There are sheep everywhere in NZ , little fluffy white dots on the hills in the distance, huddled together in the corner of fields by the roadside. You get used to them but a few days ago we had a very close encounter of the sheep kind...

We were happily driving along State Highway 3 when suddenly running towards us was a huge flock of sheep blocking the entire road. We came to a stop amazed, obviously in NZ sheep have right of way even on state highways! The sheep were gaining ground pretty fast and heading straight for our van, at the last second one brave sheep branched left, another right and the herd branched around the van. Now we were completely surrounded by sheep, we turned off the radio and listened to our little furry friends baaing as they trotted past for several minutes.

They all looked a bit nervy and not really surprising when you think that they were being chased along by fierce looking dogs and were likely to end up as lamb chops or ugg boots one day... poor things. Finally the sheep swarm passed and we were on our way again, that's probably the closest we've got to rush hour traffic while we've been in NZ!