Farm to Zoo – Part Two!

This morning we got a message from our host that the sheep had been rounded up and the shearing was beginning! We quickly finished our breakfast and headed up the hill, on foot this time, to see the process! We got to the top not too winded from the climb, the driveway to their house is the steepest part, the dirt road up to the paddocks is less steep and we can stop to catch the views, and our breath! The sheep were indeed in the pens, many had already been shorn and the shearer and his helper were busy!

A roly-poly ewe trying to hide at the back of the chute!

The shearer’s sheep dog, laying quietly as if saying ‘my job is done!’. Maybe an Australian shepherd – border collie mix?

The shearer in action, almost done with this ewe, her wool piling up on the ground in front of her! He will shear about 100 sheep today, half from this ‘small holding’ and half from the neighbor’s.

The shorn sheep looking for the exit!

Who’s next? I heard the shearer talking with Jack, the brown sheep will be last, to keep from mixing the white wool with the brown.

I heard the shearer and Jack talking of ‘dog tucker’ which we learned from the “Footrot Flats” play is the euphemism for old sheep that have outlived their usefulness as farm animals, or rams that are not suitable as breeders, and can be used as dog food now! These ewes in the chute are the last to be shorn of Jack’s flock. The next process was to catch up the ram and his companion, a wethers (castrated male) to shear. We decided to head back down the hill to stay out of the way of the “circus” Jack said that roundup would be!

Since our Zealandia Dusk Tour ticket entitled us to a visit the next day, we wanted to take advantage of that. We drove down to Karori and re-entered the world of Zealandia. Once inside the fenced park we headed up to the outer paths, away from the general hubub and enjoyed a wonderful 4 mile hike through the forest.

Across the valley we could see the exclusion fence on the far hillside. It encloses the entire 500+acres of the sanctuary!

We passed by this trimmed tree and puzzled at the jigsaw cutout. We decided it might be a nest box with a removable door?

Further along we learned about the black tree-fern, the largest of the tree ferns, this one towering about 60 feet above us!

As we walked on paths far from the crowds we encountered several different birds. This kaka parrot actually came to check us out! It looked us up and down then took off just over our heads, showing off its flight abilities through the trees!

We also heard a sweet birdsong, stopped and listened and then saw a unique bird, a tieke, or saddleback bird. A robin sized black bird with an orange ‘saddleback’ and bright red wattles at the corners of their beak! Not only one, but two! A pair? Or a parent and young? We don’t know. They were close to extinction at the end of the 20th century but are slowly recovering due to the predator trapping program and predator free sanctuaries like Zealandia!

We headed back down to the upper reservoir, then to the pathway past the tuatara research area.

A tuatara basking in the sun.

We finished our daytime self-guided tour in the visitor center where we got head-exploding information about Zealandia and came away with this quote;

Farm;

Early this afternoon Jack kindly gave us a ride up to the paddocks in the side-by-side so we could meander in the meadows and take pictures. It was a decidedly better day for pictures today too! Clouds passed above us, giving us some sunny moments and though the breeze blew, as it does just about every day here we think, it wasn’t too cold or strong.

The ram greeted us at a gate, demanding his tribute of pelleted feed for entrance into ‘his’ paddock. We didn’t have any feed with us, so we passed by.

The hills rolled out in every direction. To the south and west you can see the windmills that capture that breeze as it flows from Cook Strait up the coastal hills.

The friendliest of the Highland cows that they “keep as pets now since the bull died” Jack told us. Some of the ladies are in their mid teens, they can live to about 20, considered a longer lifespan than most other breeds of cattle.

In another paddock is the herd of ewes and this years lambs. This was as close as we could get to them!

This is the paddock guarded by the ram. In the background is the shearing pen with a shade sail installed for the imminent shearing session.

Zoo;

Not really a zoo, but a wildlife sanctuary, originally called the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, now called “Zealandia”. Katy and Steve that we met on Friday gave rave reviews of the night tour they took the night before. We tried to book a night tour, touted to give you a possible glimpse of kiwi, but they were all booked up, so we settled for a dusk tour. So after our farm photo tour we got cleaned up, ate a quick dinner and headed the short winding drive down to Karori and Zealandia for our 7:15pm Dusk Tour! We arrived and along with 10 other guests on our tour (a limit of 12 per tour, so book early!) we stepped into the 500+ acre fenced sanctuary to see the sun setting behind the hills overlooking a reservoir.

A centerpiece of the sanctuary, the reservoir was originally the water source for Wellington. When it was discovered that it sits over an active fault line the dams were decommissioned and the upper reservoir was partly drained. A good history of the transfer into a wildlife sanctuary can be found HERE.

Our tour guide explained the fencing system that keeps the introduced predator species like cats, dogs, weasels, stoats, rats, mice, possums, etc. OUT of the sanctuary. The native bird species that can fly are able to come and go from the sanctuary at their pleasure. The flightless birds, like kiwi and takahe and the reptile tuatara were introduced INTO the fenced sanctuary and have been thriving and reproducing. An interesting note is that before humans arrived in New Zealand about 1200 years ago the only land mammals were 2 species of small bats (marine mammals like seals and whales have been around the coast)! All other mammals have been brought intentionally or not into NZ!

