New Zealand Cruise: Sheep Dogs!!

We were in Wellington, New Zealand on January 22, 2025.

Our day began with Randy walking around the promenade deck while I worked on the blog. We needed to upgrade my Internet package from one device to four because the pictures I was taking with my phone weren’t getting to my iPad efficiently where I wanted them for the blog.

Randy came in and said he had seen whales, or what we thought were whales given the visible blow, so we headed to our balcony. He said other photographers were looking for albatross.

The blows happened too quickly to get a photograph, but here’s a nice photograph of the ocean from our balcony.

The flowers from our travel agent are beautiful and smell great every time we walk in our cabin!

Soon, we were docking in Wellington.

Our excursion for the day was The Storm Coast.

We drove along Wellington Harbor, reportedly one of the finest natural harbors in the world. Unfortunately I had chosen seats on the wrong side of the bus. Our driver told us there have been many shipwrecks along the storm coast but evidence above the water has disappeared.

We stopped for a view of the Pencarrow Head Lighthouse (the one above), placed to protect boats as they enter the entrance to stormy Wellington Harbor. The lighthouse was constructed in 1859 and was the first permanent lighthouse in New Zealand. It was constructed from sections of iron that were shipped from England. Its first keeper, Mary Bennett, was the first and only female lighthouse keeper in New Zealand. The light was decommissioned in 1935 when it was replaced by the lighthouse below that still operates.

This is the entrance up to Pencarrow Lodge.

Our visit began with tea, something we are getting quite used to. We are usually touring during the day so tea is substituting for our midday meal.

At some point we had been told to try a meat pie and here was an opportunity at morning tea!

We had some free time to explore the area around the lodge. Somebody ready to take up shearing?

The sheep that were gathered for our demonstration have a nice view!

Our host began telling us about his farm and their life. Sheep have been farmed in the area since the mid 1800s.

In 1981, there were 70 million sheep in NZ. There are under 30 million now. It seems like we see sheep everywhere even if there are ONLY 30 million of them.

Pencarrow Station is one of the earliest-settled sheep and cattle farms in the Wellington area. This rendition began in 1990 with tours beginning in 1998.

At that time the Pencarrow Station’s current owner was on another very large farm owned by his family. He started shearing at 12, At 15, he sheared 300 sheep in one day. He said that never happened again.

He bought the station two years ago and runs it with his wife, and two daughters, and a “bit of hired help.” They run sheep and beef on 1000 hectares. (A hectare is approximately 2.5 acres.)

This owner embraces science for soil and feed decisions.

Brass, 5, has a big bark and the sheep can hear him from quite a distance, causing them to gather. He was also loving any attention he could get!

Spade is mixed partial border collie. He’s nine and he is the silent leader. He moves the sheep where directed.

Most farmers train their own dogs. This owner uses a dog whistle that really extends the range in which he and the dogs can work.

He has four dogs that run in two teams. Usually, a farmer has a young dog learning from the older ones. He had nine dogs at one time.

These sheep are Romney. The breed originated in the UK, but has been in New Zealand for 150 years. They have a 150 percent lambing rate per year.

Brass has spoken and the sheep are gathered.

Now it is up to Spade to get them in the pen!

We had a shearing demonstration. He won’t shear if it is too cold as it takes the sheep a week to acclimate to having less wool.

This owner shears at 6-8 month intervals. Shearing only once a year makes it harder for the sheep to recover, statistically reducing herd survival.

This amount of wool is worth $2.50 but costs $5 to shear and process. Meat is currently more profitable than wool.

All that economics made me glad I bought a New Zealand garment there made from wool and possum!

We had the good (harbor) side of the bus on the way back.

We saw this concrete block jutting out into the water. We presume it was for loading and unloading sheep or cattle.

We saw ferries likely going from Wellington to Picton. Wellington is the southernmost city on the north island while Picton is the northern most city on the south Island – a distance of about 40 miles.

Picton is the next port on our cruise.

We continued our day with drinks in the Gallery Bar – all by ourselves.

This is my espresso martini and Randy’s rum and coke. Randy initially ordered a chocolate martini but they didn’t have any Bailey’s. That’s the second time on this trip. Bailey’s must be a northern hemisphere staple, not southern.