After a very long journey and four flights (including 2 hours queing to clear customs in LAX!), I finally arrived in Dunedin on Wednesday afternoon( NZ time). Peter Amer of Abacus, and my host for the next week or two picked me up from the airport and took me straight to Abacus to meet the team, and for a much needed shower!
In my mission to stay awake for as long as possible on Wednesday, I went for a long walk along St Claire Beach and watched about 50 surfers riding the waves! I'd rather them than me. Unfortunatley for me, New Zealand hasn't had much of a summer this year, so it really is like home from home! The warmest it has been since I arrived is 17C, and there is rain forecast for this weekend. This wet summer has kept the farmers happy though, at this time of year the land is usually very dry and barren but this year everywhere is green and lush.
I am keeping busy here preparing a presentation for the Abacus team on Monday to fill them in on what we do at innovis, what I hope to achieve while I am here and how sheep farming is different at home to here in NZ. That should start some interesting discussions!
Abacus have a group of 15 Brazilian farmers coming over for four days next week, and I will be accompanying them and Simon Glennie (beef and sheep consultant for Abacus) on a tour of farms and research stations across the South Island, from Dunedin to Invercargill, Te Anau and Queenstown, including a tour of the Alliance meat processing factory in Invercargill. That should be a good introduction to farming in Southland and Otago, and I will have a full report from the trip the week after next.
No photos as yet I'm afraid, but I'm sure I will be out with the camera on the weekend and I will be uploading some on here as soon as possible. Bye for now!
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