This is the weblog of our adventures. It started with our trip to New Zealand and Australia, but nowadays is just a place for our day to day posts. Follow us on our adventures and let us know what you think!

Friday, December 1, 2006

Walter Peak Station

We jumped on the TSS Earnslaw this evening and cruised across Lake Wakatipu over to the Walter Peak Station, an active sheep farm. The TSS Earnslaw is an authentic coal-fueled steamship that is hand-fed coal, at the rate of 1 ton per hour, reaching a top speed of 13 knots. The engine room is completely exposed, allowing visitors to watch the turbines and the crew feeding the boilers. We had a great buffet dinner over at Walter Peak station, and had a chance to watch a hilarious sheep shearing demonstration by a local shepherd, Lindsay. He had some funny wisecracks, including his explanation of where sheep shearing started. It's apparently from the British isles, because a sheep with its wool is called "wooly," an English name (Wally), and a sheep without its wall is called "shorn,", an Irish name (Sean). Get it? lol.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting!!!! What a cute couple! I think you two should write a book about your travels when you get back. Love, Mom

Unknown said...

What is with the cold weather? Isn't it suppose to be summer in that part of the world!?

John said...

Yeah, yesterday was the first day of summer here, so we caught the tail end of a spring chill.

Contributors