Having a Go at the Long Blow

The title of this post is a phrase used by sheep shearers to describe the maneuver used to shave the side of the sheep- ineptly shown below. We spotted a sign Saturday that said,"Shear a Sheep...TODAY!!" So, of course, we pulled over and signed up for a tour of the sheep farm. The farmer consistently cares for about 5,000 sheep - using them for wool and meat production. The first hour of the tour was a car ride around the farm with one of the farmers. She explained the process to us and answered all of our questions (as silly as they probably seemed to her). It was interesting to hear her perspective on the farming industry and see a little behind the scenes operations. We've seen sheep pretty much constantly since arriving, so it was fun to see the farms up close and personal. Deer farming is also really big in New Zealand because of a huge demand from Japan. The horns from a deer - while still soft and fleshy - are used as an aphrodisiac.

Sheep shearing is HUGE in New Zealand and the guys who do it for a living travel all around the world, following the season. The farm we visited had a video of the world record setting day when a team of six men sheared about 5000 sheep in 9 hours. The world record holder can shear 720 sheep in 9 hours. I sheared about 3ft of one sheep in about four minutes. We also got to see the farmer work with a sheep dog while he demonstrated the dogs ability to herd the sheep from a huge field into the shearing barn.

From Waiau Downs Farm we continued South through Invercargill for lunch and on to Dunedin for the night. The next day, Sunday, we kayaked around the Otago Peninsula with a guide. The peninsula is most famous for its Albatross population, but we also saw penguins, a sea lion, and several fur seals. The weather wasn't great, but it was still fun to see so much wildlife. At one point one of the seals swam up right next to boat and looked at Nicole - probably about three feet away.


We stayed in Dunedin again Sunday night. Monday we drove from Dunedin up to Mount Cook National Park, one of the largest mountains in the New Zealand Southern Alps. Nicole was feeling a little under the weather so she picked a nice cafe to read while I 'hiked' up to one of the glaciers. While the pictures may look similar to the fjiordlands, it's a totally different environment than any of the west coast. While the fjiordlands are sort of like the Puget Sound and Olympic National Park - wet and green. At times almost tropical. Mount Cook was more like the Cascade Mountain range in Central Washington and Oregon - dry and rugged. The hike parralled the path of the Tasman Glacier - a much longer but flater glacier than either Fox or Franz Josef. I didn't have the equipement or guide to hike on the glacier, but the track was plenty close.


If you look closely at the picture below you can see a hawk that flew into the picture of me in front of the mountains. If you zoom even closer you can just barely make out that it is holding a piece of meat that it caught. I had seen the hawk a couple times before, but at the moment of the picture it was in the middle of flying three circles around me with the meat. Showing off a bit, I suppose.

We camped at the base of Mount Cook and hit the road again this morning. We're now in Kaikoura for the night - tired of driving and within range of wine country. Nicole is napping right now in preparation for a early start out to the wineries before we catch a ferry back over to the North Island.