The lush Waikato pasture ( photo credit Jack)
For more of Jack’s photos visit his blog “Jack’s Jottings” http://jacksjottings.wordpress.com/
New Zealand is the land of milk and honey. Cows graze in lush, green pastures and the milk and butter they produce is the best and purest in the world
Green green grass of home
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The country at one time was said to live on the back of the sheep.
“A bit of sheep history
New Zealand sheep numbers peaked in 1982, with a total of 70.3 million sheep. In the same year, 3.18 million people lived in New Zealand. This works out to 22 sheep per person.
Sheep numbers have gradually declined since the mid-1980s, due to factors such as depressed wool prices, droughts in the 1990s, and competition from other land-intensive farming activities (eg dairy and forestry). While sheep numbers stabilised and even grew slightly in the mid-2000s, numbers soon decreased again, reaching the low of 31.1 million in 2011.
Some sheep facts from An Encyclopedia of New Zealand for the historians among us:
- New Zealand’s first sheep were set ashore by Captain Cook in 1773.
- Rapid sheep population growth in the 1850s and 1860s was due mostly to permanent immigration, rather than natural increase. In 1864 alone, 13,000 sheep arrived in Canterbury from Australia. Droughts meant that sheep could always be bought cheaply from Australia. Drought continues to affect Australian farmers and sheep numbers.
- The first shipment of frozen lamb and mutton sailed to London from Port Chalmers on The Dunedin in 1882.”
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Road side vegie crops, Korea
Rice and Vegies
Rice in Korea
Korea is also a very green country and we were amazed to see that on every inch of spare land they grew vegetable and rice crops. No unused verges the crop was planted right to the kerb.
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Thanks Ailsa for the theme of green this week. It brought back these memories of when we travelled in these two amazing countries.
Check out other green themes here
gypsy life 
Love this green post 🙂
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Thank you
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Fab photos and thanks for sharing your experiences with us. The first photo reminds me very much of the UK.
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Thanks for the comment Eleenie. Yes that part of NZ is a bit like UK
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Beautiful! 🙂
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G’day mate thank you for dropping by.
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Just beautiful! New Zealand is so green and the sheep are so white against the grass when you see them in their pastures. I have not been to Korea and I would like to go.
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Thanks Sue for the comment. Korea is a lovely place to visit
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Beautiful lush green and interesting facts.
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Thank you for stopping in for a look-see and leaving a comment… 🙂
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I should do that more often but I usually read from work (on my break of course) . We can’t log into an external site so I can comment. Or I will read from my phone and it’s cumbersome to comment from there so I hit the like button mostly.
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Thank you I appreciate that you call by and “like”. It can be hard to catch up, there are so many good blogs to read out there…
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now THAT’S green!!!
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Thanks Stephen
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Fabulous photos for the challenge, and very interesting bit of history too. Thanks. 🙂
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Thank you for the comment, yes sheep played a large part in the economy of NZ
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This is certainly a very green post. NZ is such a beautiful place. I haven’t been there or to Korea, but all the pictures I see from these countries are amazing 😀
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They are both well worth putting on your “bucket list” Dianne. Both small but exquisite countries, safe and very scenic
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