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| Aren’t they adorable? |
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| The wool from one sheep |
New Zealand did not disappoint once again. It has rained off and on and was a little windy and cold but it didn’t stop us from seeing this absolutely beautiful country. The rolling hills and mountains are mesmerizing as we look out the windows of the small touring van.
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| Took a little over 3 minutes and this girl was done! |
Our tour was small, only 6 people so it was really nice. We are in Akaroa today and heading up to see one of the many working sheep farms. Akaroa is the most French inspired spot in all New Zealand. They even have streets named after the first French settlers.
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| Baled and ready to be shipped to the factory. |
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| Doing his job! |
There are Olive, Eucalyptus and Douglas fir trees covering most of the land. We even saw an almond tree down by the harbor. There is this type of bush called Gorse that was introduced by the European settlers and is covering a lot of land in some areas, choking out the vegetation.
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| Herding them up the mountain. |
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| Rainwater captured for feeding to the flock. |
It is similar to Kudzu in America, although Kudzu is a vine. It is hard for them to keep it under control in their working land so the area that’s more overtaken with it is now part of a privately-owned ecological reserve called Hinewai Reserve. Akaroa is actually a volcano and is one of 3 that formed Banks Peninsula between 6 and 12 million years ago.
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| Homemade scones were amazing! |
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| The most interesting plants |
Not a working one, of course. It is called a shield volcano and built almost entirely of fluid lava flows. The only evidence of these flows are what formed these gorgeous mountains, valleys and hills. When we were at the top of the mountain on our way to the farm, we were 2000 feet above sea level. And there are lots and lots of sheep here.
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| The wind causes this shape in some trees. |
We drove up behind a large flock that was being moved along the road. It looked like about 100 sheep or more. We must have come up on them just as they were reaching their destination. They waved and moved the sheep into a fenced in area and we moved on. It was awesome to see! When we arrived at the farm, we were invited back to the sheep shearing area.
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| War memorial |
They can shear one sheep in less than 3 minutes. We timed her and it was a little over, but the sheep wasn’t being very cooperative. They shear them every 8 months. This is a family business as are most of the farms here, but they also run the farm for 3 other farmers since they don’t have the necessary help from family or hired hands. I guess you can say they were outsourced to this farm.
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| Looking through the grapevines (that we had a taste of) |
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| A cute pier in Akaroa |
This farm has been in this family back to the early 1800’s. The dogs were fun to watch work. They have about 6. The farmers said they started out with border collies but they were too slow so they cross bred them with greyhounds so they could have the smart sense of the collie and the speed of the greyhound.
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| Almond tree |
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| Notice that no bugs or disease are on any of the plants and trees. |
They also had some bloodhound mixes that worked well. They are very smart animals and so sweet. After all the demonstrations, we were invited into their home to enjoy some amazing scones, coffee and tea.
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| Chuck said this was me yelling at him! Notice how he’s ignoring me as usual! 😆 |
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The original Akaroa lighthouse started out on Akaroa Heads in 1880. One hundred years later, it was moved to the Akaroa Township, after being replaced in 1977 by an automated light.
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The gardens and little farmhouse were adorable. We really enjoyed our time here in Akora and plan to come back and spend time when not limited to one day tours.
Tomorrow we will be in Wellington, NZ. No tours scheduled, just a relaxing day in town. It will be hard to top today.
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| The fire station was cute |
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| I liked this frog in the Marilyn Monroe pose in the window. |
May God bless you always!
Chuck & Lea Ann
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