Pitting wits with sheep
Ihadn’t planned to stand naked amid sheep excrement on Pitt Island, but the tiny jewel of the Chatham archipelago is certainly an oasis of contrasts and surprises. The little Cessna had just rolled to a stop, after a ‘beat up’ to drive stock from the grass strip, and I stepped from under the wing to be greeted by a genial chap astride a mechanical Clydesdale (more commonly referred to as Honda).
“We are going hunting now!” he blurted as we shook hands. So I rooted around in my luggage for my hunting clobber and made a hasty change of attire right there, in the middle of a paddock and under the watchful gaze of the locals: a lone calf, two weka, and seven dopey sheep.
Situated 800km off the New Zealand’s east coast, Pitt Island is home to a rare breed of Saxony merino originally established on nearby South-East Island in 1841. These animals are now
