Pete's Farmstay

day 9 : 20th Oct 2011

The next morning, we found breakfast was already served in the kitchen. Check it out!

Gaye's signature blueberry muffins. Yum yum...

All these jams were home-made by Gaye too. Doesn't home-made stuff makes you feel all warm and happy inside?


Unlike our Malaysian breakfast like nasi lemak, fried bee hoon, fried kuey teow, fried rice, fried this and fried that...Kiwi breakfast were wholesome and healthy.


After breakfast, it was the moment we've been waiting for. We slipped into the boots Pete brought us and off we go. We met and fed Barbara the lamb, aka Jason's new pet. The lamb kept calling JaJa...son...JaJa...son...

Barbara is so cute and drank up her milk so fast, I wondered if she takes any breath in between.

Pete made a strange noise and a group of sheep came running towards us. They were so fast, I thought they were about to trample us. Luckily, they stopped in a nick of time and started to sniff all of us. One even tried to chew Jessica's sweater. Pete brought some bread and we fed the greedy lot.

Not faraway, Meg, was crouching at the entrance of another field. Pete opened the door and all of us went in including Meg. There were a lot of poo everywhere. Now I know why we need these boots.

Pete said we're heading to the barber shop. In the distance, a group of sheep was happily chewing the grass. Meg crouched her body and cautiously moved towards the sheeps. Like a lion about to pounce on his prey. Pete called up to Meg and she sprang towards the startled sheep. Meg rounded the sheeps up in an instance and brought them to Pete. Again, I thought the sheeps were about to trample us as they don't look like they are going to brake on time.


Meg continued to guide the sheep towards the barber shop where someone's going to get a hair cut. Check out Meg in action.

And here it is. The sheep chosen for a makeover.

The "Sua-Ku" with the sheep

Here is the result of the makeover. Pete told us he used to be a shearer. Shearing 100-300 sheeps a day. Shearing was intense for the back and legs but it was good money then. That's how Pete managed to buy some land where his farm stands today.

The "Sua-Ku" again with the hairless sheep.

A sheep takes 1 year for its fur to grow again. That's one shearing per year. Pete made us guess how much does one single sheep's wool could fetch. $200? $100?...lower...$50 lower...$25?

Yes, it's $25. That's not much considered a sheep can only be sheared once a year. I did a quick calculation. If Pete has 500 sheeps, then he'll get $12,500. However, Pete only has over 200 sheeps so he'll earn $7000 a year. Not much to feed a big family too. So most Kiwis had switched to a more lucrative business such as cows for their milk and meat.

Pete's new hires TH and Jason. Pete was impressed with their work on the first day.

Jason, stop dreaming of Michelle and get to work!

Pete using his weight to stuff the wool. Today, the wool will be taken to auction in town.

Meg brought the sheep back to the greens and we walked to the back of to the house. At the back of the house were a group of llamas. Which we later found out they weren't llamas but alpacas. Pete told us, the alpacas' fur are softer and fetch more money. However, shearing of alpaca might require a professional as you'll see later.

They were so cute and cuddly. They looked funny too and their movement reminded me of the "lion" in the lion dance as one of them shook his butt left and right to poo. But they are the most docile animal ever.

Unlike other farm animals, they don't come running up for food even after Pete placed the food in their food container. They looked at each of us strangers cautiously. Even with the slightest movement by lifting your hand to scratch your head will send them running off. Of course, they won't let us pet them and will not eat from your hands (even though they are hungry).


After some time, the alpacas slightly let their guard down and they cautiously came closer to check us out. I can see they are a bunch of intelligent mammals and look at you curiously with their bambi eyes.

This one is the friendliest of them. Standing on his right, we call him Mr. Shaggy. I wonder if he can see with his fur covering his eyes. Standing on the left side (the black one), we call him Mr. Prada. He's the most cautious of them all, probably because he has the most expensive black fur. "Gotta take care of my preciousssss fur"

This one, I'd like to call him Mr. Friendly.

Or Mr. Lover Boy as he cannot stop kissing Jessica. Hehe...

Not faraway, Meg fainted with the sight of Mr. Lover Boy making out with Jessica.

Aww...such loving creatures. Looking at them makes me laugh as they are so adorable. I think my next pet will be an alpaca.







Jess, Jason & Michelle went back inside the house. The weather was so nice outside, TH & I decided to hang out in the farm. We went back to play with the sheep, played with Barbara and I found this trampoline.

Barbara...

Oh, and we found another pig near the entrance to add to our collection of pig photos from Pete's Farmstay.

Jess having one of her farm dreams...or maybe she's dreaming about Mr. Lover Boy?

Lookey here! Rooney is back from his football practice in ... errr...a farm in New Zealand. TH & Jason acted strangely again. TH supports Chelsea and was thinking this could be the best time to ambush Rooney!

Maybe not today...

Blogspot occasionally distorted my pictures which I have to upload them again. However, this distortion was so precisely bizarre I had to show you the difference.

One for the trip!

We're sad to leave Pete's Farmstay and the hospitality we received from Pete & Gaye. We highly recommend this place if you're planning for a farm stay in NZ. Plus they might throw in Rooney as a bonus. Hehe...

We were even sadder as we'll be leaving NZ in a couple of hours. As we drove towards the airport, we passed through the aftermath of Christchurch's earth quake.

Some of the homes actually fell off from the top of the hill.

It was saddening to see such catastrophe to hit this peaceful city but the city is patching up quickly. I just felt the news we heard are sensationalized. Scaring many potential visitors away from Christchurch. The pictures above are a few of the hardest hit areas but most of Christchurch are fine. There are still a lot to see in the South Island and we should continue to support the recovery of Christchurch :)


We felt really grateful to have Rhys as our reliable and resourceful guide. Otherwise, we won't be able to cover so many places and see so many things in just 8 days. All I can say is, we are well taken care off by Rhys. So, here we are as we waved goodbye to Rhys :(

On our way back from KL to Penang.

One more pic for the "Sua-Ku" as we headed home. Yay guys, it was another awesome vacation.

NZ has really thought us to be friendlier to our environment. Back at home, I felt we have a long way to go to reach the cleanliness level of NZ. Come to think about it, I've not seen a single rubbish lying on NZ's ground. All their public toilets were clean, dry and always equipped with toilet papers.

I think all it takes is for us to start keeping a good habit by throwing rubbish into bins. Tighter cleanliness patrol in public toilets and eateries. Not forgetting...recycle, recycle, recycle. Set a good example for the children. Once we reached the desired cleanliness level, the rest will come naturally. It's like when you see a very clean place, you'll be naturally appalled to dirty up the place. You'll also try to continue to keep the place clean and tidy.

Well, it won't make any difference if I do it alone. So, let's keep our home town clean - together :)