February 22-On the way to Wellington

More on Thermals

Thermals play a major role in many aspects of New Zealand culture and business. There are the “taking of the waters”, the power plants and geysers and mud spouts. We were in one of the towns that have many “spas” which have pools of warm water (100-105 degrees F) that come from hot springs that are either alkaline or acid depending on the minerals that dissolve. These are thought to heal everything from rheumatism to impotence and is anti-aging. I had to try it, although Karen deferred. You will clearly see when I return that I appear at least 20 years younger. Actually, it was quite nice as I moved through the 7 different pools going from alkali to acid to clear. I felt a bit like I was going through a car wash without the car. There is also the mud spouts which reminded me of Shakespeare’s witches couplet in Macbeth: “double double toil and trouble fire burn and cauldron bubble”. These are very good for the complexion. In terms of thermal power, about 13% of electricity in the country is produced by plants powered by thermal energy, basically steam power. The geysers and mud spouts are major tourist attractions and quite spectacular. They are not as high as in Yellowstone but they are more constant.

Cyclone impact

There is clear left-over damage from the winds of the cyclone 10 days ago. We see downed trees, some creating a corridor of destruction with perfectly intact trees on either side-like a tornado. We also have done a lot of detours around roads that were damaged, and traffic is slowed by only one lane being open in some places. We also cannot visit the wine region around Napier which is still underwater.

Today was spent learning about farming in New Zealand which focuses on sheep and cattle.

Cattle

Dairy farming is second to sheep as the major business of New Zealand. There are 27 million cows in New Zealand, about the same number as sheep. Most of the milk ends up as powder that is exported. The cows are trained to walk into a turnstile that attaches teat cups to their udders. They continue around the turnstile and at the end they are fully milked, the cups drop off and away the cow goes. However, as they eat more grass they blech out methane which is a problem in terms of greenhouse gases and global warming. You see, methane captures heat from the sun 20x more efficiently than CO2 from photosynthesis and our breath. With the millions of cows in New Zealand, this actually increases the ambient temperature. A lot of research is being performed on how to modify their grass diet or in some way prevent the conversion to methane. However, grass rather than grain is what makes New Zealand beef so good.

Sheep

The 27 million sheep may seem like a lot, but this is actually a drop from 70 million in 1970, driven by less use of wool and decreased lamb (<1 year old) and mutton (>1 year old) consumption. The taste of lamb and mutton from ewes is very similar but the rams are more strong tasting.

The yearly cycle for the sheep begins with “tupping” time in March/April. The ratio of rams to ewes is 1 per 125, so rams are quite busy around these two months and the rest of the year they generally rest to build up their strength! Farmers use a tupping harness which is strapped across the rams’ shoulders. The harness holds a block of colored chalk on his chest which transfers a mark on the ewe’s rump once she has been mated. This lets the farmer know who needs a second go. The sheep are shorn in August, 5 weeks before lambing. About 5 kg of wool is expected from each ewe. There are 6 qualities of wool which are separated, pressed into 400 lb bales and then sold to a combine which cleans the wool and moves it on to production of blankets, sweaters and rugs. The most sought after is Merino wool which is combined with possum fur to create very warm sweaters which are sold for about $450US.

After sheering, the food intake doubles in the ewes to be converted to a layer of fat to provide extra warmth given they no longer have the protective wool. When lambing occurs the babes are sexed and a tag put in their left ear if female and right if male. Females are raised to produce more wool and babies and males become the lamb for eating, with a few preserved for tupping the next generation of ewes. Ewes that have trouble producing lambs have the same fate as rams-they “Go down the road” as they say. Generally, one ewe produces 1 lamb at a time but on occasion there are twins.

We visited a 1500 acre farm which is quite enormous (2 x 3 km). It is run by a husband and wife, their two teenaged daughters and 4 dogs. Other than subcontracting the sheering to experts who can shear a sheep in 20 seconds, all the work is done by the family. They have 2,000 sheep and 300 cattle. How much stock they have is dictated by how much grass they have available for grazing. They raise both cattle and sheep as they are synergistic. The cattle eat the long grass, revealing the short young grass that the sheep like. The farmer uses whistle calls to direct the dogs who run at and bark moving the sheep as a herd from one field to another and then home. It is not an easy life given the vicissitudes of nature and the economy. It was impressive their dedication to the land which has been in their family for 120 years. To make ends meet they both do these tours and the husband works also as an agricultural journalist.

Rugby, the national sport

Rugby started in an English public school in the 1820s when football (soccer) was just starting. These blokes liked using their hands rather than just the feet to pass the ball so Rugby was born. The object is to kick or carry the ball down the field to score points either by grounding the ball over the try line or kicking the ball through the posts and over the crossbar. It is a very rough game with tackling whoever has the ball. There are 15 players on each side so it is quite the donnybrook. England, Australia, New Zealand and France have the best teams. The strongest on is New Zealand is the All Blacks. They do a haka, a Maori warrior dance to intimidate their opponents before each game. There is a cool example of this on Youtube (#RWC2021) titled The best Haka of all time? for you to watch.