After leaving Kaikoura, we headed south and west toward the interior of the South Island, to the Peel Forest Farmstay. When we arrived, we were greeted by Steve, our host, dressed in a Scottish kilt and sporran. This is his usual work attire, and at greeting, he was also wearing Ugg slippers. These were, at other times, replaced with Crocs or boots. The farm was a small working farm that took in backpackers and other wandering souls. It was quite rustic and it was Steve’s boyhood home that had been added on to over the years. There was also a separate building as a hostel/backpackers. At the time of our arrival, also there was Emily, a Danish girl about Hannah’s age who had arrived the day before to work as a WWOOFer – someone who works on a farm for room and board. She was staying a week and then a Japanese girl was arriving. Emily had no car and seemed to have no idea where she was headed next, and talked about hitchhiking. Ick. Also there was another girl about Hannah’s age with a 4 year old daughter, and she had been living there for three years and was introduced as their “adopted” daughter. While we had some tea in the kitchen, three young people arrived, two from the US (one living in Melbourne and one living in Japan) and girl from New Zealand. We all had a meal of meat pies and veggies from their garden that night.
Welcome to the Peel Forest Farmstay.
Steve, our host bringing the cows to be milked.
The house from the driveway.
Masha, Jenny, Zanna and a little friend of Zanna’s and Chomper in the front. Masha is Steve and Jenney’s “adopted” daughter. Zanna is Masha’s 4 year old.
Emily, the Danish girl milking one of the cows. This was her first time on her own. Steve had just showed her.
The milk Emily got was put into this contraption that hung on the fence that fed the calves. Not sure why he did this.
The next morning Spencer and I had our usual slow start. He watched as Steve showed Emily had to milk the two cows. We then had breakfast and went up to hike Little Mt. Peel, although in the end it didn’t feel at all little. It was about 6 miles roundtrip but about 2500 feet of elevation gain and most of it was in the blazing hot sun. Luckily when we arrived at the top, we found that they stocked drinking water. Shortly after we made it to the top, two men about our age stumbled up from another trail. They had apparently left a hut around 8 am (this being about 3:30 pm) and had only taken two liters of water for two of them. They were cramped and shouting and hadn’t had water in over 3 hours. It was all very odd, as they clearly knew the trails in the area but certainly didn’t take enough water. They seemed to recover after collapsing on the benches in the shelter and downing a few quarts of water.
Little Mount Peel – “Little” my ass. This was a very hard climb.
There was a section in the top third that had these boardwalks. We figured they were there to reduce erosion.
We made it!
View from the summit.
That’s where we were. The hike went up the ridge on the right.
The next morning, we took a short walk through Peel Forest, a 1,700 acre preserve of old growth podocarp trees. There are some massive totara trees and if you believe the internet, one of them has a girth of 28 feet. Apparently there are also 1/3 of all New Zealand fern types found in this little forest. It was literally in the backyard of the farmstay. We then packed up and headed off to the nearest grocery store to stock up for our next stay at Arthur’s Pass National Park.
These are very big trees.
Who’s that handsome guy by the tree?
It appears that everyone there is female, except for Steve, who wears a kilt. Obviously, Spencer needs to don a kilt. (And I want a photo!)
You guys are doing some amazing hiking! Or should I say “tramping”? Great pictures.
Thank you for taking the time to post this blog – it’s really fun to see what you’re up to all the way across the world. 🙂