Day 8: 8/1/13
We didn't leave until nine this morning but after a late night out that was very early!! Everyone was very quiet for the 3+ hr bus journey! I tried to sleep an had my eyes closed most of the time but couldn't sleep! The bus drivers put Flight of the Conchords on. I had heard of the programme and how funny it was, but I wasn't feeling it at all!!
After lots of windy roads we eventually got to Whakahoro which was a massive farm and ecolodge in the middle of nowhere! When we got there they had tea, coffee and cold drinks ready for us.
The owner Dan gave us a speech then abou the farm and what they do there. He is from a farm nearby and went travelling a lot when he was younger. When he came back he felt something should be done about protecting the environment they have in New Zealand so he bought this area and set up the lodge. When people came to New Zealand first there were no mammals- just birds, insects and lizards. The people introduced animals to farm and other animals to kill some of the insects and things- stoats, ferrets, possums, etc. Of course they went wild in the new environment and between humans and the introduction of other animals New Zealand has lost 50% of its biodiversity. There are a lot of animals endangered now so they are doing their best to protect them. This particular lodge is the Blue Duck lodge as one of their main aims is to protect the blue duck species which lives in the river. The area was a huge Maori area so there are ruins left behind. In the 1900's people were given farms in the area but because of the remoteness of the area they couldn't make it work. There were 45 farms in the area and now there is just this one. Most of the workers on the farm are people that were on a stray bus and got off there or came back there to work. There were some English and I think 2 Irish.
After that we had to check in which once again, took about an hour. Some people had been going horse riding and they left before the speech. When we got to the lodge they had brought in some of our bags for us so we could share a room. I had gotten a single bed which is very exciting after a few nights of bunk beds!
A few of us went on a Safari then. We were picked up in 4x4 jeeps! We had Dan, the owner guy driving our jeep first. We were driving on little dirt tracks on the side of the mountain with trees all around and the river below us. The area is called Whakahoro by the way, which is the name of one of the rivers. It is pronounced f***aw****o- not the best name for a place!! The driver stopped along the way to point out some silver ferns, trees, Manuka plants, etc. The whole area looked very tropical with the ferns. we stopped to look out over the river where a tributary joins it. There's a little beach area along the river. He told us how a couple who had being kayaking along the main river pulled in there thinking the beach was really private. So the took off all their clothes and were happy at it when one of the workers drove along the road and got an awful fright! Luckily we had no strange sights to see.
Across from the river though there was a Maori camp as they have some religious kind of a festival at the moment where they came here to sail on the river or something.
We stopped near a field further on as he wanted to open some gates so the sheep would start coming down from the mountains as he will be bringing them in for shearing soon. He has 5,000 sheep to shear and four shearers will probably come who will each get about 300 sheep done in a day. In the field there were beehives too which look like colourful shoeboxes!! He had three sheepdogs in the back of the jeep all along so he showed us then how he makes them go left and right and stop with different whistles and voice commands. Each dog has different commands. One dog was quite old- 11 years of age - and is semi-retired. He said she was the best dog he ever had. Not only could she here the sheep and help on the farm, but she also became a great hunter. Only a few months ago, they had a problem with boar that was killing about 20 lambs every night. They brought all the dogs out and after a little while this dog took off barking and eventually the other dogs followed. It took about three hours to get to where the dogs were but they had the boar cornered and the farmers were able to kill it. He showed us pictures of some boars and they were massive!! Sometimes the dog gets killed trying to corner them but this dog never got hit by a boar. The boar can strike as fast as a snake. The dogs have to keep their distance and circle the boar and when of tries to run, the dog bites it in the nuts. When that happens a few times the boar eventually learns to back up against a tree or something and then the farmer can get a good shot when he arrives.
After that we drove up to the top of the mountains and had a brilliant view out over all the mountains. Even though it was a bit cloudy today you could still see for miles and there were no houses anywhere! It's mad!! You could see different weather from the spot we were on too- some places had the sun shining and some were really grey and cloudy. We stayed chatting at the top for a while. The owner was very passionate about conservationism and very easy to listen to. He was talking for a while about possums which are a huge pest in New Zealand. They weren't doing so well in Australia so they introduced them to New Zelaand and they flourished as the trees had no defences against them. This farm has possum traps on a lot of the trees and in some national park areas the government unloads some poison from aeroplanes. It seems they eat every leaf of the tree and completely kill it so it is just bare and then move onto the next tree. So eventually you get these pockets of completely destroyed trees.
There were lots of lambs around the area and they all had tails so I was asking about that. He said it was too hard to to bring them all down from the mountains but also he was trying to breed them completely naturally so he's hoping not to take any of their tails off at all. He was complaining about patmaceutical companies and vets saying that the animals needs this, that and the other vitamins and doses, etc. he thinks they should be able to survive without them. By giving them all the concoctions he thinks were breeding weak sheep who's immune systems are getting lower so he's trying to undo it. Well have to wait and see if it will work!
We went back down then in the jeep- he flew down some places and we had to hold on tigh! There was a bridge to cross which was just about wide enough. It was a suspension bridge which bounces with you and it was built over an old bridge that was built after World War 1 to give horses, carts and trucks access to the land. Nearby there was an old house. It was originally built as a storage house but people did live in it afterwards. It's one of the oldest buildings in New Zealand at 100 years old. It was made of wood and galvanise type metal. Inside there was a big opening in one wall with galvanise all around it for the fire. There were some old bottles and things lying around that the owner found nearby. He said there are lots more in the ground but he hasn't dug them up yet as he doesn't have a safe place to put them. As it is, some of the bottles in the house have been stolen and broken. It started lashing rain while we were in the house so we had to wait there a little while.
Afterwards we walked down to the river. The pathway which was just mud was really slippy after the rain and we had to concentrate really hard not to fall as it was all uphill and downhill. Down at the bottom though we saw some blue ducks which was good as it is the whole reason for the lodge! They looked grey to me but apparently they have a blue patch somewhere. The makes name a whistling kind of sound and the females make a purring type of sound!
Next we walked down to the waterfall. We got a bit of a surprise then as we had to get into kayaks and sail a bit down the river. It's a long time ago since I was in a kayak! Once I managed to get the paddles the right way around and steadied it a bit it was really good as we were going through a narrow enough kind of canyon place which trees all above us. We got fairly close p the waterfall too which was good! It was tough getting back up from there as te steps were really big and slippy and there was a rope to pull ourselves up. I managed to get covered in mud getting up!!
We saw some traps aswell that are set out for ferrets and rats and things. They have a sponsorship programme for the traps. It costs $100 a year and Stray have sponsored 10 of them. We saw the one with Strays name on it and our driver Motors. There was a woman as our guide for this part and she set off the trap so we could hear it! It was really loud!!
She drove us back to the lodge then and I felt I was lucky to survive! I was on the front getting belted with twigs and things!
We had a barbecue then. The Irish guy was the chef so there was plenty of food- sausages, burgers, salad and pasta.
I went back to the lodge then to wash off all the mud! Then we had a campfire outside. There was an outdoor fireplace. The place for the clay shooting was right beside us aswell so we saw some people doing that and there was a wooden log to fire an axe at that the lads got great enjoyment out of! We sat around the fire chatting most of the night. It was good craic. We went for a walk too down the road in the dark as there were millions of stars. It was so clear. None of us knew anything about constellations though so we weren't sure what we were looking at, but if looked gorgeous. There were some shooting stars aswell. I only saw one, but it's the first one I ever saw!