So, to start with, a Station is a huge farm, in Blue Duck’s case 7,200 acres of which 3,700 acres are owned and the balance leased, the owner/tenant is Dan Steele, a pretty impressive guy who has written a book and is hugely forward, progressive and laterally thinking which hasn’t gone down well with all the neighbours. I is worth a read, the book was too heavy to buy so I will need to look for this when I get home.

There is approx 5, 000 sheep, 200 head of beef and suckler cattle ( no dairy – the land is just not conducive for it ), there are some horses for those interested in trekking, you can bring your own horse and have some stabling facilities. There is a team of around 12 working on this farm, they unsurprisingly have a high attrition rate. About a third of the team seem to core longer term employees.

Dan, was out with some sheep as we arrive with his son River aged around 9/10 (the youngest of 4) and he kindly stops and speaks with us, as we had driven the long road into the station we came across a lot of commercial vehicles leaving, it turns out Dan has bought a struggling honey business, another big punt, this definitely fits with the ethos and vision of this farm, however, by Dan’s own admission he knows nothing about bees or honey! They have a lot of Manuka trees so the area is perfect for it and “staff” have come with this business ie they tend to the bees, honey & hives.

We meet Mel next, who seems to be involved mainly with the tourism side of things, meet and greet for both the groups that come and go and the guests for The Chef’s Table Restaurant. Mel gives us an insight into the farm just before dinner that Jodie, the chef has prepared, there is no menu and a big sign that say’s “Food Options: 1st – Take it, 2nd – Leave it!” – love it! We take it and say thank you very much! BYO in this restaurant…

A major area of issue and controversy is pest control – pests/predators come in many forms in NZ, mainly introduced mammals. The key predators of the Kiwi is primarily stoats which decimate chicks and eggs, and dogs alongside ferrets, cats and possums, all contributing to high mortality rates and making predator control vital for Kiwi survival.

Humane traps are widely used killing (normally double sided as is one mammal is killed it attracts others and therefore just makes sense. These are labour intense and whilst mildly effective attracting only “the young, dumb or curious” and do not currently deal with the issue sufficiently.

So, often pest control pellets are used, they are typically cereal based, containing poisons like 1080 (Sodium fluoroacetate), these tend to be flavoured with eg sugar/cinnamon to attract pests and dyed green to deter birds, they are used in bait stations or aerial drops. 1080 is soluble so dissolves into the land and water, hunters hate it, however, it has been very effective. NZ use 90% of the worlds supply of it – it is banned in the USA, suffice to say it is a highly controversial subject, so far it has had a hugely positive impact on conserving particularly endangered birds like The Kiwi.

After dinner we light the fire at the cabins and everyone has agreed to do a party piece, joke, game or a story. This was such good fun and what a laugh. The best of which was Janine who told us a story of her saving a baby goose, whom she named 10-4, his mother had either died or he had got lost, anyway, Janine brought him home and Janine raised him and trained him to fly and when she couldn’t walk or run fast enough, she rode a bike, many drivers stopped as they thought she was being attacked when out with him lol. Her core him was to increase his flight strength and fitness, eventually 10-4’s wingspan was over 8 feet and he was strong and mature. She realised it was time he joined his own kind, he needed to be dehumanised which meant she had to be really tough with him and return him to his natural habitat which meant she and her children had to stop speaking/playing with him, he was no longer allowed in the house and had to go into one of her barns on their farm. Eventually he flew off and joined a flock of migrating geese, she only saw him once again about 1-2 years later when he called for a visit. Great story!

After the party pieces we head out in search of Possum, who evade us on night one, however, some of the team saw some on night two, the Southern Hemisphere sky at Blue Duck is stunning.

The following morning we were up and out for a guided bush safari with Michael, who loads us up and introduces us to the area’s rich history, conservation work and sustainable farming practices. Michael has been at Blue Duck for 7 years, his partner Laura, is the farm manager and has been there approximately 11-12 years with a short break in the middle when she went to work on another Station. She seems to be a formidable girl/woman. He was saying she had come home in poor form the previous evening as she found 50 of the flock of sheep down with “fly strike” – I hope you aren’t having a meal when reading this – broadly flies lay their eggs in the poo at the sheep’s back passage and as you can imagine that can go way past an itchy bum, this has to be cut away as can be fatal and in one case she had hat to slit the sheep’s throat as it was to far gone. That’s farming for you, often brutal, however, this farm has a strict humane ethos, so cruel to be kind.

Michael’s role also involves taking hunting parties out and again they are very strict regarding people’s shooting abilities ie to ensure kill’s are clean.

Mel brings us beautiful cheese and onion scones for mid morning tea, half of the team go up to the high end Chef’s Table Restaurant max 12 diners 8-12 course fine dining menu’s – the chef here is a chap called Jack who had worked on the farm as a young guy then went off and worked in Michelin star restaurants, came back to Dan with the idea of setting up a restaurant and fancy pods on the highest part of the farm with spectacular views – initially it was a pop up and it was so successful that they are fully booked for up to 3 months in advance – approx $950 dollars for meal and overnight, and I thing $1,300 in the Honeymoon pod. It is a stunning set up, and no we didn’t get to go in. One of the girls, Anna, her pals had been and had highly recommended it, Mel explained it is mostly New Zealanders that come and you can get dropped off in your Helicopter if you want to!

The other half of the group go kayaking in a gorgeous part of the river, beautiful waterfall and narrow canyon, I couldn’t resist a swim. Then we swapped over. We have the rest of the day to do what we want and I choose to go back down to the lake, so so relaxing.

We have another Take it or Leave it meal with Jodie at the helm, Lamb tonight, I leave it, however, there was beautiful mash and lots of veg so all good.

As health, well-being and fitness champion lol of the group I offer the opportunity to the group to do an early morning “Walshy’s workout” (Heather Walsh kindly gave me her 2020 Covid Workout plan before I left and the Warriors kindly did a class of it so I knew what I was doing before I left – thank you Heather & Co), anyway we did approx an hour including warm up, work-out, 6 rounds of core and cool down which was great before we get breakfast and leave Blue Duck – I love this place there is just something about it.

Apologies for any errors in my typing I am normally getting this typed up and uploaded when I have WiFi at pace xxx