of Alan and Michele planned a trip for us go to Taihape and visit Ohinewairoa station. After feeding out in the morning with Michele, Bex and I headed north later in the day to check out the town of Taihape and then meet up with Kirsten’s partner Sam who is head Shepard at Ohinewairoa. As well as looking around the surrounding area we got to see Sam’s Huntaway puppies during our stay at the station.

Feeding out

 

 

Atahua bulls sold at the start of June

 

Puppies at Ohinewairoa 

Kirsten

Bex

So cute!!

Off to work!

 

 On the way back to Kiwitea we detoured via Gravity Valley and checked out the thrill seeking tourist attraction. The bungy jump is 80m off the bridge and the flying fox reaches speeds up to 160km/hour; needless to say I bailed pretty quickly and didn’t take part in the activities. Stopping at many lookouts along the way back Bex was an excellent tour guide showing me around the local area, returning to Atahua late Sunday afternoon.

Gravity Canyon

The view from above

Stoney Point Lookout

 

Monday I set off early from Atahua heading to Wellington to catch the ferry to the South Island. I got the chance to see some beautiful scenery on the ferry and around the sounds (area leading into Picton) of Picton.  My next visit was Woodbank Angus, Clarence River. On my way there I stopped over at the seal colony at Kaikoura. The young seals head upstream to a waterfall which is an area protected from the sea and bad weather; here they spend up to three days waiting for the mothers to return from hunting in the mean time they enjoy playing and sunbaking. This was quite an experience being able to get so close to the cubs and them not being phased at all. 

 

Heading out of Wellington

On the morning run to Wellington

Picton

Chilling out on a Monday

Testing for TB was conducted the following day at Woodbank with the technician out injecting the small amount of antigen under the skin, this is done every year as the surrounding area is endemic to bovine TB. Three days later she would return to check for reactions  to the test, these can range anywhere from a pea size lump up to the size of a grapefruit. If you are interested in understanding more about bovine TB follow this link; http://www.tbfree.org.nz/what-is-tb.aspx

As well as doing the TB testing we took tail samples from the 210 cows to put on file. The afternoon consisted of upkeep of ear tags that had aged or fallen out and finally returning the cows to a fresh paddock. Additionally John showed me the property which included very steep hill country rolling right down to the beach front. This was quite an odd concept to come to terms with! The Woodbank sale this year in June offered 58 bulls to average $6,327 topping at $12,500.

Woodbank



Woodbank

 

 

 

                                        Week 3 coming soon!