The A&P Show

The A&P Show is a big event in Gisborne.  It's comparable to our County Fair, in the fact that it has rides for the kids, food vendors, etc.... Everyone has been telling us about the show 

since we got here in February.  They know Lonne is a farmer, 

so they knew he would get into it! 

We decided to take a few hours to check it out. 

The A&P Show  has a Sheep Shearing Competition.

We had never watched sheep being sheered, so we peeked into the 

wool barn to see what was going on in there.  I was totally fascinated with it! 

First of all, I never knew that they sheer the sheep with a technique 

so that all the wool stays together in a big piece.  

When they are done, the women throw the wool onto a table.  

It looks like a big sheepskin rug! Then they pick the dirty edges off, and put it in a rubbish bin.  

The stomach and top notch wool is kept separate, because it is worth more money.  

Both the sheering and the wool handling competitions are timed and judged.  

The men sheared 10 sheep...  They could do a whole sheep in about one minute! 

It was amazing!  There's a real art to it!  It was so interesting!  

We just stayed in the wool barn for the rest of the afternoon and watched it until the end.  The finals were so exciting! It was totally entertaining and educational for both of us:)

  They start at the head, work around to the front shoulders, then they turn the sheep over, and start on the back and the back legs.  They put the head of the sheep in between their legs to finish him off and  they push him down a little chute (the chute is right behind this guys bum) then they let the next one out to start the procedure on him! It was literally amazing how fast they could do it!

 These are the "Wool Handlers"

They pick through the wool to take off the bad stuff,
then they roll it up like a sleeping bag and throw the whole thing
 in to a container to be "Baled" up.
  I was amazed that the whole skin was kept in tact!

I just never realized that's how sheep were sheared!  I guess I'm a little slow....:)

In between the sheep shearing competitions, we headed over to the equestrian park to watch the horse jumping competition.  It amazed me too!  Holy cow, those horses are soooo tall, and they jump so high! 

I was amazed how slow they ran between jumps!  I thought they would need to get a good running start, but the fences were close together, so there was no running start! They jump like a deer! 

There is lots of equestrian riding and horse racing in New Zealand.  Very few western style riders.

We heard that Gisborne also has a big rodeo after Christmas, so we'll have to check it out!

I wish Lonne could enter the team roping! I know the ward members would LOVE that!

You can't even tell how tall these fences are or how close they are to each other in the pictures...

It was amazing!

One of the funny things that happened to me at the AMP show....

I saw a food trailer that said "American Hotdogs"

I was so excited!  I usually HATE hotdogs, but for some reason, I was craving one soooo bad!

I usually make Lonne taste everything first to make sure I will like it, but I was so hungry

and I was so excited to eat that American Hotdog, that I just bit right into it!

MISTAKE!!!

I was standing with people all around me, and I literally gagged! It was horrible!

It tasted like the hotdog was made out of Mutton, and that it must have been the guts

of the Mutton!!! I just walked right over to the garbage can, and spit it out!

I hope no one noticed because the people would think that was so wasteful!

I had a similar experience with sausage in Samoa a few years ago...

I almost threw up right at the table at one of the homes where we ate dinner.

It was a terrible experience...you'd think I would have learned my lesson...

I'm a slow learner!

No more American Hotdogs for me!

I wish they knew what an American Hotdog REALLY tastes like!!

This country doesn't allow any meat to be imported in, so they will never know....