New Hampshire USA Organic Gardener

I am an organic backyard gardener from Bradford, New Hampshire U.S.A. Also planted/grafted 7 Honeycrisp apple trees on to root stock in back yard. Visiting New Zealand for 3 weeks in FEB-MAR 2014. Retired, age 72, and a photographer with almost 20,000 followers on Google+. Plan to take lots of photos when my wife and I travel there (time split between North and South island). Would love to get some photo's of farms. Also interested in Monty's Surprise apple tree's. My brother says I cannot return from NZ to USA without photo's of sheep. Will be there Feb 21-Mar 15, 2014.

Hi and welcome goldnugget7. For lots of information on Montys surprise apples you should visit its discoverer if you can!
Have you seen this website? treecropsresearch.org/montys-surprise/
and treecropsresearch.org/

Have a great trip, you will see plenty of sheep!

Welcome, you shouldn't have a problem getting a sheep photo, we have 3 or 4 here, million that is.
Hope you have a great trip.

kindajojo, shouldn't that be 30 or 40 million, sheep that is?!

So right sue missed a multiplier

February and March will be about tupping time so there may be lots of sheep in the home paddocks that are close to the road, rather than some other times when they are out the back of the farm.

...NZ sheep are very friendly []

Cheers

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Sue;481641 wrote: Hi and welcome goldnugget7. For lots of information on Montys surprise apples you should visit its discoverer if you can!
Have you seen this website? treecropsresearch.org/montys-surprise/
and treecropsresearch.org/

Have a great trip, you will see plenty of sheep!

Yes - have seen that web site --- would like to get 3-4 Monty's Surprise apple trees for my backyard in New Hampshire. Not sure what the process is to get trees back to the USA or who sells them in New Zealand for export.

LongRidge;481655 wrote: February and March will be about tupping time so there may be lots of sheep in the home paddocks that are close to the road, rather than some other times when they are out the back of the farm.

I used to have two sheep in New Hampshire when raising the family (4 children). Had a black sheep and a white sheep. Had to give them away when I moved to Florida for a job. Not sure what the term "tupping time" means. We used to have the coats sheared for summer months - is that the same thing?

Sue;481641 wrote: Hi and welcome goldnugget7. For lots of information on Montys surprise apples you should visit its discoverer if you can!
Have you seen this website? treecropsresearch.org/montys-surprise/
and treecropsresearch.org/

Have a great trip, you will see plenty of sheep!

Have read about Mark Christensen and how he discovered the apple - an old apple tree on the side of the road --- where does he live in New Zealand? Where could I visit him?

Hi goldnugget7. Tupping time is when the rams are put in with the ewes for mating.

Tupping time is mating time for the sheep. The ram is in with the ewes.

Mark lives in Wanganui, not far from me. I have one of his trees, currently with branches almost touching the ground because they have so much fruit!! If you're coming through the Rangitikei/Manawatu area do call in. PM me for details. And I can get Mark's email for you too - he also does heritage tomatoes and beans. Very interesting guy.

Check out the import requirements for plants before you leave USA. Then perhaps the Tree crops website might be able to help with somewhere that is prepared to pack for export once you know what the import requirements are?

Mark lives in Wanganui in the North Island, I'll see if there is a contact for him-or perhaps contact him through the tree crops Society. I met him last year when he was at a Harvest festival weekend run by these people - I see the dates for this years event are before you arrive in NZ which is a pity!

Oops, I see belinda beat me too it! I half answered this and then got called away, and then finished and posted without reading any updates. Yes I agree, Mark is very interesting to talk to and you get to learn all about heritage tomatoes as well!

If visiting Wanganui you MUST do the Wanganui River trip up to the Bridge to Nowhere. I'm an American myself and it is my "stock standard", i.e., always-take-my-overseas-visitors-to-place. A photographers dream - showcases the remoteness and pioneer spirit of NZ brilliantly. If you have a car then an overnight at the Flying Fox is extremely memorable - and if you then carry on north after returning from the Bridge to Nowhere, you can next overnight at The Chateau in National Park. Again, beauty beyond compare.

Links below;

www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/historic/by...i/bridge-to-nowhere/
Numerous jet boat operators from either Wanganui City departure or Pipiriki departure. I recommend the latter, as the road trip from Wanganui City to Pipiriki has many wonderful historical sites on the way - if you are in a jet boat you don't get the opportunity to see them.

www.theflyingfox.co.nz/

www.chateau.co.nz/

When my father visited many years ago we had 60 million sheep at the time - and he commented he thought he'd seen 30 million of them! In those days you were regularly stopped in your car by mobs of them being moved down the roads. .

ps - if you are self-driving, 3 weeks will see you on the road a lot. My recommendation is three weeks each island - they are VERY different. But time is an unfortunate constraint for many of our overseas visitors ... all of which have left us stating they wished they had taken more time!!!