The Wool Shed

It’s a bit like being a pair of squatters – parking our caravan for a couple of nights in our friend’s driveway in Featherston.  It was Les’s turn to arrange this month’s SLG outing and as we lived the farthest away, he had invited us to bring our caravan and stay for the weekend.  So here we were, safely tucked alongside the garage.  Les was most impressed with Robin’s backing skills as he manoeuvred the caravan up the drive and under the carport.

Two nights in Featherston

The rest of the group arrived after the long winding drive over the Rimutakas, drank a reviving cuppa and and engaged in a little of chit-chat,  we then headed off to Masterton for to our first stop, lunch at “Dish” cafe.  What a busy, bustling place this was, always a good sign, plenty of customers must mean great food, we feel.  Robin couldn’t go past the Big Breakfast, and I chose hot cakes with berries and cream, so yummy.  According to a recent article in the papers, Kiwis spend a staggering $3.49 billion annually eating out at cafes and restaurants!  (We personally don’t go that often, truly we don’t!)  Fed and watered, it was not too far to our next stop, “The Wool Shed”, the National Museum of Sheep and Shearing.

Outside the Wool Shed

The museum is in two relocated pioneer wool sheds and tells of sheep farming in New Zealand. The first sheep flocks were brought over from Sydney. Australia, and driven around the rugged coast from Wellington to the Wairarapa coast, and currently there are about 35 million sheep in New Zealand.  We were given a sheep shearing demonstration, with the hand piece powered by an old Lister CS diesel engine.

Lister engine ran the shearing hand pieces

The first sheep was pulled from the pen, sat on it’s rump while leaning against the shearer’s legs, and the shearing commenced.  The shearer aims for long smooth strokes, we were told, slicing away the fleece without nicking the skin.  

It looks easy but all that bending must play havoc with the shearer’s backs.   The shorn sheep looks half it’s size once the fleece is removed.

All done

Once the entire fleece has been removed from the sheep, the fleece is thrown, clean side down, on to a wool table by a shed hand (commonly known in New Zealand and Australian sheds as a roustabout or roustie). This enables short pieces of wool and any debris to gather beneath the table separately from the fleece  .There it will be skirted, (picked over removing unwanted bits and pieces), rolled and classed then pressed into an appropriate wool bale.  This high quality Merino fleece was donated to the museum,  as was the 100 year old wool table on which it rests.

Throwing the fleece onto the wool table

There were plenty of interesting displays at the museum, videos running, old photos and equipment – plenty for everyone.  A young Dad and his two boys were also there having a look around, and he had some shearing equipment to donate to the museum.

Static display of life in the shearing shed

We then drove back to Anne and Les’s home for afternoon tea, and most importantly, the SLG Annual Draw.  This is when it it decided who has which month for the next year’s outings.  Months of the year were put in a hat, passed around the group as we pulled one out each.  Then the bargaining took place.  A few wanted to swap months as they had a special major birthday coming up, or some other similar need to request a specific month instead of their allocated one.  After a few raised voices had their say it all worked out in the end and most of us went away happy.  The other guests drove home, we chatted to our hosts for a while, then retired to the caravan.  But not before catching sight of the glorious Wairarapa sunset, out came the camera again to capture those lovely colours.  What a lovely finish to an great day!

Wairarapa sunset