Friday 6th November. Up early to meet with the New Zealand film crew contracted by Ffermio (Welsh rural affairs program) to capture some video of our visit to Alistair Poulson’s farm. Ffermio had provided me with a script, which had been faxed to our Hotel in Dubai and the remit was to basically get six minutes of footage, which included conversation between myself and Alistair contrasting our farming systems, with some welfare pointers and backdrop shots of his sheep and the dramatic scenery.
Sounds simple! But, with no director present, the need to film for around four hours to get the required six minutes, a film crew made up of a camera man who had just survived three open heart surgery operations, but still felt that he should take some action shots from the open sun roof of his people carrier, and a soundman who epitomised the stereotypical, ageing, drum playing, but still cool surfing dude, who worked occasionally to finance his trips to the beach with his board. Get the picture! We had a lot of fun, Alistair and his sheep were very patient throughout and I think we landed up with something that the Ffermio editing team can work with…maybe. Sorry about the 17 takes of my closing piece to camera Mererid!
We left the farm in the early afternoon, having had a great time, made some new friends who we shall definitely keep in touch with, and a greater understanding of sheep farming in the North Island of New Zealand.
Our next stop was with Dr David Bayvel and his wife Leischen at Waikanae, just north of Wellington. David is Director of Animal Welfare within the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) and has been the key facilitator with regard to organising the study tour. David also holds a key position within the OIE in Paris and is very prominent within the animal welfare world. A veterinarian by profession and originally from Scotland, but some body who seems to have no problem in supporting the very successful All Black rugby team in his adopted country.
I made sure that we arrived at the agreed time because I had been told that one of David’s favourite sayings is "courteous with people, ruthless with time"Dinner was at a local restaurant, and we reflected with David and Leischen on the events of our first week in new Zealand. A week that had flown by due to the intensity of the program, but we had met some great people, had some great insights and collected through note taking, literature and digitally recorded interviews, valuable material for that report which shall have to be written at some stage!!
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