Good day to you all!
Fair warning, this post is going to be a long one.....
It has been a little over two weeks since my last post and in those two weeks I have been fortunate enough to experienced places and things that very little people get to. I mentioned in my first post that I would be travelling and working while here in New Zealand and for the past two weeks I have been working/Woofing at a High Country Sheep Station on the South Island in Omarama called Dunstan Downs. Some of you may have heard of Woofing, but for those of you who haven't it is basically where you work for a set amount of hours in exchange for food and a place to sleep. The work varies and you are able to find hosts that interest you.
One of the things I really wanted to do when I decided to come to NZ was to go to a High Country Sheep Station. If there is one thing people know about NZ is that there are a ton of sheep here. In fact, there are more sheep in NZ than People, approximately 31 million sheep and 4 million people. Dunstan Downs is a 5th Generation Station with approximately 9000 sheep and 11000 hectares (just over 27,000 acres) of paradise. Now that i have given you a little background let me fill you in on what I have been doing for the past two weeks.
I hopped off the bus on the 8th in Omarama and was picked up by the man, Charlie, who runs the station and another Woofer, Jess (French,) who had already been there for two weeks and is actually a Shepard in the south of France. Once we arrived at the main house we packed to go out the the back hut for phase 1 of the Autumn Muster. I honestly had no idea what I was in for, but I was ready for the adventure. We loaded up the truck with our bags, suplies for a few days, the dogs, and away we went. It is hard to explain, but basically in order to get to the back hut you drive an a track that weaves its way through mountains. The whole drive one way takes about three hours and it is some of the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen. Probably the best in New Zealand if I had to say. The truck loaded down crawled its way up, down, and around the moutains until we reach the basin, which is where the two huts and yards are located. A river running along the side. 360 degree view of moutains and not another soul in sight. Spectacular.
The next morning was an early start at with a 5am breakfast time. Charlie's mom cooked up a delcious meal for us all and at light we all set out on foot to start mustering sheep. I accompanied Charlie's Mom Geva. As the crow flies the beat that Geva and I did was about 10km long, but that does not take into account the amount of weaving up and down the hillside we did. Geva worked the dogs hearding mobs of sheep into one and I helped as much as possible, but the dogs had a pretty good handle on the situation. It is amazing to watch the dogs work off of both instincts and the commands Geva was giving them. I can' t imagine trying to muster sheep with out them. Our beat took all morning and a little bit into the afternoon. We trekked through the hillside with a mob of about 500 stubborn Merino sheep going through scrub bush, across river crossings, and through rocks. All while watching the sunrise. I can't think of any place would have rather been.
After we mustered the sheep into the yards we grabbed lunch and spent a couple of hours Eye Wigging, Crutching, and drenching approximately 100 hundred sheep just to get a jump start on the next day's work. The process was very effecient and the four of us Charlie, Jock (Charlie's Uncle), Jess, and I got into a good rythem. In a nut shell we hearded the sheep into the wool shed, Jess and I pulled the sheep for Jock and Charlie, drenched them, and then the guys did all of the Eye Wigging and Crutching. After getting our jump start on the next days work we all relaxed that evening with dinner and some nice cold beers.
The next day would be a long one with about 500 hundred sheep to Pull, Eye Wig, Crutch, and drench. We followed the same process as I mentioned above and zipped through mob like a fast oiled machine even with having to deal with unruly sheep. These Merino sheep aree quite stubborn and also fairly big so it really took an effort to pull them for the guys. In order do pull a sheep I basically went into the hold pen grabbed the sheep, turned its head, pushed on its rear so it would drop down, and lifted it by its front legs and drug it on its back to drench it and then back to jock. Once on their backsides sheep tend to not move or at least not move as much, but the buggers definitely put up a good fight and knew how to make it difficult by thrashing there horns side to side into your arms and legs. At the time I hardly noticed how much they did it, but that night I discovered my arms and legs were covered in bruises. It literally looked like someone beat me. When we got down to the last 20 or so Jock have me a turn at the hand piece to give a go at eye wigging. After the first few, some coaching from Jock and him convincing me that I wasn't going to gouge the Sheep's eyeballs out, I actualled ended up doing well. At the end of the day I smelled like a sheep, was soaked in sweat, sheep shit, covered in bruises, tired and sore, but I honestly enjoyed the day. I think I can officially call myself a sheep wrangler too. ;)
The next day we packed up and headed back to the main house. At the main house we helped sand and paint and other general maitenance. Charlie also taugh Jess and I about leatherwork, aas he is an avid leather craftsman. He makes saddles, pouches, gun holsters, bracelets, and pretty much anything you can make out of leather. He taught us how to lace, stitch, wet, mold, and carve leather. I made a belt holster for fencing snips and Jess and I also made a carved pouch for one of his leather cutting knives. I really took an interest in leather crafting and hope to continue it when I get home.
