Thursday, October 9th

Happy Birthday, Joy!  A busy day today.  Our first stop is the local racecourse.  As we gather near the grandstands, some jockeys are exercising their mounts.  Good photo op.
Back into the cars (really, this is because some simply can't walk the 100 meters or so to the next place).  The leader misses the turnoff and we sort of jumble at a closed gate until the correct direction is discovered and we end up at a boarding stable.  Great fun as the horses, well, nearly all the horses, are very friendly and like to be petted and talked to.  Of course we pose time and again.  Don't know what it is about horses, but everyone seems to be pleased to be near them.  Here are some photos...

 

Following that pleasant interlude we "car up" again, and after a relatively short trip,we end up at a horse breeding farm.  The owner talks about how horse breeders operate and that "plain luck" is usually the decider of success or failure.  We go in back and there are small paddocks with mares and beautiful foals looking out at us. Plus one small pony, "the Teaser", who is used to find out which mares are ready for breeding.  The owner says that they only use natural methods and stay away from artificial insemination.

 Getting to be lunchtime as we leave.  Our hosts decide that the day is so nice that we should head toward the coast.  Lunch is in a lovely stop along the way.  Out to the beach at  Faxton beach.  Gray-black sand, and very rough waves.  Due to the recent storms, the surf is just a bit dirty - a kind of gray-green look as the water flows in over the beach.  Just a couple of kids brave the cold and not enticing looking water.  Once the storm stuff has settled back down, it's sure to be a normal beautiful beach again.  Cars can drive on this sandy beach, which stretches seemingly unending in each direction.  Lots of families, as this is in the middle of the term break at schools.  Sun is bright.  Wind is chilly, but that's expected at the ocean - the Tasmanian Sea, by name.

 

Back home for a bit.  Tonight we go out to treat our home hosts and to celebrate Joy's birthday.  Our hosts pick a place called Bethany's that is on the square in Palmerston North.  Another FF ambassador foursome joins us. 

 The restaurant is an unfortunate choice, as it turns out.  First, the server is new - her first time on her own.  She speaks rapidly with a pronounce kiwi accent and not loud enough to be heard over the other conversations in the room.  Service is incredibly slow.  We think that they are seriously understaffed.  It would be nice if the young lady had had a backup on her first solo night.  She was very nice, but was not terribly familiar with the menu.  But the real "capper" was the food.  David had salmon, and made the mistake of asking where it came from (don't want Asian farm fish) and this ended up taking ten minutes.  When it arrived, it was closer to rare than to medium as requested.  But that was actually OK, as it was good.  Now for Joy and our host lady.  They ordered lamb.  The menu said "rare", but our host asked for it to be well-done.  And Joy asked for medium.  Both came rare.  Apparently the cook (can't call this lout a "chef") can't take direction.  The worst part was that it was, for all intents, inedible - not only undercooked, but tough as shoe leather.  In the end we got "comped" for one of them, and we had to argue for that.  They thought a free coffee would do.  Our hosts decreed that they'd never be back.  For sure.  So we went home and had Magnum ice cream bars.  Much better.

End of day.  Whew!  But the weather was great.  It made up for those past rainy-windy days.