Biting the hand that feeds.

As promised here's a post about the Lindale Farm & Tourist Centre and in particular the Farm Walk. Now I wasn't brought up on the farm, and in that respect innocense in bliss. Here's a pic of a bird that defintely needs to go on a diet!

The tour costs €4 and you could purchase a bag of feed for an extra euro or two depending on the size of the bag. Not being one to skimp I got a euro bag and headed, map in hand, on the tour. Heres a picture of a very eager goat almost choking himself on the fence to get fed. How ironic.

The animals love it when there is more than one person feeding them as it gives the smaller ones a chance to get some grub. Otherwise the bigger dominant ones literally ram the others out of the way. Not to be bullied by an animal, I got Sharon to put out her hand at one end of a plot to distract the ram, while I tried to feed the other goat. I reckon the fence is still shaking where the ram hit it and the other goat, at full force, after he got wind of our ploy. To be fair the smaller goat got out of the way fairly quickly and wasn't hurt. I think he's used to it!

After that I was a little bit more tentative about feeding. I knew horses had teeth and although they are quite gentle normally their teeth just didn't have the dexterity to take the seeds from my hand without the odd nibble of flesh. After that I tried the Emu's, I have the memory of a gold fish. They also pinched a bit of the old flesh but at least they didn't have teeth! I also couldn't get Rod Hull's Emu out of my mind and made sure to stand well back.

Now they say you learn something new everyday, and I learned a valuable lesson going around the farm. After several failed attempts to loose my hand, and not one to be outdone, my next experiment was with a few pigs. I was in two minds about feeding the pigs it has to be said, but the bag of food cost me a whole euro and I was determined to get value for money. Well to say I got more than I bargained for would be an understatement. To be fair to the pig, I think he just thought my hand was an accompaniment to the main dish. In my hand went, down his jaws clamped, little Bastard I yelled. You get the picture. Anyway I got my hand back and to be fair he didn't draw blood, just a little pride. Here's a pic of a different pig smiling in case you didn't believe me about the teeth.


Our journey finished on a real highlight. At the end of the walk was the guinea fowl and deer park. Now if Robin Hood was given a digital camera and told to go get a good photo of a deer, I think he would be more than a little jealous of the picture Sharon got below! The deer had these waddlers for companions in the park.

There were plenty of other things to do in the park also, and as you might have gathered by now I like my food. All in all, NZ is great value on the food front. Sharon and myself have debated quite a few times whether it's actually cheaper to eat out than to cook! Irespective, in the case of the Lindale Centre a packed lunch is a must.

If I have known how bad the food was going to be I would have eaten the seeds myself and saved my hands a lot of nips and tucks.

Cathal

Paraparaumu

As the photo below shows we decided to head off for the weekend to Paraparaumu. The idea was to hit the beach and perhaps go for a swim or in my case a paddle. The name is Maori, but you probably worked out that one by yourself! It translates to “scraps from an oven” and describes what a tribe of Maoris’ discovered after they had attacked the settlement. As if it wasn’t long enough it is pronounced “pah-ra-pah-ra-oo-moo!”

We got on the train which would bring us North West of Wellington to our destination. Approximately one hour later we had arrived at our accommodation, a YHA Hostel called Barnacles. Yes that’s right no more fancy hotels for us and at €22 per night for a double room who could blame us! It even struck me after we had finished the guided tour that you would never get the same kind of service in a hotel, five star or not. Here are a few pics of the views from the train journey and of Barnacles Hostel.

After we had checked in we did a quick tour of the town. We ate at a restaurant called 180 Degrees, it’s a pity they didn’t go the full 360 as the food could have done with it! After that we headed onto the beach, which was very nice, but not a patch on our local Curracloe Beach back home. We really take for granted the beaches we have back in Ireland but that rant is for another day.

We ate that evening in a really nice BYO Thai Restaurant. BYO means Bring Your Own and is quite common in NZ. In Soprano’s, picture of sign below, there wasn’t even a charge for corkage!

It has to be said though that at one stage things weren’t going that well. We had just walked up and down the same street looking for a bar and restaurant called Insomnia. Eventually we asked a guy in the local petrol station who confirmed that we had passed it several times. He didn’t seem to think that the fact that they had changed the name to Ambrosia would account for any of the confusion. He said “that’s how we pronounce it (meaning Insomnia) round here.” Smart f%*ker! Anyway despite the fact that Insomnia, I mean Ambrosia was closed when we eventually got there! The food in the two alternatives was really good.

I began to wonder if NZ has the same peculiar habit as Ireland of calling things by their previous names/ owners even though they could have changed years ago. A good example of what I am talking about is in Wicklow Town, where you can go for a walk on the beach as far as the “second cottage.” When my sister queried where the first cottage was she was informed that it had been knocked down years ago!

Unfortunately the weather hasn’t been great, see the sign we came back to below. So we decided to give the beach a miss and head to Lindale Village on our second day but I will leave that for our next post.

Hopefully the weather will have improved by then.

Cathal