Hi all,
As we promised before we will tell you about the weekend trip to the Blue Duck Station, which we won at the Stray-Mazing Race two weeks ago.
Enjoy reading our summary ☺
Friday afternoon we started the trip with some guys from different companies of the Auckland travel industry and 3 Stray-operators. We started the trip with a 5-hour-drive to National Park, where we slept the first night at the cosy Pukenui Lodge.
After arriving and checking out our rooms, we had a couple of drinks, while chatting with the all participants of the trip in the lodge bar which looked like ski hut. Our INTERNeX-Crew finished the evening by getting a kiwi charade lesson by Chris.
What a start into the weekend.
Saturday
Next morning we enjoyed a nice breakfast buffet at the lodge before it was time to continue our travel.
After a short photo session of all trip members in front of a massive wood kiwi figure we went on to the Blue Dock Lodge – which seems to be in the middle of nowhere!
As we arrived at the final destination the owner of the farm Dan Steele warmly welcomed us. At the Blue Duck Cafe we got an introduction about the farm, how Dan is implementing his conservation program for the area and his future tourism plans.
In the sunny afternoon we started the full adventure, with doing some axe throwing, jet boating and hunting with our local guide Dan, who told us some really interesting stories about the land and showed us the historic places of the Whanganui River.
Despite not being successful in shooting wild goats we enjoyed a delicious dinner in the Lodge’s Café. Suddenly the doors of the Café opened and to all our surprise one of Dan’s staff members entered the room riding a horse.
In the evening we relaxed at the big fireplace in front of our lodge. While it was raining we talked, drank and played some funny games…feeling really comfortable sitting dry on some sheltered benches in front of the bonfire.
Sunday
After the nice bonfire party we had to get up pretty early in order to enjoy a long and exciting day on the farm.
The Irish kitchen crew prepared a perfect Sunday morning breakfast for all of us including scrambled eggs, sausages, toast and ham. Now we were ready to get out in the wild again. Our program for the day was horse riding, a farm drive in the awesome 4WD Polaris and kayaking on the Whanganui river.
What we didn’t know when we started our farm tour was that Dan planned to go for a quick goat hunt again. Obviously all of us agreed on postponing the kayaking and search for some tasty looking goats. While driving through the farm and spotting for goats Dan told us more interesting historical stories about his land and suddenly we stopped because one of us saw two goats standing on a hill. Unfortunately they rushed into some bushes before we had the chance to get a clear shot. However after a further 5-minute drive our hunt became successful and we ended the hunt with having a goat in the back of the Polaris.
Now we continued our tour by walking through the bush down to the Whanganui river where we jumped on some kayaks and paddled through an absolutely stunning scenery.
As we were too many people to do the Sunday activities in one group, we were split up in two groups and it was now time to change activities. That means that we left the kayaking station and made our way to the horses, which were waiting for bringing us back home.
The heavy rain couldn’t stop us from enjoying the 1 ½ hour ride on our horses through the farm land. For some of us it was the first time in their life to ride a horse, which made this day an unforgettable experience for them.
We arrived back at the Blue Duck Café completely cold and wet but nobody could take the smile off our faces. After a coffee and some time go defrost in the warm and cosy café it was time for us to leave the farm and get back toAuckland.
All in all we had a wonderful weekend full of surprises and cool activities. We definitely recommend you guys to go to the Blue Duck Station yourself and experience an amazing farm weekend.
For more pictures of the weekend check out: http://www.facebook.com/INTERNeX
Our thanks for the weekend go to Dan and his Blue Duck Crew and of course Stray and their entertaining and funny drivers who organised the weekend for us.
Cheers
Chris, Caroline & Paul
INTERNeX New Zealand 