A flight to Queenstown,
a rental car to Cromwell
and a U-turn back to Northburn Station
to speak at the
TBfree New Zealand Southern South Island meeting.
When I say speak I mean
30 minutes on Young Farmers.
After an excellent lunch and a fair bit of wine
the auidence was almost completely unresponsive,
but none fell asleep
so yay me.
( not me for drinking though, cause I don't).
My favourite high country farmer friend
Nessie was at the meeting.
Which (I forgot to explain TBFree) was about the plan
for the 2012-13 and even 2014
to eradicate bovine TB.
They are doing a great job but
you gotta keep your foot on the throttle.
Apparently you do this by killing lots of possums.
Possums like to have noturnal chats with cattle
and infect the cattle with TB.
Can't eat TB infected cattle.
Delightful Nessie extended an invite to stay with her and her Ben
for the weekend at their Blackhills Station.
I am often surprised about how my life is turning out.
One of the things I find surprising is that I know
high country farmers and get to spend time on their runs.
Ten years ago I would never imagine that I'd sit
on the front verandah of a grand old station
listening to weaned lambs bleat for their mums
enjoying the last of the summer's heat.
After the TBfree meeting,
I followed Ness to Alexandra to buy groceries
before heading back to the farm.
It was hot, deliciously hot.
We headed down to the
Matakanui* Combined Rugby Club at Omakau.
Ben is the Club President but
Nessie holds a far more important role.
She holds the bar licence.
We watched the last 20 minutes of the rugby game
which Ben was dressed for but watched from the sidelines.
Apparently it doesn’t matter who won because it was pre-season
(The “Tak”*team lost) and everyone knows
it’s the camaraderie in the Club rooms afterwards that counts.
It’s been years since I’ve served behind a bar but
I found I got into the groove under Nessie’s accomplished guidance.
It also helped that 99.9% of the after-match function attendees
ordered “a big bottle of Speights”.
Even I can open a bottle and make change for eight bucks.
There were no small bottles of Speights by the way.
Everyone was tired so it wasn't a late night.
We were all sleepy heads and
got to sleep after a bit of a chat back home in the lounge.
A fun day, not my normal day, I liked it.
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