Day 5: Agrodome and Hot Water Beach

We again headed out early, but on good news, I'm feeling better. Our first stop was the Agrodome.

This place was a show farm...well it's a farm but they went through and showed us what they do. Their focus was on the sheep.

So we first went to the nursery where they had baby animals. There were bunnies, and guine pigs and lambs and baby goats and a cow! The baby goats were my favorite cause they were the most energetic and they actually ran toward you and tried to eat everything you stuck in their pen. They were so cute!

They had a sheep presentation that we got to see; it was really cool cause they brought out 19 types of sheep that they have on the farm. It was interesting to see them all together to see the differences between them. Not all sheep are the same!

 

After presenting the types of sheep, they sheered one on stage for us and they explained how it was good for the sheep just like cutting hair. Makes sense, and the sheep seems pretty happy afterwards.

Then they brought out a cow and asked a volunteer from the audience to come and milk it. Well my family was very supportive of me volunteering that they lifted my arm for me, how nice. Well they got me up on stage and yep, I milked the cow. Not my most favorite thing but it was different. And squishy....

Anyway, they brought a bunch of kids up on stage to feed the baby goats and one of the children ran away from the baby goats. He up and ran terrorized by the little kids, how hilarious. 

Then they brought out their dogs. The dogs were cool, so in new Zealand they bred their border collies with German shepherds to have them have more of a hunter dog in the breed. So they were also a little bigger. There were a couple different types of herding dogs, you got your sight dogs and there are the pushing breed whose main job is to bark and bark loud and a lot. It was fun seeing them work. They had the sight dogs herd ducks and then as a finally they had all the dogs walk on top of the sheep and stand on them. It was a lot of fun.

We then hit the store and I was able to get my sheep skin. One of the souvenirs I wanted. My grandparent served their mission in New Zealand and this is what they brought back to all their children. So yeah I wanted one too! Mom also was able to get a very nice sweater made out of wool and possum fir. It is really warm and I found it interesting that their possum is the little creature from Willow. The one they found on the island...did anyone watch that film... just me.... cool.

Well it was then time for our Farm tour. We got onto a cart that was being pulled by a tractor. We were then brought to a cow pen with all the different kinds of cows that they have here in new Zealand. They had our oreo cows that we saw earlier.

After the cows we moved on the sheep pen. I noticed that all the sheep start running towards us and then the guide pulled out a bucket and gave us feed to give to them. We were able to get out of the cart and feed the sheep! They were a bit dirty but that's ok... (unlike Tasha I brought multiple jeans to change into, poor Tasha thought she would be wearing shorts the whole time)

In any case, after the feed was gone the sheep meandered off and we climbed back on the cart to go to the Llama pen where we go to feed them again. They also showed us a few red deer that they had explaining that they brought them in for hunting but they are becoming a big pest in some areas.

We stopped in the orchard area where they had a bunch of olive tree. They used to make olive oil but because of all the regulation being put in place they gave up. They did let us try their homemade honey and kiwi juice. so good! We also got to walk around in a Kiwi grove, I found it interesting because they have make and female trees that they plant, for every male tree they plant a female. Weird cause I thought all plants produced fruit but apparently not.

After our farm adventure they brought us back to the main area and we got there just in time to watch an actual dog trial, where a cute little dog named Blue herd sheep around a paddock and get them through obstacles and fences. That was really fun.

When we were done at the Agrodome we had to drive for three hours to Corramandal. Did I mention how hilly this place is? Well it is and they are beautiful but after about a couple hours I was starting to get sick from all the turns. The road was just so twisty! I survived and we got to Corramandal and the Hot water Beach.

We parked and rented a shovel and went down to the beach. Now the ocean water is cold, but if you dig in a certain spot you are able to hit a hot springs that is flowing under the beach so you can dig yourself a really warm pool right next to a cold beach. We found one, but we were still in our normal clothes. So we grabbed our swimsuits and found a cave. Yep I changed in a cave along the beach, it was actually really cool. I stood guard while Tasha Changed and She guarded for me. Then it was back to digging the pool. We had a few others join us; these guys were from Germany and they were just here for a summer work vacation. It was fun just chatting with them and seeing where they were in life. Apparently coming to New Zealand for a work vacation is a common thing to do. We met many young people doing the same thing. After a while the sand was burning hot and the tide was coming in so it was time to go.

We got to our hotel ok and went to a fisherman's club for dinner. The place was very rowdy for old people but the steamed fish was good. I was anxious to get back to the hotel to take a shower. The beach's sand was very sticky and I had to scrape a lot of it off in the shower. It was like bits of shale or something. In any case a shower was most welcome

Adventure is out there....

even on a farm