The Muster- Grant McMaster: Stewart Island Tales

Disaster says why he thinks Stewart Island should be on everyone's bucket list.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Thanks to Ibi Rura, we catch up with the great Disaster,
but Master once again on the MUSTERA good afternoon, Disaster.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
How are you good afternoon, Andy, good arf and everybody.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Sounds like you've had a pretty good week.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah, I had a great week. I was lucky enough
to go with one of my grandsons who's at school
at Lyrence, went with the Lyrence Form one and two
children down to Stuart Island. Went down on Monday and
came back yesterday. So I'm not sure what Formed one
and two is in the in the new sense, but yeah,
it was a great trip. And you get away with

(00:40):
kids like that, and I actually sort of thought all
my school trips were over, and a lot of people
will be agreeing with that, but you know, I remember
as a young fellow going into Deep Cove, and I
think it was nineteen seventy We went and stayed in there,
and I was in there on school trips with our children.
And yeah, and you know, we're pretty boom and lucky
in Otago and South them with the the the areas

(01:02):
we can give kids options to go to, you know,
likes of Deep Cove, Ball and Large Stewart Island. It's
you know, it's it's so it's so close to where
we live and they're great places to go. So yeah,
thoroughly enjoyed that. And you know it's great to see
get away with those young kids. And you sort of
think of here about the youths today, but you get
those kids and you know, you can certainly see tomorrow's

(01:25):
leaders and amongst a group of children, and they, you
know country kids as well, get into it. Makan And yeah,
there was there were no fights or tears or anything
like that. Everybody enjoyed it and yeah we had time.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Were you pretty handy as the chief?

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Oh yeah, yeah, well I was pretty handy on those dishes.
Actually we had Tina from Ryance, one of the mothers.
She was she was the good sea, was the cock
and we just kept the dishes out of the way
and and things like that. So no, it was good.
You know, and you know those school trips they bring
a bit of money into districts and you know Stuart Island,
you get you know, the ferry over and back. We

(02:02):
went out fishing. You got the you know, you got
your groceries from the from the shop you could order
you the pre order before you went there that was
all done, and you know it went out Conning and
Old Island where they you know, the kids had their
box and had to do various things, and being one
of the responsible adults, had to point them in the

(02:22):
right direction. But you know, out of the whole trap,
I think what the kids looked forward to the most
was every night going down to the wharf and putting
those fishing lines in and catching those little dock stuarts
and little fish like that. You would, you know, by
the streets and the rules that went out, you think
they were bloody marlin fishing. But you know it was
a great place to go. And for anybody that's this
thing that hasn't been there at all and lives in

(02:44):
their great provinces, they get over there because it's a
pretty special place.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
What's the price of appointing Stuart Island grunt?

Speaker 1 (02:51):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
I didn't go into the end of the pub and
and you want to catch me on that one.

Speaker 4 (02:58):
Enough.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
It's all about the kids would over there.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
But you're right about the e events is ef a
vescence of youth and just being you know, the laughingroom.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
The lice is just in fictious, right.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
And just everybody's enjoying being there for the same thing.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Oh exactly. And you know, and a good group of
adults that were there, and you know, everything one thing
in common, you know, basically country people. And yeah, we
had JK. Kenny had a bit of diving gear there,
so we got the odd power and some kinner and
as I said, we got the blue cord off the boat.
That had enough for a nice meal there, and the

(03:31):
children had enough to take home, so that was good.
I see something into my bag as well, one for
the big kids. But yeah, just just a great place
to be and you know, just going over and then
meeting trampers. They would meet trampers on the way. And
one of one of the coolest things that I'll remember
from it was we were coming back from the from
one of these walks of the Horseshoe Bay and you know,

(03:55):
there's a few people at the few of the adults
at the end, and I was Charlie and Charlie and
the kids have gone away ahead of the group, and
they were sitting on a swing bridge and they started
singing songs and the music was just lifting up.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
You know.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
We were still in the bosh and the sound was
incredible and they were just doing song after song and
it was absolutely brilliant. It was like being in a cathedral.
So yeah, pretty special.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Just finally grant you're getting through lambing now by the
sounds of it.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
But how are ground conditions.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Well, the ground conditions are they're not harder and fast,
but well it's had a firm so the hemata today
is fourteen degrees, but it doesn't actually feel like there's
a bit of a wind and it's you know, it's
got the jacket on. Still saw temperats of eleven degrees,
but things and that few guys have been away. It's

(04:47):
even greened up. Well it's yeah, it screened up even
more in a little bit more grass growth. So it's
looking quite good. And it's always a good time of
the year tot. You know, thistles aren't poking out and
anything that's poking snose out of the moments. A few
gorse bushes, so we'll get on with the contract to
coming next week for that hopefully. But know it's it's

(05:07):
it's really it's looking good at the moment. There's still
a lot of water coming out of the out of
the hell various places creeks are running, cracks running normal,
but the water coming out of the hell that would
normally be finished by how is still running and down
the sides of the road. So yeah, the back on
on the back side of the farm there on the
moat lake flats, it's it's a little bit wetter over there,

(05:30):
but the hell the hell's looking good. And what grass
is there at the moment, and you know it's it's
it's probably the best quality grass we have at this
time in the end because it hasn't seen it or
anything like that. And they said before the thistles aren't
poking their ugly little heads out, so it's nice quality feed.
And there's getting a little bit there now in some
blocks to such a few cows around, which i'll get
on the next week. So all on, all the lambs

(05:53):
are yeah, lambs are looking good and looks though most
use haven't got at least one or in two with them,
so said the odd brod burgers skipping around, But we'll
whit try. Generally, Yeah, looking pretty good, but we won't
count the chickens until they had so, which will be
at the end of the month. And we get pull

(06:14):
the Pratley's out good on the grant.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Always good to catch up and glad you enjoyed your
week and you enjoy the weekend as well.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Eh oh, do they get up get a bit more
slate that th school teachers do. I know we take
the mickey out of them, but here are you away
with those kids for a week. They're quite noisy at times.

Speaker 4 (06:30):
Andy laugh out loud with ag proud because life on
the land can be a laughing matter. Brought to us
by sheer Well Data working to help the livestock farmer.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
Should a fire truck actually be renamed a boarded truck?

Speaker 3 (06:50):
Of course?

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Gramcmaster is brought to us by the team at ABI Rural.
That's us over in dumbness for the week. Actually the
best of the Master five am tomorrow. The podcasts going
up shortly. My name's Andy Muller. This has been the
Master around Hockin' Neui thanks to Peter's genetics during the weekend.

Speaker 3 (07:06):
See you Monday.