The first aerial bait drop was carried out successfully on June 24th. After building up for this over the last 12 months it was a relief to get this first one completed.

With help from Orama staff and volunteers we herded the cattle over the hill to Orama on Sunday. Guy Warwick delivered the bait on Monday which was unloaded and stored in the garage. The team of five from ARC, Natural Logic and the computer expert arrived by Great Barrier Airlines at 1pm on Tuesday as did the truck with the fuel cells and food. Two staff from D.o.C joined us to help transfer the bait from the 25kg paper bags into the 500kg loading bags. The helicopter arrived later in the afternoon with a crew of two loaders and pilot. All stayed overnight in Seaview Cottage and the D.o.C single quarters and were up at first light on Wednesday.

The first order of the day was to transfer George Wilson from D.o.C and Jonathon Boow from ARC to the Broken Islands then a safety briefing for all participants. Two volunteers from Orama and Gary Winger assisted Dave Galloway and Rebecca Kemp from the ARC to hand distribute the bait around the dwellings in Karaka Bay while FitzRoy House staff and Halema and Hillary from D.o.C hand distributed bait around the buildings here.

Meanwhile the helicopter was busy flying its grid over the peninsula dropping the Pestoff brodificoum pellets before heading for the Broken Islands to do the same.

The weather was overcast with very little wind and no rain. We ended up with two days clear before the rain came. Not ideal as we would have preferred three days dry but we can’t control the weather!