This morning we headed off right after breakfast for a 260K ride south to see Tim and Trisha Pearce, a couple of NZ veterinarians I met 32 years ago when they travelled with me on my AI route in Ontario one weekend when I was in veterinary school. We shared a beer at the end of my Sunday route and they said "be sure to get in touch if you ever come to NZ. Thirty-two years later I took them up on what I hoped was a sincere offer. Turned out it was a good move. They are delightful people with a very impressive horse and sheep farm which they run in addition to their veterinary work. Both compete in show jumping and Tim last week won a grand pre event--a level of competition just below Olympic level. We toured a magnificent garden maintained by one of their neighbors and then were hosted at a "barbi" to which they invited about a dozen friends and neighbors. The attached pic is of one of their ewes ith her triplets.
We spend most of the afternoon and evening chatting with them about NZ agriculture, and gained the kind of insight and perspective one can only gain in this kind of setting. We all left feeling that the few bottles of wine and gifts we left behind, were hardly sufficient for all they gave us. It was great fun. Weather has been quite good. We seem to have a half hour or so of rain almost every day, but it is never heavy and is almost always followed by bright sunshine. Temps have ranged from 6 to 19 (40 to 65 for you Americans). Tomorrow we are off to Wellington for a day, and Saturday morning we board the ferry for the South Island. weRe two weeks down and two weeks to go.
