Srimala’s Students Venture Outdoors Activities
As part of their visit to the South Island, the 29 Fo Guang Shan (FGS) Srimala College student cohort along with FGS South Island and Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) South Island New Zealand made an educational visit to some Canterbury farm at Castle Hill and Darfield on 8th November. The group of thirty or so people was accompanied by FGS New Zealand Venerable Abbess Manshin, FGS South Island Venerable Jue Xi, Venerable Ru Lian and Venerable Miao Jou.
Once the Srimala College students arrived at Castle Hill, Abbess led them to climb up to the rocky peak, challenging them to the feat of ascending to a high altitude, in order to get a more distant view. At the summit, the students was given a talk by FGS members regarding the geological formation of Castle Hill, in which they listened attentively to whilst sitting on the rocks, enjoying the peace and tranquility of the surrounding nature. Afterwards, everybody had a picnic lunch on the Castle Hill grassland area, while the Abbess gave a small talk.
By noon, the group had proceeded to the small town of Darfield for a typical New Zealand livestock farm visit. The husband and wife farmer so happened to be friends with Fo Guang Yuen Art Gallery New Zealand, and they were most happy to tell the students more about their newly rebuilt house, in particular, how the house came to be after the Christchurch earthquake. Besides that, the students also had the opportunity to feed the Alpacas and Lamas for fun.
Also, the group had the chance to visit a dairy farm with a rich 150 year old history, seeing for themselves the modern farm which uses automatic milking machines. Also there was the wool trade farm which is now undergoing a transition. The owner Paul now has 500 Merino sheep, one of the most valued sheep breeds for their high quality merino wool. The wool will be sold to textile factories in New Zealand and Italy.
The students definitely had a fantastic hands on visit of New Zealand's livestock industry, looking at both the production of milk and wool. Hopefully, they have also gained an appreciation of how uneasy the production processes are, and know to value and love the farm animals more with a caring heart. On behalf of all the FGS members and Srimala College students, BLIA South Island President See Shen Lee sincerely thanked the farm owners for their time and hospitality during the visit, and in giving the students a valuable insight to the farming lifestyle of New Zealand which must have been a wonderful experience indeed.