Our day started off with a
trip to Pegasus, a green development including native plants and a good use of
water drainage. There, we visited Pegasus Beach and were entertained for ten
minutes following the lines of a stick pulled by Eliza. Well, some of us were. If
that wasn’t exciting enough, the rest of us were exhilarated by yet another
group photo!!! (Not pictured)
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| The eel didn't look this blurry in real life |
Our next stop was the Pegasus
Bay winery, where we walked a trail that was part of the Greening of Waipara
project. The natives there were planted in 2008 and have grown a lot since
then. But native plants weren’t the only things we saw; we also were able to
coax native eels from the depths of a shallow pond using salami!
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| Cat! |
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| Cat does not enjoy being held |
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| Sleeper cars |
We had lunch at the winery
(eels were not on the menu), then continued our way up the road after stopping
briefly to unload at the Waipara sleeper cars. We met Daryl, a local farmer who
talked to us more about the Greening of Waipara project. This project is meant
for education, bringing back native birds, and attracting insects that help
control pests.
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| A talk from Daryl |
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| Bear demonstrates his sheep herding skills |
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| The one and only... Bob (the huge sheep with his tongue out) |
After his talk, we drove a
little ways up the road and Daryl unleashed his sheep dogs, Sis and Bear, from
the trunk of his car. The dogs herded Daryl’s sheep into a smaller paddock,
where we enjoyed petting Bob (his daughter’s gigantic pet sheep) and learning about some of the different types
of sheep.
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| The wine tasting group |
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| The card playing group |
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| The grand trophy for the 2018 lip sync contest |
After that we went to
another winery, Waipara Hills, to taste and learn about wine making. There, I
made the grand prize for the lip sync; a microphone-ish thing made from only
the finest ingredients (cardboard, chocolate wrappers, and lots of sparkly duct
tape).
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| Coco thinks it's been a long day |
Then it was off to Daryl’s
house for dinner and the long-awaited (and dreaded) lip sync contest! But first,
there was plenty of time to cuddle with his adorable pets, play cards, and eat
a delicious dinner and Pavlova (courtesy of Daryl and Allison). And play a game of
mafia.
But finally, it was time
for the lip sync contest. According to the judges, the bar was raised with everyone’s
performance. Even Jámm improved from his previous wordless lip syncs and
one-word songs by actually lip-syncing nine words (and in his encore
performance, more than five verses!). It was a close decision from the judges,
but first place for bragging rights and the microphone went to Devin. Corinne
was a very close second, and I got third place.
After all of the
excitement and dancing, we crashed at the Waipara Sleeper Cars. Despite the
lack of heat amongst other things, it was very cool to sleep in old train cars
and cabins. Most of us slept pretty well, but some unnamed people snoring
(*cough cough*) kept some of us up.
Cheers,
Tupelo
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