Yes, there are lots of sheep in New Zealand. Not as many as there once were but still lots of sheep.
Sheep are found on both the North and South Islands. They dot the hillsides. They gather in flocks. You see them being herded. You see them walking around forlorn and bare after they’re sheared. In the spring, you see the new lambs trailing around behind their mothers. You hear them ‘baaa’. Sheep are all over.
Bendigo Station is an enormous tract of land covering some 30,000 acres in Central Otago on the South Island.
A station is the New Zealand and Australian word for what we would call a ranch in the United States. This sheep station had over 18,000 merino sheep and 10,000 additional sheep were run on neighboring properties.
On April 15, 2004, as two musterers, ranch hands, and their dogs rounded up a herd of sheep, they spotted a huge wooly mass standing motionless against the skyline on a rocky outcrop. No head or legs were visible, just a giant mass of fleece camouflaged with dirt and bits of plant matter. It was a sheep, but this wasn’t any ordinary sheep. It had obviously avoided being shorn for years (shearing occurs yearly). Its unshorn fleece was matted and had grown to prodigious length. Presumably this sheep now stood perfectly still hoping to again avoid detection.
This was Shrek.
movin2newzealand 