Sheep Shearing Fun

Hey Everyone,

Sar and I are stuck in Invercargill at the moment due to some good Southland weather (Rainy and VERY windy). Well, we havn't done too much since our last post so this will be a quickie. We spent the past 5 days in Te Anau: the gateway to Milford Sound. Our first day out of Queenstown to Milford took an unexpected twist because the earthquake had caused some landslides and this closed the road to Milford Sound for a number of days. We made the most of one of the most beautiful days of the trip so far exploring the world famous road to Milford. The highlight being a great hike up Key Summit, which is the first day of the Routeburn hike. The views of the snowcovered peaks are not done justice by the photos. It turned out to be a great day!

We went for an overnight cruise in Milford Sound the following evening. It was so cool. The road up is amazing. We got our taste for winter with the snowcovered ground and massive mountains. The coolest part was going through the Homer tunnel...a man made tunnel through the mountains with only enough room for one coach at most points (our driver had to reverse halfway back up the tunnel). When we got to the other side of the tunnel it was amazing to see how dramatic the mountains are. They are so much steeper then any I have seen before. It was even more evident when we reached the Fiord where they meet the ocean. Once we arrived we had a few minutes before we boarded our boat for the next part of our journey. We cruised out to the Tasman sea, I jumped into a Kayak and Sar jumped into the speed boat and we explored the Fiord. I got soaked and Sar saw a Penguin (who got the better deal??). We had a whole meal of food and it was delicious. We woke up in the morning to a great surprise! Milford came alive with the rain. I have never seen so many waterfalls in my life...one about every 10 feet. Again the road was closed so we got trapped on the boat for a few more hours (and a free lunch). Unfortunately our bus thought we were stuck for the day and left without us...leaving us trapped in Te Anau for 3 more days...oh well!

Today we did a farm tour in Tuatapere, we got to feed little lambs and shear some ewes. Sar got to drive the quad bike with everyone else in the trailer (Dave you would've be proud!). Sar was amazed at how much wool comes off of a sheep (they look really skinny without all the wool). I had the pleasure of shearing the worst sheep the farmer had ever had! I had to put it in a headlock while shearing it. After all our hard work we were treated to some local sausages for breakfast, Tuatapere is the self proclaimed sausage capital of New Zealand (Mr. Nicoletta, not as good as yours!).

Unfortunately, we were unable to go to Stewart Island today because the seas were way too rough...which means we have to come back to NZ again some day!

Miss you all,

Love,
Sarahandroo

p.s. More pictures on the link!