A Shear Spectacular day for the Diva's!

Our tour today started with a visit to a sheep farm.  There was a demonstration of herding with Faye, the border collie.  She showed off her talent with great ease, following the voice commands of her owner, a 6th generation sheep farmer on the same land.  After a demonstration of sheering a sheep, two of the Diva's got to cuddle with a baby lamb.


A short walk across a pasture brought us to a cafe where we had morning tea with scones on the seashore and then headed for the hills to an overlook so high, hang gliders launch off from it.  As you can see, the views were spectacular with the farm land blending into the city and the sea beyond. 

Again, we were blessed with superb weather, although a bit warmer.

Coming down off the mountain, we got a great taste of New Zealand at a local winery.  Ngatarawa is a family owned vineyard and well known worldwide for their wines.  Their land was formerly a thoroughbred racehorse farm and they did a wonderful job converting the barn into a wine tasting facility.

The Diva's, having had a "rolley-polley" night at sea, returned to the ship for some R&R.  One Diva was particularly concerned about packing until realizing that tomorrow is a day at sea.  Whew!  Still lots of luggage space issues to deal with.  (That translates into presents!!!!)

Tonight is the first night the Diva's talked about going home.  While we are still having a wonderful time, we miss our loved ones - human and canine - and realize that it will be great to be back in the USA.  But we still have 3 full days of fun and we plan to make the most of them. 

Diva Boar

Faye, the dog, herding the sheep

Sheep shearing demo - the sheep appear not to mind the
process at all, they lay there rather calm

Amount of wool from the one sheep above

Diva Barbara and her new friend

Photos from the summit of TeMata Peak in Hawkes Bay, NZ
sort of a scary drive up in a large Volvo bus - but so worth every
second - the most beautiful views you could imagine.

From the summit - you can see all across the town and down to
the ocean - that blue below the clouds is the ocean

The river you see winding is the Tuki Tuki River

New Zealand has some of the most beautiful scenery. It was amazing
just how far you could see.  Thank goodness for great weather!

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Next stop for the Divas was a winery - Ngatarawa Winery.
This winery is built in old stable barns - very cool.  This area has a unique
soil and climate that is perfect for growing grapes (and Kiwis, cherries, apples, asparagus, etc)  There are wineries everywhere around Hawkes Bay.

On our way back to the ship - picture shows how beautiful the
water is - the green/blue - fading into deep blue.  It was a gorgeous day, tons of sailboats all around the harbour.

Somehow this picture got a little out of order - Diva Donna and a 2 month old lamb.  If only the picture could have audio so you could hear the "baaaaa"

It was just a perfect Diva day - yet again.  Tomorrow we have a sea day as we travel to Tauranga.  The Divas will go to Longridge Park and see working orchards of Kiwi and avocado, as well as more farm animals.  Then there will be a jetboat ride along the Kaituna River.  Hopefully time to shop in the afternoon as one particular Diva needs to finish getting presents for someone!  Tomorrow stats the slow process of packing up to return home to our friends and family - can't wait until the last minute!