Karl and I are regressing. Our new pastimes of choice is....wait for it...Honking at the sheep in paddocks to watch them run away! I'm not kidding. I'm getting a little bit giddy now just thinking of driving down the "highway" watching the little lambs poke their heads up at lightning speed at the sound of the horn, and then hauling tail to the other side of the paddock. The best part is when they get to the other side, or even just half way, they stop, look around, and try really hard to remember what they were running from in the first place. (similar to that feeling you get when you are standing in the bathroom with a jug of milk trying to figure out what you went in there to do.)
Today Karl and I decided we would separate the lambs and their mothers from the rest of the heard. Easier said than done. I don't know if you've gotten the picture yet or not, but sheep are super stupid, and fearful. They are afraid of me clapping my hands. They literally pee out of fright when we get near them. They either have exceedingly short memories or have been severely abused by a short dark haired woman. If they possessed the capacity to remember back a few days, the only action we have taken with them is to move them into the neighboring paddock.
Falling sheep poo mud is no fun. Neither is forgetting that fences are electric. Shockety shock shock.
So, we are getting ready to move into town. Into one of the charming 1950s numbers with no insulation, no central heating, and single pain windows. Whoopee! This house is owned by the practice Karl will be working for. The last locum who lived there moved her bed into the living room because of the dank and cold in the bedrooms. The good news is, it is "summer" here so hopefully we will not freeze to death.
The Giant Trout in Gore, our neighboring town. Our Kiwi Thanksgiving was delightful if different. It was odd to work all day and then have Thanksgiving dinner in the evening, but you do what you can. All the Kiwis at work were very interested and curious about this holiday. Don't worry I told them all about the rituals, eating too much, drinking too much, fighting with your sisters over who has to sit next to a certain relative...all that good stuff. Oh, and watching the Gators kick some Seminole ass.
We had a great Turkey Day with with Mary, John, and Mary's family who came all the way from northern California. There were four dessert pies (not to be confused with meat pies) between the seven of us. Good food, good friends, a lovely evening....and left over pie for breakfast!
We took more bad advice from the Fodor's Travel guide and stopped at the Moeraki Boulders. Advertised as one of the Natural Wonders of the WORLD! Really? Why? You look at the pictures and tell me. Am I being a rock snob? Karl is hard to impress in the rock department, he's from Arizona, rocks are one of the only natural formations in the state, aside from sand and cacti right? Anyway, when you all come to visit us and take an awesome road trip on your way to our place, skip the boulders, you'll be glad you did!
Last weekend Karl and I headed up to Dunedin and then to Oamaru for their Victorian Heritage Festival. People dressed in period costume cheered at penny farthing races. (Penny farthings are those antique bikes with a giant front wheel, the penny, and the teeny tiny back wheel, the farthing which was apparently a minuscule coin.)
Also on functioning display were steam powered tractors and a train, which one can ride back and forth on all day through the Victorian town of locally quarried limestone buildings. We were treated to a wool spinning lesson, a craft that many Kiwis practice. Sue Vercoe has a spinning wheel in here at the house so I may have to practice myself. Karl spun too tight and I spun to loose. Between us we'll make the perfect yarn.
See More Pics of Oamaru & Dunedin
