After we finished our dive day (and hung out with our British friends until midnight), we slept in, then drove south. We made a stop-off at Sheepworld, to ferret out the reason behind the pink sheep, and see a little of what they had to offer.
We got there just in time for their daily show. We got to see one of their sheephandlers go through the routine with the dogs, rounding up and herding the sheep. Those dogs are amazing! Â Then he had people from the audience help him with some demonstrations. There were only 5 of us, so we all got to participate. First, a woman from Europe had to separate the sheep out by color; she had a rough time of it. Then her husband and I (Mel) got to try our hand at shearing a sheep. It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, since he held it down for us, but I did come away smelling like a sheep. Also, as soon as you touch their wool, your hands are covered in lanolin, which makes them silky smooth. Then we got to feed some lambs, and see lambs in various colors.
At this point, it was pouring out, so we grabbed umbrellas and toured the grounds to check out the other animals they keep there, and hung out in the shop for a while, waiting for the rain to stop. Since it didn’t, we dashed to the car after a bit, and continued our drive south. We made it south of Auckland to Hamilton at a reasonable hour, and stopped there for the night, with the plan of checking the weather in the AM before planning the next few days.
Oh, and the mystery of the pink sheep. The farm hands had dyed a small group of sheep red and blue, which are the colors of the local rugby team, before a rugby match a while back. They used vegetable dye, which washes right out and doesn’t hurt the wool or sheep. Their boss came back and got upset with them, and made them wash it out. So the next time he left, as a practical joke, they dyed a group neon pink and put them in the pen at the entrance to the park. The boss got back and was very upset, until he started getting calls from his neighbors, saying what a clever marketing scheme he’d come up with. Â Apparently, so many people were stopping to photograph the sheep, that the neighbors noticed! They also got higher ticket sales from the extra people brought in. So now they keep some pink sheep around as their signature 🙂
