Summerland - IELTS Listening Answers & Explanations

Welcome to Summerland; I'm your guide, Jacquie, and I'm going to tell you a little bit about what we do and have here before I take you on a tour of the facilities.

In our air-conditioned restaurant we can cater for anyone from the individual diner to families and tour groups but we also do functions such as weddings, conferences, birthday parties and so on. We have a delicious modern menu on offer in the restaurant—or perhaps you'd prefer to sit outside in the courtyard overlooking the lush, tropical gardens—and, for those booking a function, we devise an interesting set menu according to the type of celebration and the client's budget.

If formal dining isn't what you're after, we operate a take-away food bar which has a range of light snacks and refreshments—just the thing if you're supervising children in the playground. The playground and picnic area makes a great alternative to the beach—if you've remembered to bring your bathing suit and a towel, you can cool off in the water spray park. Parents can sit back, relax and enjoy a coffee while the kids have fun in our fully-fenced, shady playground and picnic area. What a way to make the most of the warmth and sunshine we have here in abundance!

The older children will love to visit the Historic Cottage with their parents. This was the original homestead on the property and is now preserved as a museum with an educational DVD and cinema room. You'll find the information centre here also and you'll be able to pick up some glossy brochures to take home with you and show your friends.

Don't worry—we have more than enough leaflets for you to take home. Visit the Gift Shop and you'll find an enormous variety of local products, fine foods and handicrafts on sale. Some say that this is the best displayed and priced shop in the region. There is more to be admired (and purchased) in the Garden Nursery which has an extensive range of flower pots, indoor and outdoor plants, statues and all kinds of other garden accessories to adorn any home or garden.

While we're on the topic of gifts and such, I must mention the Wood Crafting Shed and urge you to take a look at the amazing products that the wood crafting team produces there. You'll be able to watch them at work and buy anything they've made. The toys they produce are not only original but some of the finest craftwork you'll ever see. Take your little ones by the hand and keep an eye on them because they'll want to play with these but they can't be played with unless they're paid for.

Last but not least are the orchards. The Summerland Tourist Attraction is actually a working farm with over 40 hectares of macadamia and avocado trees. The macadamia nuts are picked by machine from April through to September. The avocados are grown, hand harvested, packed and marketed on site.

Now, are you all set for the tour? We'll leave the car park and walk in an easterly direction towards the administration building with the parking spaces outside. We won't go into the admin building because there's nothing much to see there; instead, we'll walk in a north-easterly direction towards the museum but before we get to it we're going to turn right, walk past it, and go into that enormous building to watch how the avocados are graded and packed.

Well, what did you think of that? Those packers have to work very fast as you can see. Now as we come out of this building we'll go to our left and around the back towards the cool room. Of course this is where all the fruit is stored after packing—there are a lot of boxes of fruit in there—nothing very interesting to look at, but we will stop at the other building to see how they make the cardboard cartons. See how everything is mechanized so there is very little labour involved? I'm intrigued by how those machines operate just like clockwork.

It does get very hot in there, though, doesn't it, which makes the thought of a peek inside the cool room quite attractive. But, no, we'll skip that and make towards the building in the far north-eastern corner of the facility where they take the husks off the macadamia nuts. It's quite noisy but absolutely fascinating.

Now, we'll take a shortcut heading west through the orchard to the woodcrafters' workroom and shop and I'll give you a few minutes to browse. Take note of where this is because I'm sure you'll want to come back here later this afternoon in your free time....

Is everyone still with us? Right, let's go south now and take a leisurely walk through the picnic and playground area with the water feature but we want to end up over at the garden shop at the northern end of the car park. We'll have to walk through the little gift shop first to gain access to the garden shop and I'm sure you won't be able to resist getting some nice little presents for the folks at home.

Are you ready for lunch now? I know it's been a whirlwind tour but the restaurant has us booked in for 12.30 and after that you're free to take your time wandering around until the bus leaves at 3 p.m.