Nelson -

This past weekend was the long weekend for the trip. Classes were over for the students just before lunch on Thursday, and they didn't have to be back until class time Monday morning. We rented a car in preparation for a road trip to the top of the South Island. This is the area of the fabled Abel Tasman park and Tasman bay and Farewell Spit. It is a favorite vacation spot for Kiwis, and is repeatedly voted as the best place to go in New Zealand. We were there before (2 trips ago) but I was unable to enjoy it as much as I should have because that was when I was coming down with the chicken pox. We were sea-kayaking in one of the most beautiful places on earth, but I was near hallucinating from my fever and was nauseous to boot. It put a damper on both mine and Susan's experience, and we sort of vowed that we would definitely be coming back if we got a chance.

So this was our chance, the Griffiths' had no plans - they were going to be staying in the Christchurch area and catering to activities for Brian and Claire. We left Thursday afternoon and headed towards Nelson. As we have found with all travels in New Zealand, getting there is half the fun because of the awesome scenery. Aidan pretty much kicked back and enjoyed the drive when he wasn't taking a snooze. Much of the five hour drive to Nelson is along the "Coast Road" with stunning vistas of the alternating beaches and rugged, rocky coastline. We made the compulsory stop at the giant crayfish (looks and tastes just like our lobster but without claws), then headed inland. The balance of the journey is through hill country, heavily forested mountains and sounds (sorry we were lax and took no pictures of the sounds - that's a body of water, I know it reads strangely - "pictures of sounds"). We also passed through the Marlborough region, which is NZ's wine country. It is quite picturesque. The pictures from the drive kind of speak for themselves, but it is with a quiet voice - you really have to experience it to get the full effect.

Coming into Nelson is a treat. You have been ascending into the mountains for hours, so the climb has been almost imperceptible. When you look at the map, after you cross this gorge (photo is posted of the gorge) you are a stones throw away from town. A quick glance at the watch says you are making good time, everyone says it takes 5 hours and you have been on the road for 4.5. Then you spend two full hours negotiating the switchbacks. And arrive wondering who could have possibly done that in 5 hours!?!? Susan started to get sick and she does not typically suffer motion sickness. She thinks it was my driving. As for me, I felt like I was piloting a rally car and whenever I got a chance to think about something other than 'which direction will the next turn be' - all I could imagine was how much fun all of my motorcycle riding relatives would find this road. It would be exhausting though, and I think very dangerous. Eventually, you do pop out of the mountains and land right smack dab in the middle of the Tasman Bay area. We stayed at our friend Tussock's (the rafting guy) sister-in-law's backpackers. They own two backpackers (a hostel) in the northern part of the south island, and they recently added family rooms. It was quite nice actually, we had a queen size bed and Aidan had a single - and we had an en suite bathroom and shower so we did not have to share with the hikers and such. It was conveniently located near town and the beach, and they have free hot chocolate pudding (in the British tradition) with ice cream every night.

We spent a lot of time just wandering about in Nelson. It is such a lovely town. Check out the one picture taken from the street and note the hanging baskets. All of the streets in the downtown section have these enormous, beautiful hanging baskets about every ten feet on the street! The whole town is plumbed with automatic watering systems on every basket, it is incredible. Nelson is an artsy fartsy kind of place. There are a lot of artists, artisans, craftspeople, musicians, nomads, drifters, hippies - you get the idea. It makes for a very colorful sort of place. A lot of street musicians and such are playing throughout the day, live entertainment in a lot of cafes and restaurants at night. Several days each week have open air markets where people come to ply their wares - be they arts and crafts or fresh fruits and vegetables. We spent lazy afternoons on the beach with Aidan. He loves to play in the water. They also had some nice playgrounds down at the beach where he was able to play. All in all it was a lovely time but we still have to come back again. We didn't go back to Abel Tasman park which is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen on Earth. We also still have not gone out to Farewell Spit (so named because it was the last thing that Captain Cook saw as he was leaving after his discovery of New Zealand.) I think now that the "Ultimate Tour of NZ" would include no less than 7 days in this area (more if you included a significant trek - of which there are many in the region). Like everything else we do here, it just leaves you yearning for more!

