Moving on to traffic conditions around the Southland... There are
more sheep than people by something like 10 to 1 in New Zealand.
Driving to the start of the recent tramp we found ourselves stuck in, you guessed it, a traffic jam of sheep. A flock of over 1000 sheep was being moved by a couple
of local women and a handful of sheep dogs to a new pasture and the
pile up filled the local one lane road. We watched and chatted with
the shepherdesses until the flock spilled into their new home and all
the stragglers had been rounded up and chased through the gate.

Several days later we encountered more unique traffic conditions on
the country road heading south; antique tractors. Farmers and
tractor aficionados were raising money for children's cancer by
driving a parade of old tractors from Picton at the north end of the
island to Bluff at the South, at their top speed of 20 km per hour.
Imagine passing all 50 tractors on a twisty windy two lane road. Poor
Mary alternated between denting the dash with her fingernails and just
shutting her eyes and breathing deeply. I must confess that It felt
sinfully good to drive fast on the right side of the road for a while.