Thursday, June 14, 2007

Farm Life in Rotorura



We arrived in Roturura, New Zealand yesterday, June 14 and are spending the day here. This area is very agricultural and, as far as the people, kind of reminds me of how I might imagine Alaska to be-- more men than women and kind of a salt of the earth type. The night we got here we ate at the Fat Dog and then ventured out to a local bar, the Pheasant Plucker, for some local microbrew beer (very tasty) and dancing with the locals. Somehow I ended up on the dance floor with some guy named Cookie, a 60+ year old Polynesian guy who danced a bit like Elaine from Seinfield -- My loving husband laughing at me from the sidelines.
This morning we went to a huge agricultural farm that gives tours. It seems like everything here is named something hokey and this place was called "The Agrodome." There are more sheep in this area than humans and at the farm they had 19 different breeds of them. They also had red deer (which they farm here for meat and hide) as well as ostriches, pigs, alpaca, cattle and goats.
One more thing about Rotorura, the air here smells of sulphur. There a tons of mineral springs in this area (one of which we are touring later today). We will report on that later. -- Kelly