Working Dogs

One of the more interesting farm visits, for me anyway, so far has been to a farm that sort of specializes in working dogs. Farming dogs? you say. Not exactly. The farmer sold out his previous farm to dairy. Maybe I will get explain the whole dairy industry thing later, but if I do not get a chance and you are interested be sure to ask us about it when we get home. Anyway, this fellow sold out to dairy and took his enormous wad of cash and bought this 800 acre hill farm. He is improving this farm, adding new fence, installing a center pivot irrigation system to water the pastures, etc. - but his real passion is his old hobby of dog trialling. Dog trials are very popular here for many reasons. One is simply sport, and it is a sport that is suitable for older folks who might not be able to hold their own any longer on a rugby field or whatever. Another reason is that so many people rely on these dogs to make a living, and they spend so much time with them that they just want to show them off. Money is another big reason, their is very little money to be made directly from trialling, but like other forms of animal industry, breeding is huge and there is a big market for finished dogs. A lot of people are unable or unwilling to train a good herding dog, so they will just buy one that is already trained. Good ones run upwards of $5,000, and the dog trials are a great way to prove their worth.

We learned what he looks for in a dog, how he trains them, etc. We also got to see some demonstrations of training, herding, heading, backing, and huntaways. Some brief explanations:

Huntaway - Hunting is the art of driving the stock AWAY from the shepherd. This is an unusual attribute in a herding dog - it goes against the natural instincts that have been bred into the herding breeds. The huntaway is uniquely New Zealand breed. Simply stated, most herding dogs are trained to go out, round of the livestock and bring them back in to the shepherd, who is standing at the gate he wishes them to come through. The dog does this instinctually, sort of like a retriever bringing back a downed bird. The need for a huntaway stems from the nature of NZ's sheep country. It is so vast and so rugged, you can not just open the gate and send the dog out, he might not come back for days. We have been of farms where we would drive for over an hour through a pasture that had over 5000 sheep in it and we never saw a single one. Pastures might encompass thousands of acres in the high country, and the mountains and ravines and rivers that can reside in an area so large. Consequently, the shepherd and his dogs set out to find the sheep. When they do, they then have to drive them vast distances over rugged terrain, it wouldn't do for the shepherd to have to walk backwards all the way home at the front of the mob while the dogs kept trying to pull the sheep in. It just made sense to train the dogs to push or hunt the sheep away from the shepherd. This requires a lot of subtle skill, because the dog works with his back to the shepherd, so he can't see him. The dog also has to keep the mob under control, it doesn't do any good for the dog to scare the sheep so that they scatter to the four winds trying to get away. Huntaways have a powerful voice, and they bark almost constantly while driving, they actually use their voice to move the mob - casting it from side to side so they do not have to expend as much energy running back and forth to keep the sides of the mob under control. Pretty neat stuff really.

Heading / eyeing dogs: This is the stereotypical herding dog. They are the ones who run out and gather up the stock and bring it in. There is a subtle difference between heading and eyeing, heading applies to all types of stock, while eyeing is used mostly on very sensitive, spooky animals. A lot of the high country sheep farmers might only bring their animals in once a year for shearing, if they can fin them. On our last visit they had just found a merino ram in the high country who had not been shorn in something like seven or eight years! They named him Shrek, and wrote childrens books about him and made him a celebrity. These are wild animals for all intents and purposes, and don't take very well to a pack of noisy dogs chasing after them. What works is to play off the predator/prey relationship between sheep and dogs. A good eyeing dog will sneak up on, then posture and stare at sheep until they respond by gathering together, seeking safety in numbers. The dog will then silently move around the mob as necessary to keep them all moving away from him and in the direction of the shepherd. This is game of finesse and patience, but is captivating to watch. A good eyeing dog seems to move the sheep so effortlessly, as if by magic...

