The scenery that the bus ride to Te Anau offered was inspiring. There were mountains of all sizes on all sides of the bus, and we passed the old, almost dry Te Anau River bed. Between seeing these mountainous landscapes and bright blue skies, there was only about one other variable.. Farmland. From what I can see, deer farms are very popular around Te Anau. Oh and want to know an interesting fact? Turkey farms are nowhere to be found. New Zealanders don’t eat a lot of turkey, and my guess is that they replace it with lamb and venison. Speaking of which, the dairy system here is not on quota like at home, and it is a booming industry, while sheep farms are still at every left turn and its road.
When I look at the landscape in a broader way, I can see that between farms in most of New Zealand there are always tree lines, and the homes here all have very full gardens. This is somewhat unlike southern Ontario, in that we tend to put up fences instead of hedgerows between our properties. I got my first taste of this from the plane into Christchurch.
The schools in the country are quite far apart and so the locals who do not live in the small towns they are in must take the intercity buses to get to and from school. There was a girl about ten on our bus for about 40 minutes just going home from school. Pretty different than it is at home, where my bus ride to school was 20 minutes and i was the last one off! Anyway, while I am here I hope to learn more about farming here in New Zealand, so when I know, you'll know.
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| typical NZ farmland |
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| across Lake Te Anau on a "bad day" |
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