36.3712° S, 174.6299° E
Sheepworld, Warkworth, NZ

This morning we headed south on State Highway 1 towards Auckland. We arrived at Sheepworld after an hour and a half for the 11:00 am show of sheep dogs and sheep shearing.

The setting is laid out like a small farm with pens of different kinds of sheep, cows, donkeys, pigs, alpacas and emus. We bought some bags of food and enjoyed feeding the animals. The emus were very keen to meet us & have a snack! They reminded us of some of the creatures in Jurassic Park!

Our host & guide, John, took to the small stage introduced us to the dogs – Boy, Mac and Muz.

Boy and Mac are New Zealand Heading dogs that he called “Eye Dogs” for their ability to maintain eye contact with him and not barking. They are descended from Border Collies whose long hair was not suited to the heat. Muz is a Huntaway Dog bred for their loud, deep bark to help with herding. John put them through their paces.

Boy was off like a shot over the fence and up a hill to herd a flock of about 20 sheep down to the paddock.

It was great to watch Boy respond on cue to the calls and whistles of John. Mac, only 7 months old, already knows his rights and lefts and how to work in a circle with John.

Muz barked on command and did his duty without the natural herding instinct of the other dogs.

We went back inside and John did a great job explaining the sheep farming industry in New Zealand and then demonstrated how sheep shearing is done. Very physical labour!

Shearers are expected to shear a minimum of 300 sheep a day and world record holders can do more than 700! At $2.15 per sheep!

Muz’s work was done so he settled in for a rest on a fresh wool rug!

We left the rural setting of the sheep paddock and continued on our way through the very urban environment of downtown Auckland, with construction and volume slowdowns. It was quite a contrast but not too difficult.

Our destination was the small town of Katikati on the east coast. We had hoped for a farm stay on our trip and this was pretty close – the Purple Hen Guest House with an avocado orchard!

We found an Indian restaurant in town and enjoyed a tasty dinner before retiring to our room at the guest house.

Not a baaaad day!