Jan 6

Today was the first day of farm visits for Mommy's class.  We went to the Lincoln University dairy unit and got to see them milk the cows.  This is a neat thing to see no matter your level of interest in cows.  The cows all come up to be milked twice a day, and it takes about 2 hours for two workers to milk 600 cows!  My favorite part was seeing the cows get on the rotary platform.  This thing is a giant merry-go-round for the cows.  It holds about 30 of them, and they step on the thing, have the milkers attached to their udders, and by the time they have made one complete ride around the circle, they step back off and head back out to the pasture.  I couldn't believe it, and Miranda liked just watching the cows

Next, we went to a nearby farm owned by a fellow named Hamish Reed.  He grows sheep and vegetable seed crops.  His talk focused a lot on the expense of irrigation - which is crucial for his type of farming.  Miranda really like seeing all of the sheep on this farm, but I was still tired from traveling I guess, and decided to take a nap on the bus.
Tonight we all loaded into the van and headed into Chch for dinner.  We ate at a cool restaurant called the Coyote Cafe, which is situated right along the Avon river in the heart of town.  After dinner, we went for a stroll through Cathedral Square and listened to some live music by a band that was performing in front of the Cathedral.  We didn't see any buskers (street performers) tonight.  I forgot to tell you that the World Busker Festival is taking place in Chch while we are here.  We saw a Busker yesterday named Hefty Jeff.  He's a big fat hairy Scot who wears a kilt and juggles knives, flaming torches, eats fire and swallows swords!  Can you believe that.  He also says funny things apparently, because Daddy and Pop-pop laughed alot when Hefty Jeff was talking.