Handy headers are used in many roles, heading of course, they help in hunting but do not use their voice, they work the yards, but seldom do any backing. Some of them are taught to throw or toss sheep. This is incredible to even contemplate. If the shepherd sees an animal that has a problem or needs to be singled out for some reason, he can communicate this to the dog who will enter a mob of hundreds of sheep and grab the sheep and pin it to the ground and hold it there for the shepherd!

Backing dogs: so named because they mount the mob of sheep and will run on top of the sheep and drop down where needed to clear traffic jams. These dogs are used in the yards, to load sheep on to trucks, get them into the chutes for dipping, shearing etc. They are always a crowd pleaser because the work is up close, and exciting.

Aidan loves the dogs and befriended a couple of heading dog pups while we were on the farm.

News Bulletin

A streaker has been reported in the vicinity of the Farm Road Flats at Lincoln University in Canterbury, New Zealand. This photo, obtained from an unnamed source, is believed to portray the act in progress. One witness, who wished to remain anonymous, said they were just cleaning up after dinner when sudden squeals of delight from the common area drew them outside. "Tearing across the lawn was this little man who was wearing no clothes! He had red hair and he giggled like mad - I thought perhaps it was a wee leprechaun up to some shenanigans." A spokesperson for the Griffiths family of the United States, indicated that the event had offended some of their more delicate sensibilities, but when pressed later admitted that " he was kind of cute". The Garey family, also visiting from the U.S. and living in the Farm Road Flats, were not available for comment.

Mt. Peel and The River In the Sky

We spent the past weekend on an overnight farm trip that includes a day of whitewater rafting. This has been the premier highlight for me on most of the other trips. Once again, a big part of it is having a chance to check up on some Kiwi friends and see how they are doing and what big events have transpired in the last couple years. In this case, it is Tussock - the owner of the rafting company. Yes, he is our youngest dog's namesake - and yes, he knows it (much to his chagrin). Tussock is not his real name of course, but no one has any idea what his real name is. His moniker comes from his unruly blond afro which bears a striking resemblance to the native high country grass of the same name.

Tussock married the farmers daughter - more on the farmer shortly. Tussock is from the little town of Geraldine just outside the entrance to Mt. Peel Station. He and a buddy of his had gone off on some wild adventures - rafting and kayaking big whitewater all over the world, and driving motorbikes from Capetown, South Africa up to the Mediterranean and also from Arizona down to Argentina. Anyway, when they came back home, they went into partnership with the local farmer who just happened to have a world-class whitewater river flowing through his property. [See inset photo taken from about 10,000 feet.] The Rangitata (River In the Sky) is fed by glacial melt from the Southern Alps. It therefore is capable of sustaining Class V whitewater year-round, which is very unusual and makes for an excellent commercial venture because it is reliable. This river is unrunnable at times, but it is because of too much flow, never too little. The farmer and the rafting bums saw this as a great opportunity, and launched what has become a world-class rafting operation. Tussock's guides are world renowned, and virtually all of them have guided in places far and wide. The stories they can tell.....of rafting in the Zambezi where you dare not fall out of the boat because of hippos and crocodiles, sharing a river with drug runners in South America, adventures in Morocco, China, India, US, Japan, the list goes on. Tussock trains guides for Class V whitewater, which requires two full seasons as a trainee before they can take clients down the river by themselves. Class II requires 26 days on the river. Tussock's operation is in demand because the river runs Class V all the time. He has a lot of international guides in training here, and gets requests from operators abroad for his own guides for special events, and heavy seasons. The deal is usually that Tussock's boys get all of their expenses paid, plus a daily rate for guiding. This is why they are able to see so much of the world. Some of the guys we have come to know over the years have finally moved on. One of our favorites from way back is flying helicopters now (one dangerous job to another!), another had some kind of accident and turned into a fat hairy slob (we saw him while we were there), another's Mum died and he went back home. Ben still remains though, he has been guiding with Tussock for 19 yrs. He says he is addicted to it, and he doesn't know how to do anything else. Two others were here the last time we came, Yo is a Japanese fellow who came as a trainee and stayed - he finally speaks English. Simon (aka Chunky) took a job here during his college summer

break and ended up staying for the last five years and guiding internationally

during the winter months. He was our guide this year, and he said

he thinks it's about time to go back and finish college so that he can "get a real job". He was studying geography and hopes to become a teacher!

