Today is the last day of my travels. It's hard to believe that a month has passed and I've been to so many places. Unfortunately, I've already transferred the remainder of my photos to my iPod and everything is packed away in my luggage, so no more photos for now. You'll all have to wait until I get home and sort them out and post them somewhere to see other photos from my trip.

Yesterday, Sylvia took me to Sheep World. It's sort of a funny name - it makes it sounds like an amusement park. It's actually just a farm where you can walk around feeding sheep and other New Zealand farm animals and learn all about them. In the morning, I caught the bus down to the waterfront and then boarded the ferry to Devenport to meet Sylvia. This way she wouldn't have to drive over the Harbour Bridge to get me. Apparently, there's only one way to get across the harbour and it's that bridge, so traffic can be really bad and one trip over the bridge and back could have added another hour to our trip.

On the way to Sheep World, we stopped off at Sylvia's grandparents' house in beautiful Algies Bay, about 40 minutes north of Auckland. The bay is beautiful and their house sits up on the hill overlooking it. It's easy to understand why someone would want to retire there, and views like that make you understand the beauty of this country. Sylvia's grandmother made us lunch, and it was probably the best meal I've had since I was away. Chicken sandwiches and a pie made of eggs, cheese and onions - a little like quiche but with a nice flaky crust around it. For dessert, homemade chocolate chip cookies. I was so full by the time we left there!

Sheep World was only about 15 minutes from there, near a town called Warkworth where Sylvia was born. The farm wasn't busy at all, and it was a really nice day out, despite the rain the weatherman had promised. If you don't know about New Zealand, it's known to have all four seasons in one day, so we knew even though it was nice out, it could easily turn nasty, but it never really did. Since Sylvia had been there before (in fact, less than a week earlier with our work friend, Jessica) she knew exactly where to go and we rushed out to see the baby animals. There was a whole pen of them - little sheep, a goat, and the cutest little pigs I've ever seen. I had no idea goats were so soft! Sylvia knew that one of the sheep dogs had recently had puppies so we went to look for them and they were adorable! (What puppy isn't?) Sylvia was dying to take one home with her.

We then sat down and watched the little show they put on where they taught us about sheepdogs and sheep and shearing sheep. The sheep dogs were incredibly smart. The "eye dogs" - the ones used to herd the sheep and bring them to their master - were a breed that was Border Collie mixed with Greyhound. That makes for one smart, fast dog. The guy showed us how he could guide the dog with his voice and a whisle to get it to go round up a herd of sheep from the next pasture over. It was pretty incredible.

He then showed us how sheep are sorted and how to sheer one. The poor example sheep did not look like she was having a good time. There's all these positions you put the sheep in to ensure that you've stretched the skin tight so as to avoid wrinkles. If the shearer hits a wrinkle of flesh, it will cut right through the skin, so the shearer needs to avoid that by using these positions. The guy doing the demonstration did it slowly to show us, but it looked like a lot of hard, tiring work and I couldn't imagine doing 150 sheep a day like that. At the end of the presentation, since there were only about 10 of us there, we all got to use milk bottles to feed the baby animals we had seen earlier, including the goat and pig. They were so cute and soft!

After that, Sylvia and I wandered around the farm checking out the other animals and the adult sheep. We had bags of feed for them so, of course, they all loved us. The sheep are really sweet and the fact that they have no upper front teeth to bite you with makes them easy to hand feed. They also had two donkeys, two shetland ponies, some goats, and some other type of goat that looked like a rastafarian that I'd never seen before. It was funny to see a deer being shown as a special animal since we see them all the time in the wilderness in the U.S. I'd never seen one that close up before and was surprised by how cute and soft it was. I can hardly imagine ever hunting one. There were also some alpacas, a black one and a lighter colored one. Sylvia was creeped out by them because their faces are oddly human looking. I was like, "Sylvia, they're fine, look - here - I'll feed one," and then the black one bit me in the upper arm. She was right - they're creepy.

We had a nice drive back. The weather was still holding and the countryside was nice. It reminds me a lot of northern Washington or British Columbia, although many of the green plants are different. Sylvia dropped me back off at the ferry terminal in Devenport and we said our goodbyes.

I walked up Queen Street once again to pick up my last few souvenirs (I think I have more souvenirs than my own clothes right now). Then, after looking for like 30 minutes to find the right bus stop, I got back to Parnell and headed home to order a pizza. I was just too tired and lazy to go out. (On a related note, Pizza Hut here is equally as bad as it is in the States).

This morning, I packed and checked out of my room. The place I've been staying at here in Auckland is a lovely B&B called Chalet Chevron and I highly recommend it for anyone traveling here. It's been super quiet and the host is very friendly. After I had breakfast, I headed over to the Auckland Museum and walked through all the exhibits (while trying to avoid the 10,000 kids who seemed to be running around there). It was interesting to learn about the Maori culture, as well as other Polynesian cultures, alonog with the natural history of New Zealand. Also, I finally got to see a Kiwi, even though it was only a stuffed one.

The host of the B&B has graciously allowed me to use the internet which, although slow, has been given to me for free. In 4 hours, I'll get in a taxi and head to the airport for my last flight. It's only a 12 hour flight to LAX, and shortly thereafter, I'll get to see Wally. I hear he's been crying for the past week, so I think he's ready to have me home.

Thanks to all of you who have been following my progress through Australia and New Zealand over the past month. I have read all of your messages and hope you've enjoyed it. Now - back to my regular daily posts and the song of the day....