New Zealand 2011: Day 18

Dad and I had a very relaxing morning. He went to breakfast but I slept in. The time of our excursion for today changed due to expected drizzle this morning. The sun was shining however, but I didn’t mind the extra sleep!

The only excitement this morning was a fire alarm that went off around 11:30am. Fortunately everyone was already showered and dressed because we were supposed to meet Renee in the lobby at 11:45 anyway. We actually only had to stand around for about five minutes before they let us back inside the building.

Our excursion today was a ride on the T.S.S. Earnslaw, a steamship built in 1911. It was first assembled in Dunedin, but was then disassembled and shipped by rail to Queenstown, where it was reassembled and had its maiden voyage in 1912. The amazing thing is that it is still powered by the original coal-burning steam engine. The coal is shoveled into the boiler at the rate of one ton per hour to maintain full speed. The T.S.S. stands for Twin Screw Steamer, and refers to the type of engine. Since 1969, Fiordland Travel has operated tourist cruises on the ship. The ship is in such good condition because it only sails in freshwater.

Dad and I had a good time exploring the ship. They’ve installed a catwalk into the engine room so you can see the boiler-men at work.

The Earnslaw takes about 40 minutes to deliver passengers to Walter Peak Station, which has a charming little restaurant and sheep farm.

We were treated to a BBQ buffet lunch. It’s interesting that what New Zealanders think of as BBQ is is much more similar to American BBQ than what Australians or Londoners think BBQ is. It was good BBQ, but I avoided the lamb chops since I knew we were going to be seeing sheep later...

After lunch our guide, Lindsey, took us to see the animals. He was a hoot! His commentary was just so funny. He’d do something like point our a landmark and say, “this is commonly known as a ‘tree’” or “this is called a ‘house’” beat... beat... beat... and only then tell you what was interesting about said tree or house.

He first took us to see some deer. Deer are commonly farmed in New Zealand. I believe what we saw were Red Deer. Lindsey had brought a bucket of food and offered it around so we could feed them.

After the deer, we saw sheep. There are a couple different varieties of sheep farmed in New Zealand. The Merino sheep are the most profitable because their wool is worth $60 a sheep per year when they’re shorn. Other types of sheep can be shorn more than once a year, but their wool is only worth between $12 and $25.

There was an Alpaca in with the sheep who is apparently the shepherd, in charge of looking after the sheep. He was completely uninterested in the food we had, but was very interested in us.

But the real treat of the afternoon was getting to hold a baby lamb! She was so cute! And fuzzy. And heavier than I’d imagined. Her mom was not so pleased that she was being passed around and the lamb bleated once or twice, but once you got her comfortable she was quite content to be held. She was only one week old. Adorable!

After we had all had our fill of holding the little lamb and returned her to her mother we went to watch a sheepdog herding and sheep shearing demonstration. It was pretty cool how the dog managed to completely control the sheep.

The sheep shearing was hysterical however! Lindsey grabbed the sheep, who didn’t seem too thrilled to be taking center stage, and upended her. Once she was sitting on her bottom it was like she was a turtle and couldn’t move! She just sort of lolled there while he used an electric clipper to extricate her. The fleece all comes off in basically one chunk because of the pattern he sheared in. It looked really funny!

After that we got back on the Earnslaw and returned to town. Dad and I wandered around the city for a while, browsing through a few shops, finally returning to the hotel to chill before dinner.

We decided to try Fergburger for dinner. The place was packed with a line out the door. They are definitely a cult!Dad had a ‘Fergburger w/ cheese,’ and I had a ‘Tropical Swine,’ which comes with Prime New Zealand beef, American streaky bacon, cheddar cheese, pineapple, lettuce, tomato, red onion, aioli and tomato relish. It was delicious! I loved the pineapple with the onion and the relish. It was huge though! both burgers weighed about a pound each. And they came with fries...

I’ll have to do penance with lots of salad tomorrow (and maybe skip breakfast... and lunch) but boy were those burgers tasty.