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The Muster- Grant McMaster: Burn Offs! · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Grant Disaster McMaster joins us once again. He's based at
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Closeburn Station on the edges of Lake Wakatipu. Good afternoon, Disaster.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: The logical song.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, probably doesn't apply to me, but good afternoon, Andy.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Good afternoon, everybody. Good tune for all that.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: A really good tune as we see the weather continue
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: from where it's been over the past seven days, especially
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: here in Gore. A bit of a correction over the
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: next couple, I understand. Up there at Closeburn Station, how
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: have you fared?
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Oh, we've had a beautiful week. It was since we
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: spoke last week and had the shorts on and really great,
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: nice and warm, good grass growth again. But just blue,
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: strong wind last night in the early hours of this
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: morning and woke up to, you know, windy and what
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: have you. Next thing it started raining and we've had
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: about 10 or 12 or 12 mils in sort of
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: a couple of hours. So now it's cleared again and
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: it's nice and warm and just ideal for the grass
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: to keep growing. The soil temperature is something about 11.5 degrees.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: So all things considered, the feed is starting to come back.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. And very good over at the hills,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: as I said last week, it's growing. We'll be able to...
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: start to work on that ground to get some grass in. But, yeah,
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: it's just good quality feed at the moment. The cows
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: and calves are sort of going in, and then the
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: hogget's following behind. Got two-dew hues over there lambing. They're
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: a bit slow, actually, off the mark, and I just
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: feel as though there's... I think it's going back to
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: the dry rate, that 10% dry rate we had in
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: the two-dews that the blood tests haven't showed anything up.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: But there's... there's just something not right. You know, normally
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: when we start lambing, it can be a bit quiet
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: for the first few days. Well, it just seems to
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: be in the tutus especially, yeah, they're just not ripping
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: into it as yet. So there's something there where I
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: just can't get my head around, but there'll be someone
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: smarter than me that does. But things really warmed up
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: after we spoke last week about just about, as I
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: got off the phone with you, I looked across to
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: my neighbours at Walder Peak and there was a fire
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: going that looked like the Kingston Fly and the Earns
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Lord collided in the lake and there was smoke everywhere. So, yeah,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: a pretty, well, a good burn in some ways, but
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: a bit frightening for a lot of people and others.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: You would have had a front row seat watching that unfold.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely, just straight across from our lounge. In fact,
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: after speaking to you and having my lunch, I... I
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: had to wait a couple of hours just to look
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: at what was happening. It was pretty impressive. So basically,
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: it started where the, what they call the Walter Peak tours,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: and that's where real services, that real journey, sorry, where
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: the Earnslaw goes over and all the punters go over
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: to where the old original Walter Peak homestead is. Now,
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: that is not actually part of the Walter Peak farm
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: and operations, Walter Peak Station, but they have an area
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: around there that's probably got, might have 100 acres or so.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: And I think they were having a bit of a clean-up.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: This was the previous week, and they had some rubbish
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: to burn. I'm just not quite sure what it was,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: but apparently they had a permit for it. They lit it,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: and a week later, after we got off the air,
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: it reignited and went straight round the Walter Peak faces
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: and up what they call McKinleys. So people that are
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: a bit familiar with up here, Table Bays, the bay that...
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: the gully up there is McKinley's and that's the boundary
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: between Waterpeak Station and Cecil Peak and McKinley's Creek goes
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: right up, it goes about 16km to basically the top
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: of the head of the Lockheed so it just whistled
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: around there and there wasn't a lot of wind but
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: the fire gets its own wind going and it just
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: went around and down through McKinley's with a lot of
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: fuel load there because those places used to be burned
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: on a regular basis but probably the last fire up
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: to there might have been 30 years ago. And it
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: got across the McKinleys and up onto Cecil Peak Station,
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: and it burnt right to the top there, on the
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: top of Walder Peak, and brought itself in. That night,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: it was almost like you'd see footage of a volcano
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: at night with all the eruptions, and that's what it
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: looked like. It was pretty spectacular. I got up about
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: 3 o'clock to have a look and yeah it had
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: sort of died a little bit by then and by
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: the morning the day the morning had cooled off and
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: it was sort of it was just abating that way
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: and but this morning with that wind when I had
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: a look outside there was a little bit of smoke
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: coming from the original part over there now it wasn't
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: going anywhere it was still in a blackened area but
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: you know, it takes a lot to put a fire
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: out when it gets underground. And, you know, we've seen
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: that from all the footage you see in Portugal, Spain
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: and Canada and Australia. So it's a pretty, it's a
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: reminder to people that just the danger of fire and
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: especially in a place like Queenstown with all these, with
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: all the fuel load and the wild and pines we have,
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: and you've heard me bang on about them for a
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: long time, but I think people are becoming more aware
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: throughout the whole country of just what Walden Pines are doing.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: And that $ 70 million that we got from the government
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: a while ago for the country is being put to
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: good use. But it just shows you, living in areas
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: like this, if it had been on this side of
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: the lake, well, it would be a totally different story
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: and something to be very mindful of.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Therefore, controlled burn-offs is something that needs to be looked
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: at long-term on a lot of properties up there, Grant?
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Well, that... Yes, and, you know, Ben Loman, my next-door neighbour,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: John Foster, he does controlled burns. You know, I was
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: doing controlled burns, but some of them became uncontrolled, but
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: we won't... We won't go there. We won't stretch that
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: old scab. But, you know, they've got their place, and,
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: you know, people always use fire to prevent fire in
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: the old days and all around the world. So I
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: know it's just the fact that these trees there amongst
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: a lot of houses... And it's difficult to try and
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: eradicate without, you know, you can't burn those areas. But yeah,
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: it makes a lot of people nervous and, you know,
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: and understandably.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Your grandson was on TV recently on Seven Sharp, and
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: he'd come across as a chip off the old block
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: by looking at what his grandfather's like, but he talked
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: about the Chatham Islands. We talked about going over there
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: just off the cuff about a year ago, but all
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: of a sudden your grandson's had more offers than we have.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: Well, it's unbelievable, isn't it? I didn't even know Bo
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: knew where the Chatham Islands was, but for people that
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: aren't familiar, he was on Seven Sharp the other night,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: and he's quite keen on Woolwyn and... done a few
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: things with that and so that's what the article was
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: about and next thing you know they were asking various
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: things and he said he'd really like to go to
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: the chatham islands and farm there and i said well
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: i wonder where that's come from because you know i've
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: pushed it on this high high rating show a couple
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: of years and no one said anything well no but
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: i'm gonna have to go with him because he's had
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: three offers people have come in and said i will
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: take you to the chatham islands so You know, he
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: might have to take the farming tour there if we
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: ever get her on the ground.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Well, Jamie Mackay's made noises about wanting to go over
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: there at one time too. I don't think he's been
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: there before. So very much king of the food chain
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: might look at doing that as well. But that'll be
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: an awesome trip.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, especially if my grandson Beau at eight years
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: of age leads it. I can tell you what, it'll
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: be very entertaining.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Hey, good on you, Grant. Always appreciate your time on
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: the muster. And hopefully that smoke just peters out and
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: you enjoy the next seven days. We'll catch you next Tuesday.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll do that. The smoke's definitely stopped and it's
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: raining again now. So that helps our grass growth too
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: because it's nice and warm outside.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Good on you, Grant. Thank you.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Okay, take care.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Grant Disaster McMaster brought to you every week here by
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: the team at RB Rural. Matt Ward's up next farming
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: at Morton Mains.