Wharekauhau: sheep, eels, and seals

Written by Charles October 19, 2013

Yesterday we did a lot.  We started by doing a helicopter tour of a mountain range and a glacier.  We took off at nine and flew over the most turbulent patch of air in the world.  The helicopter was going up and down like a massive roller coaster a hundred feet from a snowy mountain.  It was the middle of spring, and there was still snow on top of the mountains.  We flew down a river valley, and the river was grey with silt. 

We flew past Mt. Aurum, which means Mt. Gold in Latin.  I got a really good picture of it as we flew past.  We flew to the glacier, but that was barely visible beneath all the snow.  After, we flew around the mountain with the glacier for about five minutes.  We did the most exciting part of the ride and flew ten feet from the ground, and we were going a hundred and fifty miles per hour!

Then we landed on top of a mountain, which I was not expecting because I wore crocs.  My feet were frozen solid by the end of the excursion on top of the mountain.   We flew back to the airport after that and rushed to the terminal to catch the flight.  The flight was uneventful except that there was one awesome thing about it. There was no Security!!!!!!!!!!!!  We did not have to go through security because it was a domestic flight.  I was thinking to myself that this was definitely not America. 

We landed in Wellington and went to a movie studio.  It was not as awesome as it sounds.  We only saw how the people sculpt the weapons and armor for the movies.  (Did you know that Sauron from the Lord of the Rings was actually wearing rubber armor?)  Then we went and saw a museum, which was supposed to be really cool but it wasn’t.  We drove an hour and a half and finally got to the place we are staying.  (As the helicopters flies its only 12 minutes.)  The place that we are staying at is called Wharekauhau (pronounced Far-ee-co-ho), which is an awesome resort on the other side of some mountains.  I have no idea what we are doing tomorrow, but I hope it will be fun.

Written by William October 20, 2013

Best day ever! Today we went on a tour of the farm where we are staying. Our teacher, Miss Jenn, was thinking of cuddling with a baby lamb. But our first stop was seeing a baby sheep being shaved (or sheared, as its called). Then our next stop was even more funny. They sent out three dogs that were trained to gather the sheep. Our last stop was their version of a beach, which was rocks with a little sand. Somehow there was an upside to it; there were lots of good skipping rocks.

When we got back to our cottage, we went to skip rocks in a little pond nearby. I successfully failed at skipping rocks. Charles had one skip five times somehow. Then we did archery, where the target was a balloon. I could only pop 2, and Charles popped the rest of them. For me, it was point and shoot because I was too short to look down the sites. Charles was tall enough to look down the sites, so he hit all of them on his first try...except for one, which stayed intact for about 50 arrows, and then of course he hit that one too.

Written by Charles October 20, 2013

Today we did a tour of the farm that we are staying on. We saw how they sheared a sheep, rounded the sheep up with dogs, and saw the giant cliffs. I thought that shearing the sheep was mean. I won't go into details because I was upset for the sheep. After that we saw the sheep dogs running around herding the sheep. I thought that it was hilarious because the sheep ran exactly where the dogs wanted them to go. The real funny part was when the sheep tried to escape the herd, but they got cornered by two of the dogs.

We went on to the boring part of the tour because we drove around looking at sights. It was boring even though we saw some pretty views. At the end we were driving back, but then the driver turned off the road and headed for a pond. I was completely confused until we got out. There was a sign saying Mr. Joe's eels. I was still mildly confused until I saw them. The eels were being fed by other people. They were 'slithering' up almost onto the shore. Me and my brother were completely freaked out. William had run up to the car, but I stayed down on the shore.

Our guide pulled out a bin of meat and some skewers. He put the meat on the skewer and started to feed the eels!  Then he asked me to to do it, and I did!  The eels were really strong and almost pulled Miss Jenn in! (Editor's note: Minor exaggeration. Miss Jenn got surprised when they popped up in her face, so she fell back on her bum on the dock). If you thought that was disgusting, just wait for this. Our guide stuck his hand in the water, then he touched an eel!  He asked me if I wanted to do it. I did it!  I was really grossed out. It was like touching the softest thing ever, but it was squishy at the same time.

After that we went to the pond near our room and skipped rocks. (There were no eels in there!)  William completely failed at skipping the rocks but did okay.

Later we did archery with balloons, and we killed all of them. I called it the balloon massacre. The rest of the day we did school. Tomorrow we are doing a tour of a seal colony. I have no idea how that will turn out.

Written by Charles October 21, 2013

Today we went to the seals. It was an hour and a half drive to the colony and an hour and an half back. The seals stunk, and they were lazy. Some flubbered around barking at each other. The others played on the rocks getting a tan. I don't know how they could get a tan with grey skin, but I think they were trying. We all sat down on some rocks near the seals, and we took photos. All of a sudden this one seal started to charge at me. I was minding my own business at it waddled right at me. William ran for it, but the rest of us held our ground!

Then my mom and Miss Jenn ran. Then when the seal got five feet from me, my dad and the guide ran. I knew I had to run when it got to the rock behind me!  I got up and ran for my life!  It was still chasing me, but I moved faster. I agreed wholeheartedly. Tomorrow we are flying to Auckland, and I think we are sailing on a big boat for the afternoon.