Up rather early - excited to see the views from my picture window. Wasn't disappointed! In fact, the sun was shining, the sky blue ... and the wind had dissipated.
After breakfast, we headed up to Temple Peak Station (15 minutes away) with Philip's (GM)lovely wife Karen, home to Mandy & Mark Hassleman. We turned up to meet Mandy and a man (Mark) came out of a bush with a chainsaw ... saw Tim and said "you are a bloody hairy bastard". We cried with laughter! Mandy is an expert with felt ... and weaving ... with Merino wool. It's a true art form - and I was taught how start making a felt ... sweater, rug, hat ... I am not artistic in any way, shape or form - but I quite enjoyed learning a new skill!
From there we drove to the Wyuna Sheep Station. Wyuna is an Aboriginal word meaning "clear as the sky". I met up with Dave Anderson who runs the stables and who had two lovely horses waiting for me - Rio being my ride. We trotted down to the where the sheep are kept and Alastair Wallace ... the sheep farmer. There were a couple of hundred sheep in the paddock .. with 8 who had not been sheared! First, Alastair showed me how to herd sheep using his 4 pups: Kip, Roy, Cash & Jed. Then we went into the sheep shearing shed ... and Alastair showed me how to shear a sheep. Some shearers can do upto 400 sheep a day ... !
It's not easy shearing a sheep ... Alastair did a great job on his two ... but I rather mangled my poor one. While she did get sheared, she also got a wee cut and was left looking rather "half cut". Poor baby ran out with her buddies ... not happy! A sheep's coat is around 5 inches thick, is oily, dirty and round the back, covered in poo & wee. I got covered in all of the above - thankfully the Blanket Bay housekeeping staff cleaned up my clothes in double quick time!
After a quick lunch, we met up with Grimmer & Royce from Dart River Adventures. We then zoomed up the river doing very quick 360 degree turns and more ... at high speed. It actually was quite fun .. and I didn't get too wet! To really get the measure of this part of the South Island you should really see it from the sky in a heli and from the water by boat.
We did have the 5 course dinner tonight! Yum!
Tomorrow - back to Queenstown and what will be a very sad farewell to Blanket Bay ... I have a good feeling that I will be back though!
Song of the Day: I Remember That - Prefab Sprout
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blZAYjK9-nA
Weather: Glorious!
bert & ernie
mandy and some felt
rio
rio takes me for a trot
kip - the gorgeous pup
sheep herding
alastair - pro-farmer and sheep shearer followed by amateur shearer
callan grimmer
whooooosh!
