Thursday, March 13, 2008
Thames
We're leaving Kerikeri today and starting our journey south. We'll be driving about five hours down to Thames, at the base of the Coromandel Peninsula. There, we have two places to visit before heading further down to Wellington and catching the ferry to the South Island. We'd like to thank Julie and Peter and everyone for their hospitality and showing us a good time.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Julie
So I'm adding a new feature to our blog -- profiles on interesting people we meet along our travels. Here's the first on Julie, the owner of the llama farm we've been staying at for the past three weeks.
Growing up, Julie Insley's passion was horses. These days it's llamas.
Insley, 48, grew up on a dairy farm near where she now lives, just outside of Kerikeri on New Zealand's northeastern shore. She became a vegetarian at age 13, when she came home from school and found her father had killed her pet chicken.
Animals, especially horses, were a main priority for Insley. "From morning 'til dusk I was on a horse," she said.
But reality was calling, and after high school Insley's mom persuaded her to apply for a lab technician job at the local hospital. Unfortunately, she said, she got the job.
"We had these stools that I was spinning around on one day because I was bored," she said. "I fell off and broke my tailbone."
After being sent home early from work, she came across an injured seagull, which she immediately took to a veterinarian. There, while waiting on a beanbag chair, she ran into her girlfriend's boyfriend, who had brought in his hurt dog.
The two eventually married and moved to New Zealand's western coast.
"I married on a dare," she said.
Once the pair split, an Auckland rock band ended up moving in to take her ex's place. Insley wound up managing the band, traveling with them throughout the country.
"They drove me completely bananas," she said.
Wanting to rid herself of the band, she decided to sell her house so she put an ad in the newspaper. A man from Papua New Guinea rang her up and asked why she wanted to sell.
When she told him, he offered her something she couldn't pass up -- a chance to manage his friend's racing stable.
So, Insley moved off to Papua New Guinea to race horses. At 5 feet, 11 inches she was the tallest jockey "by a long shot," she said.
One day, Insley was preparing for a race on a training track made out of chicken manure.
"There was a sprinkler that was over too far and it created a wet patch on the chicken shit," she said. "The horse fell and I tried to roll out of the way, but the horse bounced onto me -- onto my head and shoulders."
Insley was flown back to New Zealand and spent six months in a spinal rehabilitation unit trying to recover from her broken neck.
After rehabilitation, she moved back to her old house, minus the band.
Fourteen years ago, she met her partner, Peter, and decided to move back to Kerikeri. Still a horse owner, Insley said she felt unsafe at the unpredictabilty of horses.
"Quite frankly, I got sick of it," she said.
So she found a herd of llamas in the nearby town of Russell and instantly fell in love as they swarmed around her wheelchair.
In 1996, she bought her first llama.
"What the hell do you do with a llama?" she remembered thinking.
Well, she soon found out as she eventually acquired the whole herd of 16 llamas from Russell.
"They're like potato chips," she said. "You can't have just one."
Insley, owner of Rangemore Llama Farm, has been the president of the New Zealand Llama Association since its formation in 2003. She also runs two llama-related Web sites and a blog.
She uses a voice-activated computer and moves her large mouse with her hand and chin. While she's on the computer in the early morning and evening hours, she likes to spend the days out with her herd of llamas, which has now grown to about 50.
Insley zips around in her electric wheelchair, usually with a cup of Milo chocolate drink nearby and Bruno, a green Indian Ringneck, either on her lap or hat. She said she's constantly amazed at the reliability and intelligence of llamas.
"I don't see malice in a llama," she said.
Ediza likes to get rides from Julie in her wheelchair and Peter on the lawnmower.
Growing up, Julie Insley's passion was horses. These days it's llamas.
Insley, 48, grew up on a dairy farm near where she now lives, just outside of Kerikeri on New Zealand's northeastern shore. She became a vegetarian at age 13, when she came home from school and found her father had killed her pet chicken.
Animals, especially horses, were a main priority for Insley. "From morning 'til dusk I was on a horse," she said.
But reality was calling, and after high school Insley's mom persuaded her to apply for a lab technician job at the local hospital. Unfortunately, she said, she got the job.
"We had these stools that I was spinning around on one day because I was bored," she said. "I fell off and broke my tailbone."
After being sent home early from work, she came across an injured seagull, which she immediately took to a veterinarian. There, while waiting on a beanbag chair, she ran into her girlfriend's boyfriend, who had brought in his hurt dog.
The two eventually married and moved to New Zealand's western coast.
"I married on a dare," she said.
Once the pair split, an Auckland rock band ended up moving in to take her ex's place. Insley wound up managing the band, traveling with them throughout the country.