Another day Charlie took Jess and I out hunting for Red Staggs. If you don't know what they look like, you should google it because they are massive. Charlie ended up getting one as well as a rabbitt. Both of which were cooked up and for us to dine on in the proceeding days. I have never eaten venison or rabbitt before and I enjoyed both of them, especially the venison. The meat was so tender it practically melted in your mouthe. Simply delicious. I also got Charlie's recipe for his merinade and hope to use it some day.
Charlie also taught us amout the process that wool goes through from the moment it is shawn to the end product. He explained what a quality wool is, how it is classed, who classes it, how it is sorted, and packaged. The whole process was really interesting. I will do my best to explain the general process to you all. Once the fleece is taken off the sheep it is put onto a sorting table where people comb through it to make sure there is no junk in it. The wool classer then comes and takes a sample of each fleece and classes it from really goood to bad. You can feel the difference between a really good fleece and an average fleece. When you pull a piece of it from the fleece and run your fingers over it a good fleece is smooth and not gritty or harsh feeling. Once the wool is sorted and classes it is then put into stalls based off of its class and then packaged. In order to package it they throw the fleeces into a giant canvas bag that and then it is pressed down by a machine until it meets the desired weight for each bag. Charlie's bags are 180kg.
After a few days at the main house we packed up to go out to the back hut again to muster the remaining sheep. This time there would be more people, dogs, and sheep. Charlie hires 4 men and their dogs each year to help out. When the truck was packed up for the second voayage to the back hut it was definitely packed full. In totall there 7 people, mind you there were only 5 actual seats in the truck so the 2 others (one of them was me) rode on top of the truck crate. There were 25 dogs shoved in the truck crate and a trailer towed behind with all of our gear and supplies. The whole site was kind of funny. The other girl and myself were decked out in layers of clothing sitting on top of this truck with many dogs at our feet, some trying to come out the top. It was a bit chilly, but overall it was a lot of fun and we had the best view out of everyone.
The following few days included mustering roughly 5000 sheep to the yards. Then Eye wigging them with shears and also drenching them. There were plenty of hands, so it all went fairly quickly. Also, in this bunch were sheep that they call "woolies" which are basically sheep that had been missed in the previous seasones muster. These sheep have double the wool on them, hence the name, and look like marshmellows. There ended up being 22 woolies and they all had to be sheared by hand as to not take off too much wool for the upcomming winter. Watching these guys sheer this sheep was impressive. They were quick and managed not to gauge the sheep too many times with the very sharp shears. Once all the woolies were taken care of the job at the back hut was taken care of. On our drive out we would muster the remaining 600 sheep to the yards by the road where they would be drenched as well.
For the last muster I went out with Aaron, one of the hands Charlie had hired. Luckly all of the tramping was downhill so it wasn't too grueling, but my short legs were moving fast to keep pace with him. We found our mob and started to move them around the mountain and then finally to the fence line and then through the gate. Aaron ended up having to go after a small mob that we found quite a way down the hillside and he left me in charge of the larger mob. Luckily for me the sheep were in a cooperative mood and I didn't have to chase them around too much. Although I am sure if anyone were watching me they would of had a good laugh because at a few points there were a few sheep you decided to go a different directions so I had to run down the side of the mountain to cut them off and turn them toward the mob. I didn't have any dogs, just my hands and mouthe to make noise. After a few times of doing this they all fell in order and we made to the fence line and down to the gait. While we waited for Aaron I was able to take some cool pics as well, so it all worked out well. Once Aaron met up with us we continued to make our way down to the yards, but lucky for me my jumping off point was the overlook above the yards where Charlie was waiting for me in his Helicopter! I hadn't gotten the change to ride in it before so he wanted to give me a ride before I left and boy was it fun. We took off and he flew in and out of the gullies, He banked and circled around flying over the sheep. It was a blast and I couldn't have asked for a better day to fly as the sun shined bright and you could see for miles.
After the exciting trip to and from the back hut, both Jess and I would be leaving in leaving in two days. We helped Charlie drench the sheep that we had mustered and then we packed up to leave the following day. Charlie's family was very welcoming and fun to be around. I thoroughly enjoyed my 2 week stay with them and learned so much while being there. The land was like nothing I had seen before and whole experience was awesome. I would go back there in a heartbeat.
There are a lot of photos on the link below, so please take a look and enjoy. Blogs should be coming more frequently so keep an eye out for them .
ttps://www.dropbox.com/sh/oxauwkmevy5kxvk/_GhqzuJdos
Cheers,
Jenna