A flightless takahe that is familiar with people strutted around us as it’s history and status as a threatened species was explained. There are only about 500 left in the world.

There is a fenced area inside the fenced sanctuary that is a tuatara research area. I remember learning about ‘the tuatara, the living fossil with a third eye’ back in high school! I don’t remember that it is a species confined to New Zealand!

We saw several tuatara, looking like lizards, but they are not lizards, they are however reptiles and the only surviving member of their order Rhynchocephalia. This one sports an identifying beaded ‘necklace’ pierced onto the back of its neck.

At another stop on our tour we observed several kaka, a large parrot, at a feeding station. The feeders are to encourage the parrots to return to the sanctuary, a safer place to nest, although they are free to fly in and out of the sanctuary.

Under the feeding station was a rare duck, a pateke or brown teal, ‘dabbling’ its feet and rooting around in the gravel with its bill for anything the kaka drop, or insects, to eat.

As it darkened we walked through a wetland, on boardwalks over a stream, as our guide pointed out with a red flashlight, tiny fish in the stream, insects bored into tree trunks, and weta that look like giant crickets. As it darkened further she pointed out glow worms under an embankment, and we heard, but did not see kiwi, just waking up for their nocturnal foraging!

We highly recommend Zealandia dusk and night tours! And your ticket allows you entrance the next day so you can check out the sanctuaries diurnal creatures!

Today we treated ourselves to a unique experience, arranged through an AirBnB “Explore things to do near Makara” offer. A few days ago we chose the “Mystery Dining with a colorful past” and emailed the host at Thistle Inn for a lunch date for today. We were confirmed and just after noon we bussed into town, getting off near the restaurant, walking the few blocks in the beautiful sunny, warm breeze. We were greeted and seated at a table for two in the sunroom and started off with glasses of bubbly! We were served a 4 course dinner with 3 paired wines and personal service with historical insight into the building!

First course; oysters, raw and battered with a watermelon mignonette sauce.

The paired wine was a delicious, smooth Pinot Gris. Since Robert doesn’t drink white wine I got both glasses of bubbly and both glasses of Pinot Gris!

Second course; smoked Kahawai (commonly called Australian salmon, but it is a marine perch) with pickled onion, and gherkins. Delicious!

Third course; main course, a serving of fish and a serving of lamb, guess which I chose! Again, mouthwatering delicious! Paired with a Pinot Noir, which Robert got both glasses of!

Finishing off with brown sugar and cinnamon panna cotta with honey & creme fraiche gelato and blueberries.

We moved to the bar for more liquid dessert after a short walk around the building.

When we started at 1pm the restaurant was busy with lunch time diners, bustling wait staff and lots of conversation swirling around. When we finished our 4 courses we were about the only ones in the place and enjoyed a quiet round of drinks!

A picture circa 1866 of the Thistle Inn on the left and Old St. Paul’s Church on the right, when both were practically waterfront properties! The current waterfront is now about 600m away and filled with modern buildings, the railway station and the ferry and cruise ship docks!

Our hosts, Jack and Jill, invited us up the hill where they live, for tea, coffee and scones this morning. We walked up the steep driveway bordered by a lush growth of flowers and vegetation and enjoyed a wonderful few hours getting to know them. The property goes further uphill to paddocks where they keep Highland cattle and sheep in the pastures they have spent 50 years creating and maintaining! After we enjoyed the fresh, warm, savory scones and the pastries with our coffee and tea, Jack offered to take us on a tour of the upper reaches of the farm. We took him up on it and headed out to the barn where he revved up the side by side farm vehicle and drove us up the steep road through their forest tract to meet the sheep and cattle. Unfortunately neither of us brought our phone/camera so we didn’t get any pictures of the rolling meadows with huge distant windmills poking up into the mist above us, the many shaggy highland cattle Jack knows by name, the ram who demands his toll of feed to allow us into his pastures, the roly-poly sheep awaiting their shearing next week, the system of pond, water tanks, solar panels and piping to fill the water troughs, and the fencing, roadways, forest tracts and native bush that have all been created or restored by Jack & Jill and their friends! It is amazing! We hope to get another chance to see the farm and take pictures next week. Until then, here are pictures of their labor of love garden around “Te Whare Iti” (te-fare-eetee) or ‘the small house’.

Tall lilies along the front of the house.

Fuschias by the entrance.

Rhododendrons outside the huge wall window in the living room.

The wall window that lets in so much light and nature!

The windmill overlooking the stream garden across the driveway.

And the rose bush lining the driveway going uphill to Jack & Jill’s house and farm.

Today was grey and rainy so we did nothing. It was hard to do nothing so we drove down to the suburb of Karori where we usually catch the bus to get some stamps to mail some cards to people we have met here in NZ. Here’s a map of the Wellington area. The green is where we have driven, starting at the B&B near Makara Beach. Generally the red is where we have hiked, the blue is where we have taken the bus, and the purple is where we have biked.

We have gone further afield by bus and train, but we have found lots to do and see right here in the Wellington Harbour area! And there are still a few adventures awaiting us!