Alpaca sausage anyone? 3 – 15 August

Jenny told me that I could have the morning (Saturday 3rd) to myself as she was running in her first half marathon, off road in Rotorua (81km from her home) and Pete was ferrying the girls to netball and hockey matches and no one would be back until the afternoon.

The girls seem to participate in a lot of sports for their young age. Ivy plays hockey, netball, taekwondo and water polo and Cora hockey, swimming and tap dancing. Pete cycles a lot and coaches one of the hockey teams and Jenny attends a running club 3 times per week. Wherever they go they have 10km to drive before getting to the main road and most things seem to happen in Tauranga, 16 km along that main road. Jenny and Pete are English and met in Taiwan where Jenny was teaching English and Pete was working there too. They have lived in NZ for about 15 years, moving to their current home 12 years ago. Pete works as a water treatment engineer in Auckland, staying there in the week, and Jenny as a copywriter for magazines and companies.

So I had my first morning to say hi to the alpacas, get to know Chewie (short for Chewbacca) the one year old Airedale Terrier (I hadn’t realised quite how big they are) and Lady, a 6 year old Cavoodle. Jenny had told me that I didn’t have to take the dogs out for walks as they are quite happy running around the paddocks for 30-40 minutes twice a day, but left details of several walks, three of which they could both go on together. One of these was just to the other end of the road which leads to a car park and bush walks, although the dogs aren’t allowed in the bush. In between downpours (not great weather) I took them for that walk and discovered that Chewie barks at cars, other animals in fact anything that moves. He’s quite big and strong and pulls hard on the lead.

The family returned mid afternoon and Pete showed me the alpacas’ feeding routine which is basically a bucket of alpaca pellets between them and making sure they’ve enough hay. There’s plenty of rain water around for them in various receptacles. Firstly they were moved into different fields, with 6 adolescents in one, 17 females and babies in another and poor Romeo, the only grown male, on his own. They all have names, after various Disney princesses, gods and goddesses etc. Jenny had told me that the alpacas are easier to look after than the dogs, and so it turned out to be. When I first applied for this housesit there were 30 alpacas, now there are 24 as some have been sold and the others turned into sausages and minced meat! Apparently alpaca meat tastes similar to venison, if you like that kind of thing!

There are also 3 cats, one of whom went awol a few months ago, another called Beast who I’ve seen but runs away if he sees me and a ginger cat called Eddie who is quite friendly, however the dogs have to be kept separate from the cats otherwise there’d be blood drawn! Poor Eddie has no tail as he lost it in a road accident before the family rescued him.

The girls sat watching tv with me (recordings of George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces) and Cora, of her own accord, laid her head against me and snuggled up, which I thought was quite sweet. She probably sees me as a substitute grandmother, hers both being in England! Pete drove 10km each way to the fish and chip shop which turned out to be my 3rd fish and chips meal in a week!

Nothing much happened on the Sunday, other than the family leaving at 0730 to travel to the airport for their flight to Fiji, me getting used to the house and animals and driving into Bethlehem (yes really!) the town before Tauranga for a shop at their big Countdown supermarket, which I really enjoyed. The weather was pretty awful all day but I managed to walk the dogs to the end of the road and back, and enjoyed feeding the alpacas. Monday was pretty similar, staying around the house and running the dogs in the paddocks. The dogs eat and sleep in cages on the deck at the back of the house. It feels rotten that they sleep outside in the cold when they’ve been snuggling up in the warm during the evening however, they seem to enjoy it and when I say “Bedtime” they run straight out to do a pee and then get into their cages to be locked up for the night after a treat.

Jenny uses a dog sitter, Jo, in Te Puna (which is where I got off the bus) and told me not to hesitate booking Chewie in as there are often rescue dogs and he’s good with them. It means that I can then take Lady out on her own who, unlike Chewie, is quite sociable with other dogs. I took Chewie to Jo’s on Tuesday 6th so I could take Lady for a walk along the beach near Mount Maunganui, which is at the head of a peninsula. The Mount can be seen from the house and I plan to walk up it when the weather’s fine and when I can book both dogs in with Jo. The Mount is often shrouded in mist and I’m waiting for the perfect opportunity to take a picture of it from the house. It was a lovely beach and Lady enjoyed running after a ball. She reminded me of Annie’s dog, Koura, who will run after a ball or frisbee all day given half a chance. In fact Lady looks a bit like a bigger Koura! Chewie was pleased to see me when I collected him.

Some of the alpacas will eat out of my hand, while others are too timid. They’re pretty docile although Chewie barks at them which unnerves them. They’re very curious about the dogs and come to greet me when I’m approaching. I just think what a great experience this is as how often am I likely to get the opportunity to look after alpacas? It’s like I’ve got my own mini zoo for a while. It’s true that they are easy but I count them every day just in case someone might have sneaked in during the night to steal a few. I’m sure the dogs would bark if that were to happen and they certainly couldn’t escape as the fencing is all quite secure.

