Kurow - Glenmac Farmstay

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The Adventure continues

This area of New Zealand does not get much rain about 12-18 inches a year, So it has rained 2 - 8 inches since Sunday, causing flooding and some road/bridge closures, Lakes and rivers are high.
Weather is warm - about 23 daytime and cool - about 8 in evenings, House is not heated but room has a space heater and heated mattress pad - I could get to love this.

Am getting used to driving on the left side of the road- and today's roads were not too bad. Yesterday we were on some "interesting " roads.

Went riding today - amazing scenery. Amazing hills.
Norm went gliding while I had a lovely afternoon. Was thinking of Sandy Pinkse - Steph - please pass along the info.
Had a lovely massage,then soaked in a private hot tub, beautifully landscaped while watching the ducks and wildlife under a clear blue sky. I happened to be their only customer at the time so got treats,and water - each tub comes with its own private change room and shower -all secluded. very nice. Unique as there are no chemicals at all - each tub is emptied and scrubbed between each set of customers and you can set your own temperature - or change it to suit - repeatedly.
Neat

Am amazed at the wild rabbit population - literally hundreds!
Brits introduced lots of animals for various reasons and now they have turned into amenace as there are no natural predators. rabbits breed as only rabbits can. Our B7B host take to poison and killed 400 - in one field -nd figure there are at ,east twice that left. It's weird to sit and watch them hop all over - literally hundreds of rabbits.
Also have a few problems with wild pigs, deer and elk set free for hunting.
So they imported ferrets and stoats to get rabbits under control - and wiped out many native species of birds who had no previous predators.
balance of nature,

Off to Christchurch tomorrow.
Windy roads,


PS New Zealand has 6 million sheep. I think we have seen about a third of them already . This farm is 4000 acres and has 2200 ewes, plus lambs and rams and 600 cattle. Big place - ALL fenced ! and partitioned into paddocks, Glad that is not my job!

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Photos

Tricky roads north of Queenstown
speed limit is still way too high -usually about 60-80 kph .
Usually 100 KPH through the mountains. Scary.
lots of cyclists to avoid too! Crazy cyclists! Towns here are not close together - often 20 -30km apart.

Typical countyrside
typical farmland

Farmland
I can certainly understand why this land is grazing sheep and not crops. very dry.
NO WAY you would get me on any tractor on this land!

Helping wih chores
Heather bottle feeding Bella- orphaned lamb.

Cabbage tree
This is a very common tree in New Zealand. Base of the leaves apparently is edible. And roots.

Lunch Break.
Notice I am fully protected against the sun.
Except my hands.
they were very red the next few days. They are still peeling.

Mr.Unfriendly
This bull challenged the horses and did not want us on his land. Fortunately the horses did not spook at the cows but his fellow almost charged us.

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