The Fuzzy Antlers of Caged Deer at Walter Peak Farm

We boarded the TSS Earnslaw, a vintage steamship built in the early 1900s, for a journey across sparkling Lake Wakatipu this morning, in the company of about 40 mostly German visitors. Despite the tendency for Germans to speak better English than Americans, the group still relied on their translator to get the gregarious sheep farmer’s jokes, which were ribald and never ending.

Our destination was at the near end of this W-shaped long lake, the Walter Peak High Country farm. Here, more than 25,000 sheep, a herd of red-haired Highland cattle and other livestock are raised. They also have herds of deer, one male with fuzzy giant antlers looked like something Dr. Suess would have drawn. Beside the farm house are dramatic steep cliffs, which the sheep make their home for part of the year.

Places like this appeal to the corny tourist in us all, patting the fuzzy horns, giving a bottle to a thirsty little lamb, and watching Storm, the amazing border collie run the sheep around with deft precision while obeying his master’s whistle calls. Lindsay told us he’d been here since the 1970s, and even today, the only practical way to get to town is by boat…otherwise it’s a 2 1/2 hour long slog around the mountains.

The farm uses a diesel generator to power the whole operation, and I asked Leslie if they’d considered solar or wind power instead. “That’s a good idea,” he said, but like other Kiwis I met on this trip, it seems that these alternatives haven’t gotten as much traction here as they have in other countries. My sense is that in a few years alternative energy like wind and solar will be huge here.