I'll let the pictures of the rafting speak for themselves. That's Susan in the green helmet and me in the red one right up front. It is such great fun, I just wish we could do it again and again and again... The river was not quite as surly as on our last visit, those who read of that adventure will recall that Susan and I were in the only boat (out of seven) that made it down the river without capsizing. That was a bit stressful, here we were supposed to be responsible for the well being of these thirty students who were violently cascading down the mighty Rangitata river in nothing but life-vests and little plastic helmets. It wasn't like we could lend a hand, ours were already engaged in applying a death grip to the little rope that rings the gunwales of the boat.

This years big event was when the guides in training got stuck in a hole and couldn't get out. Their boat just kept going round and round, every couple of minutes it would toss another one of them into the drink. The coup de grace involved their boat torpedoing under a wave for a brief moment, before launching itself vertical about 15 feet in the air. Needless to say, the last remaining guides were ejected during that little maneuver, and the boat plopped right back down in the hole to swirl round and round again. Our guides all watched these goings on with sheer delight until the finale occurred. This meant that they would have to go down there and rescue the boat - it was blocking any of us from being able to make our run - the only safe line through these rapids was exactly where the boat was stuck. Never mind that five of their own had just been rudely deposited into the water and swept away and that the largest life preserver on the river is your boat which they had all left behind!! It took the guides a good hour to do the mountain goat thing (we were in the bottom of a canyon with sheer cliffs on both sides that go up 50 to 100 feet. There are no banks or shoals - just vertical walls. They climbed up, disappeared, reappeared over the abandoned vessel, leaped off the cliff into the boat and swiftly extracted it from whatever kind of whirlpool maelstrom had captured it. They let it loose to go on down the river by itself, hopefully to rescue the stranded swimmers and returned to the awed spectators back upstream (that was us). The students on the trip were getting really apprehensive at this point - the theme was: "If that is what happens to 5 guys who know what they are doing.....what's going to happen to us - our boat only has one?" So Chunky (our guide) looks at us and says - "Right, lets go. We will see how bad it is and the rest will be in a better position to decide what to do then..." Dude - how many times does the experiment have to fail? We just saw a boatload of your B-team get smeared. You honestly think we'll do better? Ok - sounds fun. We made it - every boat crew - and it was FUN!!!! I guess that's why it takes two years of training for these guys to be able to take a boat full of clients down the river by themselves!

Our host for the farm tour was the aforementioned farmer. Mr. John Acland. He is an interesting character who has taken the time to come and speak to our students on almost every visit. I won't bore you all with the story of the station again - I'll just give a quick overview for the newbies. Mt. Peel station was one of the very first farms to be settled in New Zealand. Mr. Acland is the fourth generation of Acland to run the farm - and he has now turned the operation over to his son, Johnny (fifth generation) who has kids growing up as the sixth generation of Aclands on this farm! Mr. Acland's father was Sir 'Something' Acland - that's right a bona fide knight of the British Crown. Mr. Acland is a very influential New Zealander, he was some kind of high commissioner or something of the New Zealand Meat Board, and currently serves as some sort of big cheese on a government council that is meant to find solutions to some of the land access issues that have arisen over the years.

The original homestead is still standing, and the Aclands live there. Next door is a beautiful private chapel constructed by the family well over a hundred years ago. Mr. Acland tells wonderful tales about the history of the farm, the church, the house, etc. Unfortunately, I didn't get to listen to his talks this year because I was busy keeping Aidan occupied. We laid in the grass and read books, counted sheep, sang songs, watched clouds go by, etc. while Mr. Acland gave the students the homestead tour. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day.

