Sheep, Eels and Pancakes
This morning started as most mornings do…the blaring annoying-ness of my phone’s alarm waking me up about 6 hours earlier than it should. I hit snooze a couple of times, then joined the parents for a wonderful breakfast with Alastair and Shirley, our hosts at the Oak Lodge Homestay. To do the experience of the Oak Lodge Homestay justice, the hosts must be explained. Shirley is a wonderfully warm, generous, and hospitable woman; the kind of person who comforts you even if you’ve never met her before. I spoke about this in the last post, but she had an extra room open and allowed me to take it, free of charge, so I could have some privacy. Most places wouldn’t even bring up the option of another room, much less offer it for free.
And Alastair, what a wonderful, salt-of-the-earth man. When you picture a New Zealand sheep farmer, you picture Alastair. Worn Levi’s tucked into rubber boots, with a gray raw wool sweater hanging off his muscular frame. Large, calloused hands and a weathered face, with many stories to tell. He mentioned that a year prior he had sold his sheep farm, which had been in the family for three generations and over one hundred years, and bought the bed and breakfast with his wife Shirley. He now has only 80 sheep on the bed and breakfast’s campus, a far cry from the three thousand he cared for on the farm. Three thousand! And he didn’t have any help, it was only him. (He spoke of hiring a few extra hands at peak months, but still!) He showed us a magazine of ”a New Zealand sheep farmer”, which was him on the cover. The article read of his story and his sheep-raising methods; it was fascinating to read about him and his previous vocation. It was truly the authentic, real New Zealand experience. And they’re not even paying me to say this!
Oak Lodge Homestay
It was engrossing for me to be on the pseudo-farm at the bed and breakfast, with a real, live, legitamate sheep farmer. If there were classes of sheep farmers, Alastair would be considered world class. I’ve been studying Animal Sciences for the past 1+ years, and we’ve covered sheep and sheep production; to experience it in the flesh made it all come alive.
After breakfast Alastair took us outside to show us around and give us a bit of a tour. It had been dark when we rolled in the previous night and we hadn’t seen much. He took us to a bridge under which a river flew, and we fed the eels! It was so ridiculous, and man were they big. Some were as big as two metres, which is HUGE! And they were thick! We threw white bread down and one swam towards it, then another, and by the end we had maybe fifteen or twenty eels fighting over the bread and stirring up the river.
He then took us to the sheep and let us help him feed them. Working at VMAIL (Veterinary Medicine Animal Isolation Lab-shout out to y’all!) I had seen sheep before, so I wasn’t a total newbie. Something about New Zealand sheep is special though, they’re iconic. Almost like celebrities. Australia has the Opera House; New Zealand has sheep. It was so picturesque and wonderful, feeding the sheep with the paddock in front of us, the green hills and mountains as a backdrop.
Then (and my favorite part) Alastair took us to his dogs. They were wonderful! And sheep-herding dogs at that! He had two border collies who were highly trained, and highly energized. We loved on them for a while. Then he had this other dog, a large black-and-tan boy, which he informed us was a Huntaway. He gave us a quick demo of how they were commanded by whistles,
and had the Huntaway jump over the fence on command a couple times. It was a bittersweet experience (more sweet than bitter) because it reminded me of Beau, my brother and my family’s dog who passed away this summer at the age of fourteen. He was an Australian Shepherd/Border Collie mix, straight sheep-herding in his blood. Alastair hadn’t heard of Australian Shepherds, which I found interesting. We loved on the dogs a bit, then pushed off to our next stop-Hanmer Springs.
Entry to the garden. So beautiful!
Alastair gave us an alternate route to Hamner Springs, which went through the small coastal village of Punakaiki. According to Alastair, it was supposed to show us the most beautiful scenery NZ had to offer. Again we went through mountains on incredibly windy roads, seeing pastures of sheep and cattle, mountains, hills, rivers, and waterfalls. We stopped off at the small visitors center/tourist trap in Punakaiki, situated right on the coast. Dad and I came upon a woman selling beautiful New Zealand jade, called greenstone, and she pulled us in and didn’t let go. It was probably the combination of beautiful stones and masterful sales(wo)manship, but before it was all done we walked away with three stones between us. I also picked up a beautiful bowl made out of the core of a fern tree-it’s just stunning. I’ll put a picture of it below…
Treefern Bowl
The real attraction of Punakaiki is its ‘Pancake Rocks’ rock formation, which look exactly how they sound. Discs upon discs of rock, but all solid. Quite a beautiful freak of nature. It also had blowholes and places where the water carved paths through the rocks. The water would rush in and crash against the walls, making a spectacular sight.
