We woke up at the Trinity Wharf Hotel and had a delicious continental breakfast, with amazing views of the sunrise over the bay. We headed out for our first stop at 8:30am. Before we started our day, the new bus driver, Jeff, introduced himself to us and gave us some background on Tauranga.
On the ninth day of our adventure, we woke up to another wonderful breakfast in Tauranga before we headed off to our first morning visit at ADM. We gathered in the boardroom and learned from Ross Bowmar about ADM’s importation of palm kernel extract into New Zealand. Since Ross studied in the U.S. and worked at several ADM locations in the states, he also explained to us how the New Zealand location differs from ADM’s Decatur location (we previously visited ADM in Decatur prior to leaving for New Zealand).
We started the morning in Kaikoura. A few of us got up early to enjoy the coast. The mountains and the South Pacific with the sun rising over them were beautiful!
We started off this morning by heading to downtown Christchurch. There, we met with Jo Stevenson to tour the city and learn about the earthquake that had taken place in February 2011. Jo studied Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences in college (she’s an alumna of UIUC), where she met her Kiwi husband, Mark. For graduate school, however, she studied natural disaster management.
Last night we had the privilege to stay at the “Jucy Snooze” Hostel. We were all a bit apprehensive about the rooming conditions after we heard from Professor Vogen that we would be staying in “pods”. There are eight pods to a room and each person has their own locker along with a private bed that is quite spacious. This morning we started our day off with some breakfast at a café down the sidewalk from the hostel. Shortly after breakfast we were on our way to meet with New Zealand Merino, Price Waterhouse Coopers, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, and the Linco
We began our day with a hot breakfast at the Lodge in Methven before getting on the bus and traveling to Inverary Station. Upon arrival, we met John Chapman, the farm owner, and learned some history about the farm’s strong wool and angus beef production. Mr. Chapman had some questions of his own for us regarding trends, difficulties, and solutions we see in the future of agriculture. It was interesting to see how Mr. Chapman’s farming experience and opinions compared with agricultural production in the United States. Mr.
Our wake up time was bright and early this morning. We started off with a breakfast at the hostel--toast and cereal were on the menu. After a quick breakfast, we were off to our first visit of the day.
We woke up on May 16th at Mt. Nicholas Station in time to see our first New Zealand sunrise come up over the mountains. The group enjoyed a delicious breakfast featuring homemade jams and farm-produced Manuka honey. We then spent our morning with Kate Cocks learning primarily about the station’s massive wool production system and touring just a small portion of the 100,000 acre property. The tour, as with most of the trip, provided some fantastic picturesque views of the mountainous landscape.
We got off the plane in Auckland around 5:45am. Our layover was approximately 2 hours. During that time we ate a snack and exchanged our US dollars for New Zealand currency for the rest of our trip. We boarded the plane to Queenstown around 9:10am and that flight lasted 1 hour and 40 min. We were picked up by Phil Morrison, our Kiwi guide after we landed and headed to the Queenstown waterfront. There, we went to lunch at the Ballarat Trading Co.
We arrived in San Francisco on Saturday night and had a two hour lay-over. We ate supper, called our family and friends, saying our last goodbyes before flying to New Zealand. Many of us realized this would be our last time for a while to contact our loved ones while we traveled half way across the world. We boarded the plane at 9:10 and everyone was quite impressed with the high-quality flying accommodations. The plane appeared to be new and the staff gave a warm Kiwi introduction to how friendly the people of New Zealand are.