Jo had said Chewie could go to hers again on Wednesday and as it looked like another fine day I accepted. A few people had suggested I go to Waihi Beach, 50 km in the direction I’d come from to get here, so I did. It was also a lovely beach and Lady spent two hours running after the ball, in and out of the sea, which possibly might have been too much but she could have gone on longer if I’d let her. I went into the little town for some lunch and a look at a couple of nice gift shops. I can’t really buy anything however as I’ll either have to carry it around (and there’s no space in my case) or post home at vast expense!

I picked another of the walks I could relatively safely walk the two dogs together on and on Thursday afternoon (8th) went to Puketoki Reserve, 5km down the road and off on the right. In 1926 a chap called Henry Havelock Sharplin donated 85 acres of native bush to the Whakamarama community which became this Reserve. He brought a small timber mill with him when he and his family arrived from Staveley near Ashburton in 1912 and established the Whakamarama Land and Timber Company. There is still evidence of the milling and it’s extensive tramway network in the reserve, extending far beyond the 85 acres (10km). Most of the timber was rimu and eventually shipped to Auckland. The business thrived until 1946.

There was a short loop and long loop, so I chose the long loop. It was ok until we met a young woman with dreadlocks and 2 hoola hoops at which Chewie took umbrage. I asked her what she did with the hoola hoops and she said “dancing”. Well, each to their own…! We then met a little pug, which should have been on a lead but wasn’t, and I thought Chewie was going to eat her!

The weather was pretty awful until Monday 12th. I’d been waiting for an opportunity to walk up Mount Maunganui and this seemed the perfect day. I’d been told dogs weren’t allowed on the Mount so booked Lady in at Jo’s with Chewie for the day.

Mount Maunganui (Mauao) is a historic reserve owned by Maori and managed by Tauranga City Council. It’s an extinct volcanic cone occupying a narrow peninsula in a small beach town called The Mount which has a lovely tranquil feel to it. It seemed odd to me that dogs aren’t allowed on the Mount as it’s sacred to the Maori people yet 4 wheel drive vehicles are! There is a 3.4 km base track and several tracks to the summit. I decided to walk the base track first, walking clockwise of course! The views were glorious all the way round, helped by the blue sky and sunshine. There was the possibility of spotting seals but I didn’t see any, sadly. There were a lot of fitness walkers and runners. I then walked to the summit and came down a different way to the beach on the opposite side.

A few views from Mount Maunganui:

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On Tuesday I dropped off Chewie again at Jo’s and took Lady on a walk around the Waikareao Estuary, a special ecological area. Nothing really exciting to say about this walk except that it was over 8km round, some of it on boardwalks, and gave Lady and me some good exercise.

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Wednesday 14th and, once again, I dropped Chewie off at Jo’s and took Lady to the Te Puna Quarry Park, just off the state highway and recommended by Jo. This was a wonderful place described as ‘a community development in the environmental arts’ with a variety of tracks leading to lots of different garden areas with varied plants including irises, heritage roses, cacti and magnolia, an Australian area, South African area, Japanese garden, native plants, ponds all of which are mostly looked after by volunteers. There were great views of the Mount and coast from the top of the quarry park via the Lion’s Steps. There were also a lot of sculptures and on leaving I noticed there was a sculpture guide. However, with Lady in tow, I didn’t take a great deal of notice and also thought it really wasn’t the ideal place to walk a dog even though they were allowed on leads.

The family was due back on Thursday 15th and, as it was a lovely day, I decided to go back to the Te Puna Quarry Park on my own to take some pictures and do the sculpture trail. I put the dogs in their pen, an enclosed area outside with two kennels, which Jenny had said to use when I went out or if I’d had enough of them. I’d only used it once when I initially went to the supermarket and hadn’t planned on using it again because they looked at me with such sad faces making me feel rather guilty. However, it was worth it for the greeting I got on my return: Chewie leaping up and down on his hind legs like a canine pogo stick, and Lady attempting to imitate him, then leaping up onto me when they were released. Jo had told me they liked their pen, but they didn’t appear to.

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The family arrived back at 5.30 pm and enjoyed the 3 course meal I’d prepared for them, apart from Ivy who wasn’t feeling well so went to bed.

It was an early rise on Friday as Jenny was taking me to the bus stop in Tauranga and dropping off Cora (Ivy still unwell) at school. Jenny then was off to her running club, which she attends 3 times a week, in preparation for her second half marathon in Sydney in September! Another housesit completed!