Hill Country Farm Visit

The first farm visit was to The Acheron. This is a 'typical' hill country farm in number of acres (2000) and number of stocking units (they typically have about 5000 sheep). Unlike a lot of the farms down in the flat country, no irrigation of the pastures takes place up here. As a result, when things dry up, they have to get rid of animals because they simply do not have enough feed to support them, because they also do not import grain to feed them. As a general rule, livestock in New Zealand are not fed grain because they do not have the farming capacity to grow enough small grains to feed to them. The country operates at a deficit in small grains anyway, they have to import them from abroad just to feed the populace. Incidentally, this is also why you won't find chickens (except for barnyard flocks and some egg layers)here. Where chicken is the most ubiquitous meat back home, here it is lamb. Chicken is quite expensive in NZ! I digress.




This past year has been a tough one on The Acheron due to lack of rain and they have had to severely cut back their numbers. The Acheron is one of my very favorite stations to come to, Susan's class has been coming here on every trip for the past 9 years and we have come to know the owners, the McFadden's, as friends. Unfortunately, the father (Bob McFadden) passed away since our last visit and it was a little strange to come and visit without him. I'll never forget him saying "We'll head to the top of this wee hill and have a look around". He then proceeded to march straight up the side of a mountain. He in his late sixties or so, wearing an old pair of workboots and a woolen jumper, trailing a sparsely populated conga line of sweating, gasping twenty-something university students, in sneakers or $200.00 hiking boots and the latest high-tech hiking fashions. It was a riot really...We knew his health was failing, because on our last visit he had his son Scott drive him up to the top in the Land Rover. He stood in the pickup bed like some conquering Roman would have a chariot, but it was sad to know that he couldn't walk those hills anymore.

You see, what made The Acheron different than any other farm you might visit in NZ, was that the inhabitants were first generation farmers of this land! Other farms that we visit have histories going back hundreds of years, and most of them have been in the current owners hands for a couple of generations at most. One of them, Mt. Peel, is still owned by the same family who originally came to NZ to settle it, but they are on the 5th and 6th generation to live there now. But Bob and Isla McFadden bought an unimproved block of land in the hill country that had nothing on it but a small stone shepherds hut (about 8x12). They started clearing the native scrub land themselves, put in fence and pasture, built their livestock yards, a wool shed, and a house - bearing their children along the way. Of course, work like that is never finished - but when you come to visit them it all seems so peaceful and in such perfect order that you can't imagine the blood, sweat and tears that have been invested into this place. It is a stunning property, and the pictures do it no justice - you can not get the sense of scale and wonder that you feel when standing on that 'wee hill' and surveying the property. Nor can you feel the serenity in Isla's garden...it is so beautiful and lovingly tended that if you were to suddenly find yourself standing in it, you would insist that you were in the gardens of some old English estate that was 100's of years old and had several full time gardening staff.

The McFaddens are hardy folks - they sort of embody what kiwis on the whole are like... to me anyway. They have true grit, they see what needs doing - and they do it, they take great pride in their work, but won't tell anyone what they have done unless they are asked - and even then they do their best to make it seem as if it were nothing. Most striking of all, they are eternal optimists, even when facing such daunting prospects as clearing 2000 acres of hill country and trying to scratch out a living - they still are able to spend some time with strangers to talk about their experience, how they manage their stock, what their future plans are - and to answer hundreds of questions with a smile and a twinkle in their eye.



