Rain, Wind & Mustering Sheep

Tuesday November 15, 2011
The day just didn't start right. The skies were grey and the winds were stiff. We went down to the Wanaka iSite to see if we could book a fishing trip. The lake was riled up & the white caps were not a good sign. They said we could try for tomorrow. So, we decided to try a trek on the Rob Roy Glacier trail. Tracy got directions & we drove alongside the lake, then out of town, then we got on a gravel road. Next there were signs stating Cattle Stops (gratings that cattle will not walk across) for the next 20KM. We passed field after field of sheep, cattle, deer, elk & amazing large stud bulls. It is lambing season in NZ & there are thousands of cute frisky lambs running around. They have very long tails & flick them vigorously when playing, running & nursing from the yews. We got to a Ford (water running across the road) & decided to try it. We made it easily & several hundred yards down the road we picked up a young couple from the Netherlands. We continued to drive & passed thru 7 more Fords & finally reached the Rob Roy Track trail head. The rain was coming down.

We geared up in full rain gear & headed up the trail, which crossed a large pasture along a river. The wind was at gale force & the rain stung like little pellets hitting our faces. We walked on & saw that even the sheep were seeking shelter. After leaning into the wind & rain for a half hour we turned back. Tracy was disappointed as the Rob Roy trek was one of her targeted highlights of our trip. We walked back to the car park & headed back. After fording 8 streams we pulled over to the side of the road to watch 2 young guys with their 4 sheep herding dogs herd a flock of sheep down from the mountainside. The kiwi word for this is "mustering" the sheep. Sheep are not known for their intelligence. The dogs ran up & down the mountainside as directed by the whistles of the men. The sheep ran back & forth. It was a circus. They finally drove the sheep to the corner of the field & thru the gate. Of course there were a dozen cattle mixed in & a half dozen lambs that kept running away from the dogs. They finally got them headed down the road towards another field. Did we mention how stupid sheep were? Several sheep would turn back towards their old field & suddenly 50 sheep were headed in the wrong direction. Lambs would run wildly in the wrong direction. What fun. We could have enjoyed a bottle of wine watching this show. A lamb forced its way thru a fence alongside the road & ran with its mother on the opposite side until it reached the corner of the field. It repeatedly tried to ram its way thru the fence. A shepherd hopped the fence to retrieve it & as soon as he cleared the fence it made its way back to its mother.

We drove on & made our way back to Wanaka. We took in a short trek to Diamond Lake and Lake Wanaka lookout.

We went to dinner & Vic had blue cod & chips & Tracy had a spiced squid dish. We washed down these snacks with NV Arcadia Brut Central Otago & '10 Lake Hayes Pinot Noir. We walked down the street to another restaurant for a night cap & it was empty. We ordered an '09 Tarras Vineyard The Steppes Pinot Noir & '09 Clearview Cape Kidnappers Merlot Hawkes Bay. We retired for the evening & hoped for better weather tomorrow.