Near the coast was the tropical fauna; the further you got away from it the less tropical it became, i.e. no tree ferns or palm trees. Deep green and lush bushes and trees were abundant, and carpeted the sides of the mountains.
I got a few good shots in Punakaiki, but we decided we should push on, as usual, to try to beat the cover of darkness.
Regret is truly one of the most terrible feelings. It gnaws away at you and ruins everything in its path until you either compromise with it or accept defeat. When making a purchase of something that I will not have the chance to purchase again I am many times overcome by the tuggings of regret. Not regret at the moment, but possible regret in the future. For instance, when I was at Adidas looking at the All-Blacks gear, I lusted after a jersey AND a track-suit top. I didn’t have enough money to buy both, so it was one or the other. And I couldn’t make up my mind. It took literally a half-hour for me to reason through the decision, force away the pangs of possible-regret, and make the actual purchase.
The same thing happened today with the New Zealand jade. I saw a stone that I wanted, and it was different from the rest. I thought maybe I should get a smooth one rather than a jagged one, but decided on the jagged stone. And now I’m afraid that I will regret not getting a smooth one. WHAT THE HELL! Why is it that these trivial things, things that don’t matter in the slightest in the future, take up so much of my mental space? It’s the memories that matter, not the things. And I KNOW this! Ugh.
And I’ve had it forever, this preoccupation with regret. One of my earliest memories is being at the Enchanted Forest, a wonderful (well, used to be) theme park nestled in a hillside forest along I-5. I remember a tunnel-like attraction that went below the path, and I was really intrigued but too nervous to try it. Dad decided to go for it and check it out, without me, and I regretted not doing it for the rest of the day. I know it’s dumb, but man has it’s stuck with me. Burned into my brain like a red-hot iron pressed to a calves rump. Weird, eh?
Anyways, after Punakaiki we drove on towards Hanmer Springs, finally arriving in, you guessed it, darkness. Our lodging was to be at the Cheltenham House. It was a grand old house that was converted into a bed and breakfast, with a wonderful common area complete with a fire and another snookers table, one of the largest I’ve ever seen. Dad was even blown away! We went out into the little town of Hanmer Springs to get some grub, and I ended up ordering pheasant and sharing a jug of New Zealand beer with dad.
Pheasant
After dinner dad and I had a go at snookers, and I came oh-so-close to beating him. Legitimately close! Close as in I had one ball left on the table when it was all over. Ugh…next time!
That table was HUGE! With tiny pockets...
After being at so many bed and breakfasts you begin to notice patterns. For one, they don’t have heating in New Zealand. At all. Every night and evey morning the rooms would be absolutely freezing. (It didn’t help that in Greymouth I discovered right before we left that my windows were wide open…) Space heaters were supplied, but still! Also, the towel racks are all heated. I thought this was cool at first, but it really only heated the part of the towel which was in contact with it, which was like 1/50th of the blanket. Seemed like a bit of a waste.
All in all, another wonderful day in the land of NZ!
I’ve asked for feedback from a friend and she told me that I’ve been describing the fauna too much in these NZ posts, and there’s a reason for that. The thing about New Zealand is nature is pretty much all it has-beautiful and luscious nature. Everything is built around it, and that is why one goes to New Zealand-for the wildness and non-development of it. The point is taken though, and I’m gonna back off of it. Just know that the scenery is amazing and mind-blowing. Wholly serene.
Kelly said,
April 29, 2009 at 2:56 pm
I like hearing about the fauna. I love the beauty of nature, and you’re getting to experience a beautiful place! I’m jealous!
You know you can still go thru that tunnel at The Enchanted Forrest. It’s kinda nasty in there now, but you could do it, just to say/know you did. I worked there for a summer one year…good times!
Peter said,
April 29, 2009 at 3:19 pm
ah, so you know what tunnel I’m talkin about! is it cool at all? haha
Kelly said,
May 1, 2009 at 4:21 pm
It was cool when I was a kid, then again as a person about your age (we would go and take some liquor with us!). The haunted house is definitely still awesome, and even better tipsy! LOL
Robin Milhausen » Flock House said,
May 10, 2009 at 9:43 pm
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