May 15th - Day 9 in New Zealand

     We started our first full day in the South Island by taking a quick tour of Christchurch's devastation from the earthquake in 2011. Most of the wreckage was in the center of the city though houses in the residential area suffered many cracks. It was interesting that a lot of the wooden buildings stayed intact while buildings made of steel and old brick collapsed. Christchurch is still in a period of deconstruction, and it's estimated it will take a total of 30 billion dollars to rebuild. For residential homes the Earthquake Commission repairs cracks and helps with re-painting damage and that money comes from 5% of their regular home insurance. In the chance that the Commission runs out of money the government guarantees to provide the necessary funding. One of the most damaged buildings was the main cathedral. The main spire that's collapsed in the earthquake was almost as tall as the crane in the picture. As of now the city is unsure of the style of remodeling, either Classic Gothic or Modern.
      After leaving Christchurch we headed to the Nevele R Stud ranch, where we spent a short amount of time. They breed standard bred horses for cart racing in New Zealand and the U.S.  Many of theses studs are worth over a million dollars and their semen is worth up to $13,000. One well-known stud is Lis Mara. Each year this ranch breeds as many as 500 mares by AI, often 20 at a time. One of the most interesting aspects was the way they name the horses. Many rules apply in this process, including the first letter of the dam's name had to be used in one part of the colt's name.
     Next we headed to David Ward's "intensive" crop farm where he also finished 20,000 lambs and 1,000 deer. His farm is fully irrigated and 100% no till and through innovative management practices he has improved his soil structure. Another example of his creativity was demonstrated by the fact that even though he overstocked on deer, he supplemented the nutrition with excess squash from a local producer. By intensive cropping we mean that there is always something growing in each of his fields. Many people believe this is destructive, but he is adamant that his practices improve more than anything which can be demonstrated by the improved soil conditions.
     Our final stop of the day was at Ted and Sue Rollinson's dairy farm. Ted and Sue, sadly, were on holiday but we were able to talk with their 50:50 share-milker Tom Hannigan. Before we began our tour of the farm we got to eat lunch which consisted of a vegetable type soup, grilled-cheese roll ups, and different varieties of pizza toast. The lunch was definitely different from anything we have in the U.S., but we all agreed it was delicious. The Rollinson's own around 1300 head while the share milker has about 900. They flood irrigate most of their pastures, and supplement the feed with palm kernel. We saw our first rotary milking system of the trip here. In this particular rotary, 70 cows could be milked at a time. Tom was very enthusiastic about his job as he talked about his role in this operation the whole time we were with him.
     Our last stop was to the supermarket to stock up on breakfast foods and goodies for the next few days. It's safe to say that the full days of touring are beginning to catch up with us as the bus rides are getting quieter and quieter. We're looking forward to a later start tomorrow morning for our second day on the South Island. Have a great morning!

Taylor and Sophie :)