This is part 10, the next-to-last in a series of travelogues about a vacation trip down under for myself, my partner, and 3 other family members.
The story so far:
Part 1 included a tour of Sydney, Australia and nearby areas, ending with our cruise ship sailing away from Sydney Harbour.
Part 2 focussed on a ship-board attraction, blowing hot glass at sea.
Part 3 included a visit to a wildlife sanctuary, to see Tasmanian Devils and other fascinating animals from Down Under.
Part 4 was a drive-by sailing through the Sounds of New Zealand.
Part 5 explored the city of Dunedin in what was a cool, drizzly, spring day in New Zealand’s south-east.
Part 6 had us docked in Akaroa NZ, with a bus trip over to Christchurch, visiting a sheep farm along the way.
Part 7 took us to New Zealand’s capital city Wellington, on the southern tip of the north island.
Part 8 had a look at the growing of kiwifruit near Tauranga, NZ.
Part 9 was a visit to the picturesque Bay of Islands, NZ.
Tonight, we reach our final destination, disembarking at the port of Auckland, NZ.
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Tonight’s feature presentation: Auckland, NZ
Note: The photos in this diary are hosted on flickr. You can see larger versions of each image by right-clicking on the image, and selecting “Open image in new tab”. Or the equivalent for your device/operating system/browser.
The larger photos should also be in the correct proportion when displayed separately, rather than with distortion in the body of the diary.
After almost two full weeks living on our home away from home, the cruise ship Celebrity Solstice, and briefly absorbing small portions of Australia and New Zealand, it was time to get off the ship.
The ship arrived at the port of Auckland at around 6AM on a Saturday morning. Sniffer dogs were waiting for us in the immigration line, but we didn’t see anybody get pulled aside on that morning.
One of the things that cruise lines promote heavily is excursions. They have organized tour groups at every stop, for which you sign up and pay in advance. Some people don’t pay attention to the excursions offered at the final stop, as they just want to be on their way to the airport and go home.
But we had planned to stay on in Auckland. My partner and I were staying four nights, while the three other family members travelling with us were staying two nights. And so, we booked an excursion that is a tour for a few hours, followed by drop-off at our hotel. This is a huge convenience, as the luggage gets loaded into the tour bus, we go out to see something, and then our luggage is right there and ready for hotel check in at the end.
As it would turn out, the particular excursion that we chose for that day was the favorite of all of us for the entire two weeks. And it was pretty much a last-minute decision, as we all discussed the logistics of getting from the cruise ship terminal to the hotel, early in the morning, when our hotel rooms would almost certainly not be ready for us anyway.
We got on the designated tour bus along with about a dozen other people. The lineup of other passengers waiting for taxis at the terminal was quite long:
We headed out of town, driving for about an hour away from the city, through very beautiful countryside.
Soon enough, we arrived at SheepWorld.
Their logo is on a flag near the highway.
Just outside the entrance to SheepWorld, is a Cockatoo that comes with a warning sign.
He didn’t have much to say on this particular day, but is quite a beautiful bird.
An artist’s impression, in metal, of a sheep.
Our entire tour group, about 17 or 18 of us, was led into a small indoor demonstration area with wooden bleachers-style seating. Along one outside edge, I spotted some delicately beautiful webbing.
Although we had already been to two other sheep farms on our journey, this man named John gave us the best presentation of all. It was a very informative discussion, with audience Q&A, about the actual business of raising sheep, harvesting and selling the wool, selecting and training the dogs, competitive sheep shearing, and so on.
Taking us to the adjacent area outdoors, John also led us through a demonstration of the dogs herding the sheep.
You can almost hear the dog thinking: “Can I go get them now? Huh? Huh? Can I? Can I? Say the word, I’m ready!”
And he’s off and running!
Following are some video clips that I shot at SheepWorld. First up, a Q&A session hosted by John, with our tour group.
There was a demo of a sorting operation: as the sheep stream past in single file, they are sorted into male/female pens according to tags on their ears. This is a quick-moving operation, and the sorter opens and closes gates to route the sheep appropriately.
Right after that, John chose a member of the audience to be trained to operate the gates, and go through a live session with real sheep streaming through to be sorted. He chose my partner. After a quick training session, Partner had to work the gates as the sheep moved by quickly. He got some right, and some wrong, with a tongue-in-cheek scolding by John for the errors. I have the whole thing on video, but won’t share that one for privacy reasons. Needless to say, the family loves it.
Next, a discussion of shearing, prior to the shearing demo.
And then an actual sheep shearing.
And a discussion in the aftermath of the shearing.
Finally, outside, a short clip of the dogs at work.
Some of the young lambs soaked up the sun.
While others chose a shady spot to hang out.
As we left SheepWorld, I spotted this barrier along the side of the highway made of stones held in by chain link.
The tour bus stopped for a set lunch at a hotel/pub along the way. Outside the pub, was this weathered old stump.
By mid-afternoon, our bus dropped us off at our hotel back in the city. After two weeks on the ship, the hotel rooms felt huge by comparison to the ship’s cabins.
The next and final instalment (yippee!, you might be saying) of this travel series will focus on things we saw within the city of Auckland itself.
Top comments for Sunday May 8, 2016
From a2nite:
This is a good comment from GreyHawk in Mark Sumner’s “Abbreviated Pundit Round-up” about the creation of Trump & his voters.
From ZenTrainer:
This comment by quaoar in gchaucher2’s diary “I’m with eeff re: rec button change is stupid” about how we don't like the rec button on the top. It's exactly what I was thinking. I would rather just type a comment saying I recommend rather than scroll all that way - it would be faster.
I really liked this comment by Kalisiin about making the fight as a transgendered person. Well said. And may the fight go well, Kalisiin. We’ll help! In every way we can!
From Puddytat:
Don't miss this powerful anecdote by mlarson59. It’s in “NV-04 update. Lucy Flores Bernie endoresement pays off” by Murfster35.
Top mojo for Saturday May 8, 2016
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