Day 4 & 5

Yesterday we spent the day travelling form the north island across the ferry to the south island.
We set off first thing in the morning, for TeMania Angus, about 2 hours north of Christchurch. traditionally this would of been a much shorter drive following the coast from Picton past Kaikoura, however the area has been devastated by earthquakes and the road is still cut off. The alternative route is to travel through the mountains through the Lewis pass. This road had been closed off the day before due to a heavy snow fall and was only just opened this morning. It was a spectacular drive with snow everywhere!
We arrived at TeMania Angus just after lunch and was meet with the most spectacular view of both the snow capped mountains, and the ocean. Not a bad place to farm Angus cattle! We were taken by Tim Wilding to the top of their hill country, but unfortunately clouds had come across and limited what would be the most amazing view. After a walk through some true NZ bush to turn a pump on, that pumps out of natural springs from the side of the mountain, we headed back down to meet with the stock manager Will Wilding. We stayed with Will for the rest of the afternoon tagging calves, it was interesting to see the system they used which limited human error. Then after a downpour of soaking rain, we retreated back to the ute to have a quick look over the yearling bulls. By this time we had to set off to get to Christchurch for the Night.
We would like to thank Tom, Katie and Will Wilding for their time.

Driving through the snow

TeMania Sale Ring

TeMania Infinity 04379 with his jewels proudly on the wall

View from the top

Tom Wilding & Murk Tagging a Calf