2017-10 Auckland to local farm

Looking into the crater of Mount Eden and across the city of Auckland

An evening free led to an epic walk out to Mount Eden. Epic not only for the hour long distance but for the beautiful views at the top of this dormant volcano. After finally making it to the very top, there were signs noting not to walk inside the crater. Not until that moment had I realized that I was walking around a volcano crater. Like everything else in New Zealand, the crater was a luscious green. From the very top, there was a 360-degree view of the city of Auckland below.

Whitebait

In the morning, we visited a local farmer, Jan. She raises a wide variety of animals and crops on her farm; and, she is quite an interesting person. The first step was to put on gumboots, also known as Wellingtons. Next, we checked out some whitebait that she is farming. Whitebait season is only 6 weeks; and, it is sold for $200/kg. Jan also raises bees. She provided lots of interesting facts on bees and bees in NZ, including: NZ has higher clover concentration, NZ exports bees all around the world, bees only live six weeks, during which each time they have very specific tasks, to make 1 teaspon of honey, bee has flown the distance of six times around the world, and, shape and size of honeycomb cells determine their use. (I was taking notes as fast as I could at this point.) High quality Manuka honey is very antibiotic. Jan even uses it to rub on cuts on her livestock. She said that she had heard that all the agriculture in NZ would end in two years without honeybees. In fact NZ has one of the three underground seed bunkers in the world.

Hungry lambs

We had a lot of fun feeding bottles of milk to the lambs. They were energy drink bottles with bottle nipples on them. The lambs followed us bleating plaintively even after they drank all the milk. We also fed the goats, alpacas, donkeys and eels. The eels were perhaps the most interesting, not to mention disturbing as they popped their heads out of the water to grab for the pieces of bacon we’d been swishing in the water for them. We were extremely careful, as the teeth face backward. Eels can grow more than 6 feet long and up to 100 years old. Slippery as an eel is a true saying, as eels bodies are covered with gel that helps them build their burrows.

Alpacas and goats waiting for breakfast

Back at Jan’s barn, she had baskets of shorn fibers that we had to guess which animal they came from. There was alpaca and merino. However, Jan was also experimenting with possum and dog hair. After hearing how amazing merino is (it doesn’t smell) and alpaca is (it alter’s personal body temperature, no matter exterior temperature) and how terrible polyesters are, I am convinced that I need to buy some merino and alpaca clothing. Jan’s spinning wheel was the impetus for two more fun facts: (1) Google has figured out that 20 minutes on the spinning wheel drops a person’s blood pressure; and, therefore has spinning wheels at it’s sites (I haven't been able to verify this); (2) the term “spinster” comes from the fact that a daughter’s job was to spin until she got married; therefore, she was a “spinster” until marriage.

Feeding the eels

Jan, always the hostess, wouldn’t let us leave without trying some of her bees’ honey on some fresh scones. She even had macademia nuts from one of the trees on her farm. Everything was delicious!