Gold Panning and Hunting - March 6

Yesterday we did a LOT! Dad and I left at seven thirty am. and drove four hours to Greymouth. Shane invited us to stay the night at his house and go gold panning with him. He had borrowed some gold pans from a friend of his. First, he drove us to a professional gold claim. Another friend of his (Shane knows almost everybody) owns and operates the claim. They use a dozers, excavators, and dump trucks. The gold here is bigger and more chunky. Shane's friend showed us a collection of gold nuggets that he has saved. He has at least fifty gold nuggets the size of pennies, and he finds them often. New Zealand gold is more pure than gold in the states.

When we finished looking at the claim, Shane took us to a secret gold spot. Someone he knows did a test hole in that spot and discovered that it is really good. Sadly, DOC (Department Of Conservation) ruined his opportunity and said that it is too close to a nearby stream and it would contaminate the water. In this area DOC is not looked upon with kind eyes. We got two buckets of the magic material to pan out in a nearby stream. The first pan I got three medium size flakes! The panning after that we did very well and during my last pan, I got a BIG flake!

After we finished, Shane took dad fishing for awhile. Dad had four bites and he missed each one. Then shane took us to a dairy farm (yet another one of his friends owns and manages it) and we got to see the process of milking cows. They milk the cows once and twice a day, switching between the two. Every time a cow is milked, it produces around four to six gallons (depending on the amount of food the cow eats)! The farmers usually immediately filter and cool the milk. The milk semi comes to pick up the milk every day.

We went back to Shane's house and had dinner when we finished the milk excursion. When we were full, we went back to the farm and loaded up. We were going hunting together again! The farmer drove the truck while Shane, dad, and I stood on the bed of his truck. We only had one gun this time, a magnum 22. We drove around the pastures with a spotlight (it is legal to use a spotlight while hunting in New Zealand) and every time we spotted a hare we would stop and try to get a shot at it. At the end, we probably saw about six rabbits and shot four of them. I got three of them! I am starting to like hunting!