Monday, April 24, 2006

Your Slaughterhouse or Mine?


As you may or may not have been reading, there's been a great deal of sheep here in the New Land of Zeal. Through our various encounters with the locals, we've found out many intricacies about the day to day of our fine woolen friends.

Our first question centered around colored markings on different sheep's backs. They'd be green, red, purple or blue depending upon the pasture. I surmised that it was mint jelly being applied as an early marinade. Peggy, given her public health background, thought it was a indication of vaccination. Turns out, it was not by the hand of man that this marking was applied. Instead, the underbelly of a ram (male sheep stud) was coated with a colored chalk and as he made his way around the pasture for some sweet sweet sheep loving (up to 300 per ram), he would 'leave his mark' on his selected partners.

In addition, there were some sheep that had markings on their noses. These were the 5 year sheep that were tagged for slaughter. So whether the marking was on the nose or the back, I guess they were screwed either way.

We also drove by an abbetoir, which is a fancy French word for sheep killing place. This abbetoir was unique in that it was built into the front of a man's (assuming it was a male owner) house on the main road. He had converted his front yard and garage into a sheep pen and slaughterhouse for farmers to bring their flock. He must have had a pretty short commute for work, but I can't imagine bringing an unsuspecting ladyfriend home to such a place after a first date.

After spending a glorious, star-filled night in Lake Tekapo, we're approaching Christchurch for our final night in EnZed. Lake Tekapo was a tiny retiremen/ resort community at the base of several ski resorts surrounding Mt. Cook. The church of thhe Good Shepard was a iconic little stone church that served as their most recognizable landmark. Lake Tekapo could be compared to Tahoe in a former, simpler life free of vice and congestion. We're all not looking forward to a return to civilization, as we haven't seen a functioning stoplight in a full week.

posted by ncawthon at 8:18 PM