The farm is run now by the youngest boy Scott, who I would guess to be in his mid 30's. His older brother, Jaime, had already started a farming operation of his own (a native species nursery) prior to his fathers passing. So Scott has the reins now, and appears to be doing a wonderful job. The farm looks great, Scott and his mother look great, the gardens look great and the dogs are doing fine. We got to see Syd again, he is now Scott's top huntaway. I'll talk more about NZ stock dogs in a later post. When we first met Syd, he was just a puppy learning the ropes by following along with the other dogs. It was tough work, because on that trip they were dipping (insecticide treatment) sheep when we visited, and Syd was learning to work the yards with some awesome backing dogs (ones that will run on top of the sheeps backs). He was getting run over and squashed all day long, I felt so sorry for him. Now he is one of the top dogs, but his career will soon be at an end. He will only be able to work for another 2 years or so before he will have to be retired. Running these hills takes its toll on the dogs and 7-8 years is about all you can get out of them. Scott has seven active stock dogs, and then the old timers who come out and bark when they are sorting sheep in the yards, but who don't really work at all anymore. But it has been neat to see how Syd has progressed through the years, and to think that I have known him since he was just a pup! That's him leaning up against Aidan in the picture, the other two are handy headers, they might be hard workers - but they enjoy a good back scratching as much as anyone else...

The Acheron is located on the south side of the Hurunui river. The Hurunui is one of the five major rivers that comprise the alluvial system responsible for the formation of the Canterbury Plains. It is one of the so called "braided rivers" because its riverbed (which is up to almost a mile wide at the mouth) is comprised of shingle (fist sized to coin sized rocks) and the course changes almost daily. Within the wide riverbed, which acts as a self contained flood-plain during very large storms, the daily flows take place within intertwining channels that when viewed from above appear to be braided. These channels are very dynamic - constantly shifting and changing their course. We have taken jet boat tours where the boat driver informed us that finding his way was getting difficult because the river had changed its course since the morning and he didn't know which channel to choose. Incidentally, he made a bad choice and we crashed onto a rock shoal at about 30 knots! That hurt.

During normal flows, you can drive right down onto the shingle. We took the students down to see the Hurunui, and Aidan got to walk along the rocks. He really enjoyed seeing the river and throwing rocks into it.

What we have done.

Not much really. The first few days usually comprise of getting the students oriented. There are tours to be taken, public transportation to be explained, ID cards to be issued, etc. We did a couple of our usual things this past weekend, things that we have picked up over the years that are a bit off the beaten track and lacking tourist appeal. Local flavor stuff like the Riccarton Market - a farmers market kind of thing that takes place in the parking lot of the local race course every weekend. Great place to wander about and look at junk - Allan and I met a great seller of old books - he has invited us to his house to have a look through his collection! That will be fun. That is just the sort of thing that sets Kiwis apart from Americans....can you imagine if the guy at the local farmers market invited you to stop by his house in the states!

We went to Sumner beach which is located just outside town at the base of the aformentioned port hills. The aerial picture is taken from the road leaving town and going up into the hills. We had lunch at this cute little cafe right on the beach and then spent a little time for the kids to play in the water. Aidan loved it as usual. He is a real water baby.

The next day we spent some time in Christchurch at the Arts Centre. This is one of my favorite places to come in all of New Zealand. It is housed in this sprawling gothic complex that used to be an all boys school I think. Now the labyrinth of halls and passageways and courtyards is home to craftsmen and artists of every style and flavor you could imagine. It is also a great place to come to eat because there is an outdoor ethnic food market. The Arts Centre is also ground zero for the World Buskers Festival which is hosted by the city of Christchurch every year. Buskers are street performers, (musicians, mimes, contortionists, comedians, jugglers, ventriloquists, etc. etc.) and the best in the world all descend upon Christchurch every year for a two week festival at the end of January. They start arriving prior to the festival proper, and just set up and start performing for the weeks leading up to the big one. It makes Christchurch quite an entertaining place during our visit. We watched a Canadian escape artist this weekend.

After lunch we headed over to the boat sheds at the edge of the Botanical Gardens. We wanted to go "Punting on the Avon". This is something that Susan has always wanted to do and we have just never made the time for it on previous trips. It involves kicking back on velvet cushions and lazing away the afternoon while a strong young fellow poles you up and down the river. You couldn't ask for a more relaxing after lunch activity - and the scenery is absolutely beautiful. Christchurch has world reknowned Botanical Gardens.

While we waited at the boatsheds, Aidan got to feed the ducks and he checked out the canoes and kayaks. Then he got to sit with Mommy for the romantic ride on the river...lucky boy!