Dawes Family in New Zealand

Lindale Farm

We couldn’t decide as we left Shannon if we wanted to go to Lindale Park to the Lindale Kids Farm or not. Its somewhere that we have been before and reminded us dearly of all the usual petting farms we were used to in the UK. But we had a voucher for free entry, so we thought it would be fun to use it.

We had lunch which was lovely although spoiled a little by the silly surcharges due to it being Easter weekend. After lunch we headed into the farmland and took a little wander. Bethany held a rabbit, stroked a sheep and fed the various things sticking heads through fences. We saw all the usual suspects, cows, sheep, horses, ducks, hens, deer, pigs, and geese. My favourite though was the lovely furry brown Alpaca.

After getting through all the animal feed we headed to the barn where we were to watch a ‘farm show’.

A burly Kiwi bloke turned up on stage, his voice boomed as he told us the story of sheep shearing and cow milking in New Zealand. He then got down to action and sheared a sheep right there in front of us which was really good to see. Amazing skill and to think that the guys out there doing this by hand can get through 200 sheep in one day is truly amazing.

He then brought in a cow, some people took turns are milking her and then we were given a demonstration of how the new milking machines work. We were going to be treated to some crazy lambs to come in and run around, but someone in the audience didn’t get the hint that their toddler that was free roaming was a worry and so we missed out on that fun!

A real good show and although nothing really new to us, it was lovely to see tourists from all over the world taking photos and really enjoying it and asking questions in the best English they could.

We left with a smile on our faces, it was a fun and easy relaxing afternoon and we really enjoyed every minute. On the final drive home before picking up Denver and Bailey from the kennels we stopped off at Raumati Beach where we enjoyed a lovely refreshing walk.

All in all one of the best weekends we have had in a long time. As usual we crammed so much in but it didnt feel rushed or overwhelming, what has now just becomes good old Kiwi fun.