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Forgotten Highway

A nice wooden warrior down town.

I took a little ride around the area and looked down on this tree farming region.

The corn is just starting to tassel here.

Nice large metal Kiwi.

OF the WORLD !!!

A statue coming into town.

They have BIG bugs around here. some sort of relation to he grasshopper.

This plane is spreading something from a really high altitude. Not sure what it could be.

Lavender farm along side the road.

They sure had the road decorated too.

some of these roads are sure nice when they keep the jungle trimmed back.

The cows and sheep keep the grass mowed.

Sheep shearing along side the road too.

There were five shearers as well as the girls that kept the floor swept of the wool.

bales of wool

shearing machine driver I had never seen before.

The farmers getting out a couple of dogs to move some sheep.

The dog does all the work but open the gate.

The sheared ones.

I am on the Forgotten Highway and this warning sign says it all eh?

There is a short section of road that is gravel but really nice road for sure.

This little community I have heard succeeded from NZ and established their own Republic. I  was told they issure their own passports at the hotel/bar.

to get there you have to go through the Hobbits hole.

The other side.

At the hotel I met a couple of Kiwi bikers up for a day ride from Strafford area.

A saddle is what they call a pass here and you might be able to read the sign that say it is a Stream and not what we would call a creek.

I just love these fern trees.

a nice little road side rest where I ate my lunch.

There was some activity with dogs I had to stop and see that was along side the highway. These were the competitors of a  sheep dog event.

I had to ask one of the guys what was going on. Well the dog in front of the sheep is keeping them all in a bunch and calmed down while the guy on the right is getting his Hunt-a-way dog ready to work them.

This little dog was wonderful. Easy but forceful when she needed to be.

These Hunt-a-ways mostly just bark loudly at the sheep to get them to go where he wants them to go. The guy I talked to said that they needed a loud dog on the huge pastures to be able to move the sheep. They also have the heelers like that little dog in the back that kept the sheep in a bunch. They have totally different kind of sheep dogs than America or Australia he said.

The woman working with her dog penning the sheep.

A hunt-a-way. They didn’t seem to tie up any of these and even though they came from different farms from all over, I never saw any of them want to bark or even pay attention to other dogs. They all seemed to get along. Humm, maybe a kiwi trait?

The headers were on a chain and always ready to ‘help’ if needed.

I see a few houses like this up here on the north island. I don’t remember ever seeing anything like this down on the south island.