After 2 wonderfully smooth days of sailing, we have finally arrived in New Zealand. What a beautiful country! ! ! !
Today, I took a 4 and 1/2 hour Coast to Coast tour which took us to the Tasman Sea on the West Coast. At our first stop, we went to visit a sheep farm. Upon arrival, we were warmly greeted by the owners and invited to partake in a lovely feast of pretty homemade sandwiches and baked goods along with all the tea and coffee we could drink.
The hostess told us that the doors to her home were open and that we should f eel free to enter and look around to see how they live. Their home was designed by them and built 7 years ago. It is a very nice spacious 3 bedroom bungalow, located on the top a hill that overlooks the lush surrounding countryside.
After the refreshments, we witnessed the sheering of 2 sheep, followed by a demonstration of how the dog herds the sheep. It was really interesting. The farm also raises deer to sell as venison. The deer were in a coral. They were quite tame, some came to the fence and allowed themselves to be petted and scratched behind the ears.
The flower garden on that property is huge compared to my back yard, and is much more beautiful. Situated on the side of the hill, it has all kinds of pathways running through the tall trees and shrubs and contains flowers of all descriptions. – Very lovely. People come here to celebrate their wedding. Obviously, this is a very prosperous farm.
Upon leaving here, we drove to the rugged coast where we had the opportunity to see and photograph gannets (a local bird) and if we chose to, climb down to the beach and watch the surfers. It was a lovely looking beach, but the sand was black. I don’t think too many people went down - – I know I started to, n but then remembered that if I went down, I also had to climb back up, and it was quite a hike.
The ride to and from the coast took us past such beautiful, lush countryside. Now I know what people mean when they say that New Zealand is one of the most beautiful countries in the world.
In the afternoon, I went in search of an optometrist, because the nose section of my tri focals broke, and I was hoping that it could either be replaced or repaired. Today is a civic holiday here, but I found a mall that was open and left my glasses there. I was assured that if they could do the repair, the glasses would be ready between noon and 1 p.m. tomorrow. I`m keeping my fingers crossed.
From the mall, I went in search of the grocery store that was close by. I asked a young Asiatic gentleman for directions and he insisted on walking me to the location. (There are so many wonderful and kind people in the world.) He moved here from China about 7 years ago to have a better chance at finding work. His parents and siblings are still in China and he is looking forward to going back for a visit in the near future.
At the store I looked at the wine selection so that I could hopefully get some local wine. (Although we are not allowed to bring hard liquor aboard to use in our cabins, we are allowed to bring in wine and beer. They want us to purchase our hard liquor at the bars onboard.) There was a male passenger from the ship who hails from Vancouver who was also shopping for wine and we struck up a conversation. (His female companion was at the museum) He suggested that if we bought a lot, we could perhaps share a cab back to the ship. As it turned out, we only got 2 bottles each, so we walked back, stopping along the way to sample a local beer. It is really easy to strike up a conversation in this environment, and one does meet very interesting people. In the pub we got talking to a couple of locals and they seemed delighted to talk to us ``world travellers``.
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