Isn’t it pleasant to find a welcoming sign instead of the usual Council threats? Anyway, this local fisho friend (?) encouraged us to round up the small flock of wild woolly sheep seen grazing at the back of the residential area over on North Shore… TRM’s savage guard dog, Juno, could not wait for the round-up. This is what she was bred for. Her big chance to impress.

She was originally bred as a Huntaway but failed the initial acid test as a pup. She refused to bark at the sheep in case it would upset them. So the vet kept her as a house dog on a rural block before she retired to retrain as a savage security guard dog for the motel.

Juno led me over to the North Shore to follow the walking trail that leads in behind the residential development at the end of Herekiekie Street. She was tense with anticipation and excitement of chasing sheep, instead of spotting boring trout.

We always enjoy “walkies adventures” over on the North Shore as we usually discover unexpected surprises. Back in Turangi, on the Taupahi Road side of the main SH1, one of the fascinations of any walks are the endless landscaping with fishy themes.

Some have been removed. The TowPaw Council promised to re-erect the giant angler but he is still missing.

Some of the other more prominent older sculptures have been retired while others have popped up in unexpected locations to replace them. But the North Shore landscaping team has ventured far beyond the fishy theme by introducing a Fred Dagg farming theme. Everyone has walked the Tongariro River Trail loop but most have not ventured into the wilds of the North Shore. I am not sure if they want hoards of tourists on their almost private back gardens but we have to promote tourism and it is worth a visit.

The North Shore folk have provided more than just the usual trout fishy stuff and have bravely branched out to create their own different arty-farty identity. There was no need for a Resource Consent application as all their innovative artistic work is temporary. Or it might have been processed as the first of the new Government coalition fast-track tourist developments.

This was one of those days for surprises… Instead of spotting trout can you believe in one front yard we discovered a cricket match in progress! That should have warned us…

Back to the riverside bush, the residents team have cleared the scrub and developed their own winding walking trail through the cleared mature native bush to provide both angler access and tourist trails (not suitable for bikers!). They are interesting tracks to stroll along as you never know where you might find a picnic rest area next to a wild trout viewing platform.

But it was the promise of locating a flock of wild sheep that kept us going on the track beyond the river bypass.

Finally Juno tracked them grazing in the cleared bush. Amazing!

I could hear my angler x-friend laughing his head off…

For Juno their lack of mobility was so disappointing she peed on them instead.

So to make up for them the youtube below explains why tourists really visit Turangi.