Our new Favourite POP? Tree Range Farms

Wednesday 22 April

A lazy morning as we packed up Banjo and then trundled out of Scottland around noon (making sure to add some fruit leather roll-ups to our bill as they are so delicious!). Rather sad that this POP closes for winter in about a week - we will just have to wait until springtime for our next visit.

Our departure was carefully timed so that we could stop at Black Rabbit in Bannockburn for lunch 😊 - blue cod for me and a lamb & mint pie for Louis (plus he ate most of my fries as I do need to avoid some carbs!

We dropped down into Cromwell after that and did a spot of food shopping before heading off down the side of Lake Dunstan to Clyde then on to the Waikerikeri Valley where we had booked 2 nights at the Tree Range Farms POP on power… needless to say that meant that the sun shone brightly all day, filling up our solar and making the extra power almost unnecessary!

As we pulled into the POP we were greeted by a noisy and excited gaggle of geese and phalanx of ducks! There were about a dozen Peking Ducks who had a gorgeous yellow tinge to their white feathers, and 8 Sebastopol geese who looked like an exploded down duvet with ruffles and trailing feathers all over the shop!

This was just for starters - not long after we arrived, Dani dropped by with fresh eggs and strawberries for us then introduced us to more of their menagerie of animals which included 4 emus, six Wiltshire sheep, assorted chooks, an adorable hand-reared goat called Daisy and a bossy old Kunekune pig known as PigPig! Too much fun! The Wiltshire sheep are quite unusual as they shed their wool and don’t need shearing.

Daisy the goat was hand reared by Dani's toddler son Cooper as her mum was shot by hunters and Dani agreed to foster this tiny wee kid; she's called Daisy as she would stumble and fall over heaps as a youngster, so Cooper would shout "Oops a daisy!" and the name stuck!

The emus were also hand reared from eggs and they imprinted on Cooper as well so they would follow him around wherever he went - a tiny toddler and 4 emu chicks... who soon shot up and are now over twice as tall as him!

I helped pick some strawberries with Dani & her friend as frost was in the forecast overnight and then Louis & I feasted on Delia Smith pancakes 🥞 stuffed with cream & fresh strawberries 🍓 for dinner… who needs a savoury main course?!?

I think we may have found our new favourite POP!