Taxi goes mustering

Taxi was allowed to go out on the bike trailer today for her first look at mustering. This weird looking piece of equipment (above) has recently turned up out there. Yet another form of testing being done before our landscape changes forever.

It wasn't the clearest day but you can clearly see the earthworks in the distance now. They move closer every day and soon I will not be allowed to ride beyond the first air strip till they have finished, which will take a bit over a year.
We went to whats known as the canoe paddock. As you can see its a reasonable size so no 5 minute task to muster. Taxi stayed on the trailer at this point to avoid any muck ups!
This huge and extremely straight log was supposedly meant to have been removed years ago so a Waka could be carved out of it. Getting it up out of the paddock must have been too hard so sadly it has rotted where it lays.

Old heading dog "Fish" looking tiny in this landscape.
Taxi above on the trailer and Rove the young heading dog waiting and watching below

Once the smaller mobs were gatheredinto slightly larger mobs, Taxi was allowed off and her and I climbed out one side of the paddock behind one mob.
We had help from the huntaways over on the other ridge to keep the sheep going forward and Taxi got to do a bit of wooffing. Her first time out though so she wasn't too sure what to do. She far prefers the cattle who make a lot of noise and get very excited.

She did very well though for her first time. Never ran through the mob and didn't cause any 'breaks'. Once they were all up onto the main track she worked a side with the older dogs.

Whatever happens she is still just a good mate for me. Happy to follow me around and is nicely obedient.

Te A has been put up for sale. She has settled heaps but may really need more regular riding than she will get her to be consistent.
One interested party so far who may view her over xmas time.

Our stolen and wrecked car is now under investigation by the insurance company. The details in which it was taken are extremely unusual. We the innocent party in all this are left one vehicle down and with it now being so close to Christmas its likely we won't be seeing a solution for quite some time yet.

Santa can bugger off as far as I'm concerned this year and let the New Year get under way.

On a happier note I have paid the deposit for stage 5 of the Great NZ Trek. Taharoa to Taumaranui. A whole new area to ride through. Now I have just 3 mths to find a whole heap of money to get there.