new zealand: 10 sheep for every person - part 4.1: greymouth

i'm warning you right now - greymouth (a place we never would have planned on going to) was hilarious. put down your glass of milk right now so it doesn't spray out your nose while you're reading about this leg of our trip. i'm going to break this part up into 2 separate posts because it's just that good.

the best part of our approach to new zealand was this: we hardly planned anything. we knew the first few days and of course had our wedding scheduled, but once we left abel tasman, all we knew was that we were flying out of queenstown 2 weeks later. the south island was our canvas. we had notes of places friends had recommended we see and greymouth was nowhere on any of those notes.

but, we were heading that direction and felt like it'd be a good enough place as any to stop for the night. we called the new river bluegums b&b because we were so intrigued by its description in our book. i mean come on, they lived on a farmlet* with a pet pig and all! the minute we got there, we knew we made a good decision. we were greeted at the door by michael, sharon and harry - the cheeriest kid i think i've ever seen. it's not like you can really understand 3-year olds anywhy, but try throwing a new zealand accent into the mix.

we sat down in the family room to get to know michael and sharon a bit while harry ran around like a maniac. then, we heard something in the back corner. i thought, "is harry watering the plants?" and we turned to find that, nope - harry was not watering the plants. he was watering his training potty which was in the corner of the family room. hilarious.

and then we were introduced to the family dog, coco. coco fell in love with the boy. (i actually couldn't tell if it was love, or if he wanted to rip bill to shreds). he was fine around everybody else, but the second he saw the boy, he'd go beezerk and jump all over the place!



these guys had some rather unique artwork...


and, like i mentioned earlier, a pet pig...


and, of course, a handful of sheep. now, here's the thing about sheep. the second the boy found out that the sheep/human ratio in new zealand is 10/1 he started drooling just thinking about the possibilities - we could get married amidst a herd of sheep! we could shear sheep to our heart's content! so, of course, the boy asks michael - "do any of your sheep need shearing?" unfortunately, all of michael's sheep (all 7 of them - you can't have too many sheep on a farmlet afterall) had already gotten their hair cut. BUT, his friend grubb (yes, that's really his name and he's exactly what you would imagine with a name like that) had some sheep that needed a' shearin' - we could help with that

the boy's eyes lit up as he realized all of his sheep dreams were about to come true (well except for the dream of me getting in my wedding dress and standing in a field of sheep...)

so, the next evening, we loaded up and drove over to grubb's sheep. michael pulled his truck up to the shed, popped the hood, pulled out his spark plugs and USED HIS TRUCK TO POWER THE SHEEP SHEARING MACHINE! he said he'd take the first few so the boy could see how to do it and then he'd give the boy a go.


sheep aren't really that cute up close. and they just kind-of sit there. i would have thought they'd put up a bigger fight, but they just flop around while they're getting sheared. well, that's what every sheep did up until the last sheep (the boy's sheep), which tried running out of the pen and jumping over everybody. of couse that's the sheep the boy gets!! it was kicking and wiggling all over the place. priceless.

turn the volume up for this video. the dialogue is hilarious.

so, there it is, my hubs is now a bonefied sheep shearer. a day or two later, we saw an ad for the national sheep shearing competition, where the returning champ can shear a sheep in 17 seconds - count them s.e.v.e.n.t.e.e.n! gives the boy something to work up to for our next trip to nz.

i think this is my favorite pic from our whole trip. i'm deciding between two titles for it: "the boys chillin' after a hard day's work" or "one of these things is not like the other"


* i don't know this for sure, but i'm pretty sure a farmlet is a miniature-sized farm... like a piglet or a droplet or a moist toillette...