over and out

So much has happened in the last two months – grasshopper plague, cyclone, helicopter ride, hot water showers (!). I’ll start with the helicopter excursion – the station uses a helicopter to assist in mustering (rounding up the cattle) and to oversee the station property. Currently there are only about 2500 cattle on the property of 550,000 acres – about 8000 were sold/shipped out to greener pastures since there has been a drought for the last couple of years -- not enough growing on the land to support the cattle numbers. However, we’ve had lots of rain this year, so the land is green and in another year they will bring back the cattle numbers. The pilot had to do a few days of surveying fence lines and checking remote corners of the property, so lucky me got a helicopter ride for about an hour. The homestead is on the banks of the Ashburton which eventually flows out to the coast near the town of Onslow (see grey dot on map) which is about 25km away. With all the recent rains, there are lots of huge red puddles and the Ashburton rose to just the underside of the bridge.