A Peculiar Practice

Many times in New Zealand, in both the North and South Islands, we have encountered chickens at rest stops and scenic overlooks. There's a little sign that with a symbol of a tree and a picnic table, perhaps something about a scenic view at the top of the hill, so we pull over for a minute. Then we see numerous chickens- mostly roosters- wandering around the area. Why don't just go ahead and include a little rooster symbol with the tree and picnic table?

It had been quite a while since we'd stopped at a scenic rooster spot but on Monday we were followed by three roosters as we looked for a Geocache on our way back from Lake Tekapo. It reminded me of a partial explanation for why there are roosters at picnic areas.

We spent a few days HelpXing with a family in Raglan. The dinner conversation turned to ill-tempered farm animals (why not?) so of course we talked about mean old scary roosters. They said they had one nasty rooster who was so mean they just took him up to the scenic overlook and left him there with the other roosters. This peculiar practice seems to be self-perpetuating since it's just "the thing to do" with your mean poultry (hens make it up there too sometimes).

These roosters were somewhere up in Northland. I know Matt just posted this picture but it's the only one I could find of roosters at rest stops.

Carrie