CHRISTOPHERS COMMENT MAY 2020
Now seems a good time to update this column seeing we are in our 5th week of lockdown. The first 4 were in what was deemed level 4 where we were restricted from doing virtually anything even more so if you were in that “vulnerable “ age group of over 70. It didn't matter that you could be the fittest and healthiest over 70 person we were advised to virtually lockyourself in your house!!.
I could go on but I wont needless to say we are now in alert level 3 ( Not much different although some people can work with restrictions ) and a decision to be made shortly as to whether we are able to go to alert level 2. Not sure what that means but no doubt we will be informed at some stage.
The Farm. One good thing that has emerged is that it is now widely accepted that it will be agriculture that will be the winner in leading us out of the mess that we are going to be in. The
“darling” of the NZ economy which succesive Govt. have focused on is history for the foreseeable future. Tourism.
So back to the saviour of NZ. Our lambing once again wasn't up to what we like and this I think was due to the dry of autumn 2019 which I talked about in my previous newsletter. We finished up at around 156% which was disappointing considering we knew that prime lamb prices were going to be good. And they have been very good up to the early part of the autumn. Then there was a correction brought about by the Chinese new year when their Govt had stocked up on protein and didn't need to keep buying. Swine fever in the pork industry had held the lamb price to historical highs as well.
We were riding on a high ( except for wool ) good lamb prices, plenty of grass growing, 200 bales of silage made, good rain in early December then Boom. Hot days, no rain, grass disappearing and suddenly all our baleage had been used up and we, like many other farmers were looking around the country trying to buy in extra supplements. Not easy when the drought was covering a lot of the North Island. We contacted all our grazers and luckily for us 2 owners were able to take back 118 heifers which helped us a lot. Some rain finally came in late March and when some more came in mid April we finally saw the grass growing again. During this time we were also feeding baleage to the sheep to try and keep their weight up for mating on the 20th March.
Along with others we had trouble with our water supply. Many bores which had been reliable for years suddenly decided to start faltering not helped by a pretty dry winter and Spring. To get us through while we investigated other alternatives we had to buy in severeal loads of water. Luckily we were able to tap into a very reliable stream with a diesel motor and pump and 500 meters of pipe. That solved that problem. The ironic thing was that this was the exact set up my parents used to have for their water supply. Smart Alec son comes along gets rid of it in favour of bores. Oh dear.
So decisions have been made. More baleage made or bought in during Springtime and 50 less dairy cattle in total. Less cattle makes sense because as we fence off more areas of swamp and bush we have lessened our effective grazing area. This year with the help of our Regional Council we have fenced off another 4 ha of mainly native bush and some swamp. Those areas will be planted in 2000 trees we have ordered for June/July.
So what have Janet and I been up to. At the moment we are unable to do a lot. Limited with Lockdown. We haven't been able to get to our beach house at Whangamata since early March but we luckily have good neighbors keeping an eye on it for us.
We were booked to go on a 7 night cruise out of Preservation Inlet culminating in a visit to the Puyseger Point lighthouse in early May. That was also cancelled so our drive down the South Island visiting friends on our way to the cruise was put on the back burner. We had a lovely few days in an apartment at the Mount and during that time we made a visit to White Island which we had tried to do some years earlier but bad weather had intervened. This time the weather was perfect and a we had a very interesting and informative trip with superb guides. It was very sobering and sad to hear that 2 weeks later the volcano erupted with the loss of so may lives including a couple of the guides that we had so much respect for.
Two trips up to the North, the first to Paihia where we had booked to go on a all day house and garden tour around Kerikeri. A highlight on being in that part of the country is to have dinner at the Duke of Marlborough which is the oldest hotel in NZ. The experience never lets you down.
Our second trip was with Susie B. staying at Batley House to be part of a fundraising inititive called Dahlias 4 Dementia to raise money for a dementia unit in Maungataroto. Great to catch up again with the Smales family and also our hosts Rex and Rae along with Sterl and Gaylene.
On our return trip we were booked into Gibbs Farm which is well known for all the huge sculptures spread all over the farm. This farm is only open on set days and all the money raised goes to a specified charity. Judging by the number of people there on our day the charity nominated would have done very well. It was an amazing farm and well worth the time if you get the chance to visit.
Mid March Simon and I decided that instead of talking about walking the Old Ghost Road we would do it. So on the 19th March we flew to Westport from Taupo with SoundsAir. (a very good airline ) to start our walk on the 19th. The OGR is an 85 km walk ( really built for mountain biking ) which takes 5 days and 4 nights starting in Lyell and finishing in Seddonville. Unfortunately the weather was not the best and our views from the highest point of the track (1400 m ) were virtually non existent. However the weather ( which is typical of the area ) did not detract from the whole adventure. Great to get to a hut rather wet and damp and find a fire roaring away. Thanks to Bruce who was a volunteer warden in the Ghost Lake hut and was very welcoming and informative. On our third day we got to our hut ( Stern Valley )mid afternoon, washed in the freezing river and had a late lunch and just started getting ourselves organised ( that means a little kip ) when Simon shakes me awake saying 'Chris get up get up theres a helicopter here for us'. I, in my dozey state, let out a string of expletives about how I wasn't finishing the walk in a helicopter. However the pilot Rob eventually settled us down and said our wives had sent the chopper in because in 2 nights time the country was entering level 4 lockdown and all our flights back to Taupo had been cancelled.We knew nothing of this. Trampers in the hut ( Thank-you Jane, Jacinda and Cathy ) helped us throw things into our packs and in no time at all we were in Murchison. Rob very kindly lent us his ute to get back to Westport where the remaider of our gear was and after returning the ute back to Rob we went to the Westport airport to discover all 3 flights out from there were fully booked the next day.
However the very helpful Leanne suggested we come to the airport 5.30 am in case there were any cancellations. Luckily for us 2 travellers cancelled at 6 am so by 6.15 we were on our way back to Taupo and home by 11 am where our wives immediately put us into isolation for 2 weeks as a precaution. All part of the adventure.
So thats our lot till the next adventure. Take care everyone. One day this lockdown business will be part of our history. One which we will never forget.
CHRISTOPHER
10TH MAY 2020
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