“On a Mish” #180 Follow a Man Named John Smith (Part Four). Curraghmore Station. Mackenzie Country. 11.8.2009. During my time working at the Te Anau Glow Worm Caves, I would occasionally meet the trappers who were going to do pest control work in the mountains which the caves lay under. Knowing how ‘hilly’ the area is gave me a real appreciation of their toughness and obvious love for the environment and the birds living in it, who unfortunately has been so badly damaged by introduced nasties….
My single winter season seems like nothing when compared with the dudes who have put in years in the field. However, it was something, and certainly made me appreciate the effort of those working above the caves. My time following a man named John Smith really gave me an insight into the work done by the scientists who are looking for a new and better way to eradicate the unwanted.
After dinner Ray explained the mayhem that was about to go down. The plan was to travel around the same area we had counted scat in and grab a couple of rabbits. A far from simple task, but a bloody entertaining one!
The team jumped into the farm manager’s ute, but it was only me and the farmer sitting in the cab. Ray and John Smith were on the back, John Smith holding a spotlight and Ray lying on an old mattress with a capture sack. I had my doubts as we made our way towards the paddocks, but everything had been new to me so far so maybe capturing a live rabbit isn’t as difficult as I thought? I was wrong!
For the next couple of hours, we zoomed around the hilly paddocks bagging rabbits. It was one of the craziest things I have every done because I knew how undulating the land was, and we were flying around full throttle in the pitch-black darkness of the night. I have never been in a vehicle and hit my head on the roof as many times as that night in the Mackenzie Country!
It took a few hours but eventually we got the trackers on the rabbits and then it was time to head home next morning. While we were back in Christchurch the area was hit by an aerial drop of one of Ray’s baits. After a couple of weeks, we returned to Carraghmore Station to recount the scat and track down the rabbits with the GPS trackers on them. Yet another job that seemed simple at first, but then you realise that rabbits live in warrens (holes) and digging them out isn’t easy when the ground is frozen solid with a Mackenzie Country frost!
It took a couple of days to find all of the rabbits and get the trackers back, and with the data gained from that and the scat count Ray could return to Christchurch to go over the numbers. Once again, I got a dose of what Ray is used to, and that was another inconclusive result. Like with the work in Whataroa, it was gutting to hear that all of the work we did didn’t conclude with a breakthrough. Oh well, that’s the way science works sometimes and even if we hadn’t got the desired results, I will never forget my time tangled in West Coast vines, or when we bounced around the Mackenzie Country chasing rabbits in the dark.
My winter following a man named John Smith was definitely a unique one. It was all for a good cause and one close to my heart knowing how valuable our flora and fauna really is. Plus it was a very interesting way to fill in the time before I returned to the Routeburn Track to resume my life as a hiking guide…
