We’ve spent time in downtown Auckland as well as driven north and west, today we decided to explore the area south of Auckland. And we discovered traffic jams NZ-style. What should have been about a 90 minute turned out to take more than 2.5 hours. Wasn’t a lot of cars – it’s just that the major north-south road is under construction, so it’s reduced from two lanes each direction to one. The backroads kept us moving, but was a long detour.

First stop was Zealong, NZ’s only tea plantation. We weren’t able to schedule a tour – which turned out to be a good thing (how much do we really need to know about tea?). The folks in the shop were very friendly and knowledgeable. Did you know that green, oolong and black tea all come from the same part of the same plant? Differences in processing result in different tastes. We tried several types of tea and learned about the correct temperature and time to steep tea so the tea balls open properly. Only the very top leaves of the plant are used to make tea and the processing of the oolong tea results in very small ‘balls’ of leaves that need the property temperature and time to open and flavor the water. Zealong sold loose tea in 45 gram and 100 gram bags – and also sold tea in cute metal tins (of course) so we have another tea tin to add to the ones from the Lincoln Tea Shop in England (not as cute as Lincoln’s). After the shop, we checked out the fields of tea plants and a series of informational displays and statues which provided several (fun) photos ops.

From there it was ‘alpaca time’! In searching for activities to do – that didn’t involve “zorbing” (rolling down a hill in a large plastic human-sized hamster-type ball), we found a bunch of alpaca farms which offered tours. So just down the road from the plantation was the Ataahua Alpaca farm. We called Jackee that morning and asked if we could visit – like many (many!) places in NZ, they run different hours between Christmas and New Years, so Jackee said “come on down” – she’ll be sorting fleeces and she can see whenever we arrive. The “farm” is a series of large paddocks – each at least an acre behind their house. They currently have 29 alpacas and several are pregnant so more on the way. Jackee was very friendly and fun and the tour was great. We started in their fenced-in backyard with a couple of ‘babies’ – six months old and just separated from their ‘mums’. Note – six month old alpacas are already close to four feet tall and the older alpacas were taller than Holly. They are beautiful animals, a little skittish of people, but very excited to see Jackee and her plastic bucket of treats. Jackee scooped the ‘treats’ (pellets of processed food with bits of grass) into metal cake pans and gave them to us so we could feed the alpacas.

We repeated this process in another series of paddocks with different numbers and combinations of alpacas (the alpha male by himself, two young males who got along, five females and a young males and finally in a very large field with 12+ females (several pregnant) and a two month old baby (still a good sized alpaca). Along the way, Jackee ‘caught’ one of the alpacas, held it along the neck so similar to the harnesses they wear at shows (Jackee’s daughter has won several ‘best of , show’ trophies at the annual national alpaca show). Once she held the alpaca, we could pet it and feel the thick soft fur. The alpacas had been sheared the previous month so they had short thick fur. Heather even got to hold (cuddle) the alpaca! Along the way, we learned all about the business and health side of raising alpacas. They also had about ten cows in the front yard – including four little baby cows – very cute! After the tour, we went into the house (to wash our hands!!) and Jackee showed us the yarn made from the alpaca’s fur (she had a spinning wheel, but send this away to have it prepared commercially. She had spindles with six different colors of yarn (there are more than 20 different shades in all) and Heather purchased yarn made from Turbo’s (the alpha male) wool to knit a scarf. It was a really fun, personal tour.

The only downside of the visit was the realization of how the NZ country-side is changing and the city of Hamilton is encroaching on the farm. Due to traffic, we took backroads for almost an hour to get to the tea plantation and alpaca farm – which turn out to be less than five minutes out of the town of Hamilton. Jackee pointed out a 121-unit new house development going up two properties over. The property between Jackee and the development has already been sold to a developer and is expected to be built in the next five years. And the extension of the national north-south highway will run directly. Glad that we visited when we did. The farm will look very different in a few years – or may not be there at all.