Friday Shootout: Country Roads

It was towards the end of Winter when we went, there were some holiday campers at Top Ten camping ground. Camping vans are very popular in New Zealand especially with foereign tourists.

This is a ramp where sheep are herd to a waiting truck. Talk of like sheep to the slaughter house. New Zealand used to have 14 sheep per person, now it is 12. This has dropped, but farmers are still rearing sheep as they are hardy animals. The first Sheep were landed in New Zealand by Captain Cook in 1773. The Sheep population grew to 70.3 million in 1982 but has now declined to 43.1 million due to declining profits compared to other types of farming. There are 36,000 flocks of Sheep with an average flock size of 1400.
http://www.sheepworld.co.nz/SheepFarming.htm

This is a model of a Maori boat, or waka. The original Maoris were thought to come from The Great Fleet which forms part of the Māori canoe tradition. It is handed down orally from generation to generation. According to this tradition, the canoes of the Great Fleet arrived from the mythical homeland of Hawaiiki, known as the ancestral homeland, and generally considered as being somewhere in Eastern Polynesia.
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An old sturdy Gents that has last for a long time, unlike the one in Rangitoto. It is still in operation but I decided my bladder could still hold until I found a modern one. Thirty years ago, a lot of the toilet seats are made of timber. The Kiwis claim that it is the best seats in the house, as they are warm in winter. Some house proud householders even have sheep skin covering the seats. What is better than a sheep skin cover!!!!!

New Zealand is a farming country. We pride ourselves to be clean and green. Our sheep carbon foot print is low.

This is in Huntly, it used to be a coal mining town. In the town centre, they have a replica of how their town was founded. Now it has a hydro station.

Hamilton is a city, but they are not ashamed of their background and the surrounding farms. They have a statue of a farmer's family and Daisy the cow. There are a lot of farm machineries. This is where the last Prime Minister Helen Clarke came from.

The following two, is New Zealand for you, for those who are interested in tracking and getting in touch with nature.
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Finally, we saw two donkeys and a very friendly kid.
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Topic April 9 - Country Roads - by Gordon

Country Roads by John Denver

Whether this is spring or summer in your part of the country it should be a good time for us to drive those country roads in or around our towns. Can’t wait to see your photos.

of course your personal interpretation is important so do whatever makes you happy - if your actual country road is muddy pot holes - photos could be very interesting....
did you listen to the John dever song - there can be emotional interpretations also....
GingerV


This song has a special meaning for me. During my class's 28th reunion in 1999, (first one ever,) in Methodist School, Sibu Sarawak, Borneo, we invited our teachers. One of them, Miss. F who lives in Maryland. She was my guest in Singapore before we went to Borneo.

One of the boys sang,"Take me home." Little did we know, West Virgina was Miss F's home when she was little. We were all in tears when she told us about it.

We were all emotional, because these teachers gave up the comfort of 1st world living in USA, Australia, and UK, to come to the third world to teach us. We knew it was unlikely we would see them again as they were in their late 60s and ex missionary teachers do not have a lot of money, needless to say, to visit Borneo again.

Last year, they had another reunion, only one teacher came from Australia. I didn't attend, as flying from New Zealand cost a lot of dosh, which I don't have.

My photos are not of the reunion, but of a trip to the Waitomo Caves in New Zealand last winter.

Thanks, GingerV.