A successful spring muster took place on Tuesday 12th and Wednesday 13th November at Lake Heron Station. I was lucky enough to take part, and took the camera along to capture the experience.
Hardy merino wethers from Lake Heron Station spend their winter up the Rakaia, and Spring sees them mustered back to the station. The muster involves crossing the sheep over branches of the Rakaia, Jagged Stream and Washbourne Creek. This year’s muster was later than usual due to the Labour weekend snowfall and recent heavy rain in the headwaters, causing river levels to run high.
The mustering team consisted of station owner Philip Todhunter, stock manager Clayton Smith, shepherds Archie Moore and Noah McLean, Robbie Harper, Nina Erasmus, Sarah Hawkins, Dylan Burgess and Anna Munro. Plus a bunch of dogs absolutely fizzing!
We set out from the station early on the Tuesday for an honest climb up Cascade Hill. She’s a right old puff but the views make it all worthwhile. The first rays of morning sun were magic as they appeared over Glenfalloch, bathing the climbing shepherds in hazy golden light. Echoes rang out across the tussock faces with the first bark up of the day, clearing any wethers from the hillside. Despite a very tough season in the high country, the sheep looked to have wintered well. We continued our slog up Cascade Hill with regular bark-ups, watching the ribbons of Lake Stream grow smaller below.
At the top the boys headed off to muster the basin above the Thompsons Hut, and I got the cruisy beat spotting sheep from the peak. There were some wily old merinos grazing in a few tricky spots, but Clayton managed to nabble them with some clever dog work. My sister Nina and Philip cleared the wether paddock and Prospect Hill, no mean feat for Nina at 5 months pregnant! What a machine. Over the afternoon the shepherds mustered wethers from their own beats, communicating over radio and sending them drifting down the ridges. Little handfuls of sheep became larger mobs, and eventually the merinos were mustered across the wether paddock and through the final gate into Tarndale.
The following morning saw us dropped in various spots up the Rakaia River by Scott Rodgers from Heli Rural. I took my son, Charlie on the second day which was quite the adventure for a 1 year old! We were dropped at the Washbourne Hut, but merinos travel as far up the river as the Reischek Hut. The scenery up the Rakaia is truly breath-taking, and with Charlie chirping away in the backpack there was nowhere I’d have rather been. We found pockets of sheep here and there and set them drifting down the Rakaia River flats. A few wethers tried to do the dirty, holing up in thick patches of matagouri to avoid being mustered, and Archie and Clayton spent a decent stint crawling through scrub to retrieve them. There was a fair bit of water in the rivers but the merinos crossed well with some keen encouragement from the huntaways. Eventually we crossed the Washbourne Creek and met up with the mustering crew lower down the river, sending the sheep zig zagging up the final face.
Sheep and shepherds covered 20-30km over the day, the Norwester whipping up in the afternoon in tune with a classic Spring day in the high country.