Sheep Farm Tour in Fairlie – Day 201

Today we’re going to experience a true Kiwi day.

This morning we are heading just outside the little town of Fairlie to Morelea Farm. Which is the place to get a farming experience and really see the real side of New Zealand. First up we are meeting Stan who is the resident farmer here at Morelea Farm as well as his seriously cute sheepdogs. This puppy right here is only 7 months old. And because this is a working farm the first thing that we are gonna see today is a live demonstration of rounding the sheep.

We head to this huge sheep field full of sheep where Stan is giving commands to the sheep dogs which in turn are commanding the sheep to round up into small huddled groups. It’s super interesting to watch and this is a technique that has been used for hundreds of years and in this day and age where technology seems to be in control of everything it’s super cool to see that techniques like this are still used.

Sheep farming here in New Zealand is a super important industry it’s actually the biggest farming industry in the country with 6 sheep per person in the whole New Zealand it’s quite impressive to know that sheep could take over quite easily it also really helps to put New Zealand in the map as New Zealand is growing some of the best wool in the world so some of your woolen suits or woolen jumpers maybe made out of New Zealand wool.

I really love seeing Stand commanding the dog it’s only with a few whistles or a few quick sentences like “way out” that he tells the dogs what to do and it’s really impressive to see how quickly they react how quick they run and quickly they round up the sheep I did not expect it to be such a quick and easy process.

But under the scorching New Zealand sun the dogs are getting tired really quickly and they need some shade and some water but now that we have some sheep to shear it’s no problem for us to head back to the farm for next part of our tour and you guessed it stan is gonna take us toward the sheep shed.

In the sheep shed the most important section is the sheep shearing section where most of the sheep are going to come to get a new hair cut and Stan is going to show us exactly how he does that.

Before the sheep shearing demonstration gets underway Stan takes the time to explain a little bit Morelea Farm which has been in his family for three generations. He talks about the principles of running an organic farm as well as telling us a bit about the wool that he shears from the sheep where it goes who it’s sold to and how it is actually made into the clothing that we wear.

While Stan usually has a team of shearers to shear the sheep he’s actually gonna do it himself to demonstrate what that process is like. So he drags this huge sheep out of the pen in a way that makes it go completely lifeless and it doesn’t even try to struggle as e just gets it electric shearer and shears it super quickly and super efficiently shearing it close off its body.

Stan reassures us that this doesn’t hurt the sheep in any way and in fact it looks pretty relaxed like it’s just getting a haircut. He makes it look super easy.

He’s much better than I was.

I’m really impressed by the huge amount of wool that Stan is getting out of this sheep I did not really realise that there could be that much wool into only one sheep.

As the sheep is finally back into its pen, and looking much smaller than all the other sheep it’s pretty interesting to hear Stan telling us what they’re doing with the wool. Because they are New Zealand wool they are super high quality, very good reputation and actually go into at least 50 different countries around the world.

But there is heaps more to see around the farm. First up, before we ourselves get fed we need to feed the animals and there is an oversized calf that wants some milk and there is a baby lamb which is begging for some milk as well.

Every girl in the group is meting at the sight of this baby lamb and they are all fighting to give it some milk while I’m petting its mother. On the other side Laura is trying to take a picture of the over sized calf but the over sized calf is very curious about Laura’s camera so it’s a bit of a funny situation.

But it’s time for us to head toward the kitchen because some yummy food is coming out of the oven. Angie has baked some delicious scones and a lot of yummy treats for us for what is called afternoon tea here. It’s basically a snack in the middle of the afternoon and a great excuse to stuff ourselves.

There is some sausage rolls there is some scones there is some cream there is some jam and we are helping ourselves and going to enjoy them in the beautiful garden at the back of their farmhouse.

Everyone is going nuts for how delicious Angie’s food is it’s all homemade it’s super amazing and she’s not only made enough for seconds but she’s made enough for thirds and she said that she doesn’t want anyone to leave until it’s all gone so we’re not complaining about that.

And just an extra treat Angie is preparing a traditional Kiwi dish which is called a pavlova.

Pavlova is a dessert that has invented in New Zealand and it’s really good for summer cos it’s such a light and fluffy feel dessert with lots of fruit lots of cream and meringue as well.

Angie even has her own dessert recipe book out so you can make you pavlova at home. We definitely love it and we wish we could stay here forever because we’ve actually got heaps of activities coming up int he next few days so we’re heading back to the Fairlie Holiday Park which is a pretty witty holiday park actually it’s got a few fun features in there but just to make this Kiwi day slightly more Kiwi Robin and I decide to have ourselves a proper Kiwi barbecue. We’re having New Zealand craft beer as well as burgers with a slice of beetroot in it because that is what Kiwi burger entails and having a nice relaxing evening before getting on the road again tomorrow to do some penguin spotting.

Stan gets hold of the shearers and starts going… [Shearer sound]