Wenderholm Regional Park

When I told Nate I had found a place we could go called Sheepworld, he gave me a questioning look. But when he found out there were Emus there, his feelings quickly became excitement. I don't know. He's really into Emus.

Our day began on the beach, as was right. Our site in Waipu Cove backed up to a path over the dune, which protected the campground from the shoreline, and opened into a beautiful vista. What's better than collecting shells on a pristine, undeveloped, near deserted beach at sunrise? Nothing.

Nate went for a jog and I went for a wander. Got my feet wet in a rather warm ocean, took photographs of the reflected sky, and a storm in the distance, and collected shells. The most common ones seem quite a bit different frrom what I've collected from beaches around the states. I even found one of the lovely shells from the mussels I ate on Sunday.

Unfortunately, the shells were very stinky. I rinsed them out in the kitchen. They are still verry stinky though. I hope they tone it down before I pack them in my suitcase.

I'm glad we took some time after breakfast to pull out our paper map and cirrcle all the places we had been and wanted to go. The vacation was really only half planned to begin with. On one hand, we didn't have a lot of time to plan, just the opposite. But also, we have decided to half plan on purpose so that we can be relaxed and meander, stop by roadside shops or cafes.

Just this evening we managed to hit the Honey Center on our way to the campground, where they had a number of delightful honeys we could taste. I mean really delightful, single source honeys. Manuka is the honey they are famous for, but that is a million dollars. There are a lot of others that are amazingly dellicious. We've been eating a raw and unheated bush honey on our yogurt every morning. There was also Tawari, from flowers of the Tawari tree, tasting of butterscotch. And Pohutukawa, which we've seen growing along all the Northland's coasts, and is called the New Zealand Christmas tree. Super unique. The honey jar describes the flavor as alsightly salty.

Our main destination today though was Sheepworld, home of ecowool. They have farm pens, a nature walk, sheep dog show, sheep shearing, and I even got to feed a baby lamb from a bottle! It was terrific. We got to feed Eels (yes, eels), Emu's, deer, baby cows, miniature ponies, goats, smushed faced black pigs. They had heritage chicken breeds and chicks everywhere, even baby ducks. And donkies and alpacas. The alpaca WOULD NOT let me pet it. It would only let me feed it if I didn't pet it. But the donkies, as usual, are sweet and snuggly. I love donkies.

After taking a minute to map out some of the things we most want to do, we've realized there are too many things.Read more