"They drove me completely bananas," she said.
Wanting to rid herself of the band, she decided to sell her house so she put an ad in the newspaper. A man from Papua New Guinea rang her up and asked why she wanted to sell.
When she told him, he offered her something she couldn't pass up -- a chance to manage his friend's racing stable.
So, Insley moved off to Papua New Guinea to race horses. At 5 feet, 11 inches she was the tallest jockey "by a long shot," she said.
One day, Insley was preparing for a race on a training track made out of chicken manure.
"There was a sprinkler that was over too far and it created a wet patch on the chicken shit," she said. "The horse fell and I tried to roll out of the way, but the horse bounced onto me -- onto my head and shoulders."
Insley was flown back to New Zealand and spent six months in a spinal rehabilitation unit trying to recover from her broken neck.
After rehabilitation, she moved back to her old house, minus the band.
Fourteen years ago, she met her partner, Peter, and decided to move back to Kerikeri. Still a horse owner, Insley said she felt unsafe at the unpredictabilty of horses.
"Quite frankly, I got sick of it," she said.
So she found a herd of llamas in the nearby town of Russell and instantly fell in love as they swarmed around her wheelchair.
In 1996, she bought her first llama.
"What the hell do you do with a llama?" she remembered thinking.
Well, she soon found out as she eventually acquired the whole herd of 16 llamas from Russell.
"They're like potato chips," she said. "You can't have just one."
Insley, owner of Rangemore Llama Farm, has been the president of the New Zealand Llama Association since its formation in 2003. She also runs two llama-related Web sites and a blog.
She uses a voice-activated computer and moves her large mouse with her hand and chin. While she's on the computer in the early morning and evening hours, she likes to spend the days out with her herd of llamas, which has now grown to about 50.
Insley zips around in her electric wheelchair, usually with a cup of Milo chocolate drink nearby and Bruno, a green Indian Ringneck, either on her lap or hat. She said she's constantly amazed at the reliability and intelligence of llamas.
"I don't see malice in a llama," she said.
Ediza likes to get rides from Julie in her wheelchair and Peter on the lawnmower.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Dolphin discoveries
We went on a four-hour boat ride this afternoon through the Bay of Islands in northern New Zealand. During the cruise, we spotted a mama dolphin swimming with her playful baby.
Amber was planning to swim with the dolphins, but wasn't allowed to because of regulations stating people can't swim when baby dolphins are present. I was planning to watch Ediza while Amber swam because I've already swam with dolphins (years ago in the Bahamas).
Regardless, it was a real enjoyable boat ride and being able to see the dolphins in their natural habitat was pretty impressive.
After we returned back to the farm I met up with a local running club that had invited me to participate in their fun run this evening. But this is no normal running club -- they like to drink after, and sometimes during, their runs. Once we ran through area farmland we stopped along the road and drank homemade beer. At least no one drank beforehand as we had to hop over an electric fence:)
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Parrots & llamas
In addition to swimming, running and walking (usually with llamas), we've found time to visit The Parrot Place -- a refuge for parrots and other birds from around the world. Here's a cool Australian parrot named Digger.
Amber was really excited about cutting ear tags off of Caramel and Coffee. They came from a ranch where they have so many that they're not named, they're just numbered with ear tags. In the black-and-white photo below Amber is putting on Chocolate's halter. He's made much progress, as have the others, with being handled. Today they even loaded in and out of a van, and Chocolate went to the beach.
In other llama news, Jos pulled Amber and Ediza in a cart down the driveway, while Tess (the dog) and Peter (Julie's partner) assisted.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Dalai Llama
Ediza Rose riding saddleback on the Dalai Llama -- the first born male at Rangemore Llama Farm in Kerikeri, New Zealand.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Cloudy
Meet Cloudy, our means of travel while in New Zealand. We officially own the car and plan to sell it before we leave. Cloudy has lots of character (its windows don't work, nor do the lights inside), but we mainly care about it being reliable.
We have been driving Cloudy around to many beaches lately (see photos below). While driving, we only seem to get one radio station -- one that plays tons of Metallica and Pearl Jam and has constant advertisements about premature ejaculations. I guess that's a problem here?
Our favorite beach so far is Tauranga Bay, where we ventured off to yesterday after a morning llama walk.
Amber continues to work with the llamas (feeding them hay, giving vaccinations, etc.), while I let them loose. This morning I accidentally left a gate open and the female herd escaped into the back yard. At least none made it to the driveway:)
Meanwhile, I'm continuing to run -- along country roads, on the waterfall trail and barefoot on the beach.
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