Christchurch, New Zealand - November 7, 2023

 Our next port of call was Lyttelton, about eight miles from Christchurch. This was another commercial port with bus service to Christchurch. 

Commercial port in Lyttelton

View of Lyttelton from the ship

We booked an excursion through Princess to the mountains and Erewhon Station.

It was about a two hour drive through the vast Canterbury Plains where we saw many farm fields and cow and deer stations. A station is what they call a farm or ranch. Dairy has become the main export of New Zealand. They also raise deer to export the meat to Asia.

In both of the pictures above, you can see rows of trees around the pastures. It is often very windy in the plains, and the farmers have planted walls of trees or hedges around the fields to protect the crops and animals.

After two hours of driving on paved roads, we pulled onto a gravel road for about another hour to get to the sheep station. We were now in the beautiful mountainous area referred to as the Southern Alps.

When we booked this tour, one of the sites advertised was Mount Sunday which was Edoras in the second Lord of the Rings movie. I was expecting a mountain. Our guide pointed it out to us, and we had a hard time figuring out where it was. That's because it was a small looking hill in front of the big mountains.

The movie people spent about nine months building the set out here in the wilderness. After several days of filming, the entire set was disassembled and taken away. Here are some pictures from the movie showing you what they built out here on top of that hill called Mount Sunday.

Hard to believe it's the same place. We continued on over a few streams and arrived at Erewhon Station, which was literally at the end of the road. Here we met Colin and Erin who own this amazing place. They raise Merino sheep, Clydesdale horses, Hereford cattle and deer. 

We were fed a delicious lunch while we watched a video of the workings of the station. Erewhon Station is a 35,000-acre working farm situated in the foothills of the Southern Alps.

Next, Erin took us on a horse drawn wagon ride through their property.

We saw lots of sheep. As it was spring here in New Zealand, we also saw many lambs. They were so very cute!

This Clydesdale foal was so adorable! The owners are very involved in raising and showing these magnificent  horses. As they are located in the high country, it is often easier to do the farm work with the horses rather than machinery.

This is some of the scenery from their farm. Their land actually goes about half way up these mountains. Herding the sheep back to the farm for sheering is an arduous process!

Colin gave us a demonstration of how he uses the sheep dogs to herd the sheep. Those poor sheep didn't have a chance. One of the dog's job is to bark like crazy at the sheep. He did his job very well. The other dog chases and rounds them up.

These sheep were in a pen ready for sheering which was to begin the next day. Groups of farmers get together and do all of the sheering at one place. While we were there, two semitrucks full of sheep arrived for the next day sheering.

They were in the process of building a new house for the owners and some of the employees. Being in such a remote location, they have employees who live on the property. It was quite fascinating to hear how they work out all of the logistics of running such a large operation in such an isolated location.

Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the ship. We were at the farm for about four hours, and the time went by so quickly. What a fascinating place to visit. On the way out, we saw some of the steer and this calf. The scenery was just fabulous wherever we were on the station and much of the ride back.

One of the things we noticed in Australia and New Zealand is that your tour bus driver is also the tour guide. Our driver/guide on this excursion was Natasha. She was a native Kiwi (that's what they call themselves in New Zealand), and she was full of information during the six hours we spent on the bus. The time went by so quickly as she told us about the history of her country and much of what life is like. Whenever someone on the road did something she liked, she would say "good on ya, mate". I loved listening to her accent. 

This was another wonderful and enjoyable day in New Zealand. Such a unique place to visit!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!