Nine sheep per resident

When we arrived in Waikikamukau there were 23 sheep per person, now just 9. (How High Is Your IQ? - www.IQZonez.com - The Average New Zealand IQ Is 107 Can You Beat This?) If you can multiply 4 and ½ million (humans) by 9 you will know how many sheep currently reside on these emerald isles. Apparently many farmers left sheep for cattle and dairy in the last two years.(?) There was a 23.2% drop in the number (of sheep) available for slaughter. Only 20.3 million lambs were available for slaughter this season. (Baa humbug takes on an altogether different shade of meaning) (The big question is whether the average IQ will rise as the preponderance of sheep fades a bit…)

In other news (from the ODT) Researchers review ‘Gray’s Anatomy’ [no, not that one!] Four University of Otago anatomy researchers have just made a little history themselves as international reviewers for the 150th anniversary edition of Gray’s Anatomy, the world’s leading medical text book.

You will be pleased to know that the cherry crop is now being harvested in Cromwell. Pictures in the ODT show action from Saturday’s cherry-spitting championships there. The new national cherry-stone-spitting champion, Mike Bassett, of Wanaka, says not practising is the secret to success. “I haven’t spat a cherry pip all year—I’m fresh off the couch,” the 27-year-old builder said. The national championships at Cromwell on Saturday attracted 47 competitors, including the Australian and Australia-New Zealand champions. Mr. Bassett set a national record with his longest spit of 11.42m (a bit over 37’) winning a trip to Perth to represent New Zealand in the Manjimup Cherry Harmony Festival next weekend. He had never competed before and broke the record on his first try. “But there is no secret as such; it’s just luck. You can have 20 bad spits to every good one.”

Dunedin and Oamaru both had successful Christmas parades. The Dunedin parade yesterday is billed as the biggest community even of the year drawing 20 thousand people! It was followed by the Mayor’s Caroles (accompanied by orchestra) and a Brass Band Concert.

We heard a familiar bird call yesterday. It was suddenly startling—it was familiar because the call, chick-a-dee-dee-dee, sounded so foreign here...in fact, we cannot recall having heard it hear before…what is the meaning of this?

On to the weather…the title of last month’s summary (thanks again to the ODT) “November a month of weather extremes”. It is enough to say that Dunedin, like Waikikamukau, had its lowest temperature since 1947 (about 30°F) and it highest temperature since records began in 1908 (87°F). These cities received 54% of their normal rainfall at 33mm and 182 sunshine hours, above normal for the month.

We are trying not to dream of a White Christmas…ho, ho, ho