Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
kiwi farm life
Gooday y'all. Since we last left off. Coromandle was beautiful, perfect weather. Oh and there was a tsunami. We were staying a hundred meters from the beach, someone woke us up and warned us of the doom to come. We packed up our tent real quick like and went to the shore to watch.... but nothing came. We took off southbound and ended up in Gisborne for the night. Once again, ANOTHER tsunami. Once again, we went to the shore to watch...and again nothing. Instead of the supposed monster wave, the tide came up three extra meters real fast and went back out to leave a really low tide. BORING. We left Gisborne and headed further south along the coast. There, we encountered the monster waves. But let me backtrack...We left Gisborne and headed to Napier. We had a semi-promised job waiting for us picking fruit. Apparently, everyone goes to Napier to pick apples. We decided that instead of getting paid the minimum fourteen NZD per hour, we chose to work for free in return for some food and a roof. We signed up for FHiNZ (Farm helpers in New Zealand) and started making calls to see if any farms could use two useless helpers. We lucked out and met Ken, a sub sixty something year old outside Napier by forty some kilometers. He farms cattle and sheep. We help out with simple chores, he provides food for three meals a day, sometimes beer. OH, and we have our own house. No big deal. Two bedroom, kitchenette/living room and deck. We work from eight thirty to one, with one tea break. Our work tends to be gardening, weeding, mowing, house, cooking. We make our own jams and Adair made a bomb quince jelly (awesome with stinky blue cheese). In our afternoons we go wine and cheese tasting (tastings are free, have I mentioned that yet?). I recently found a juijitsu club. It has been a while since I got on a mat but its really fun. The instructor, third degree black belt in the Gracie BJJ system, is extremely nice, gave me a gi to work out in, and let me teach one class. At home, we are exploring with new foods, including lamb liver and kidney. Fresh liver and kidney, extremely fresh, though we will spare the details. Adair is spending a ton of hours in the kitchen, cooking Ken and I amazing dinners. Corn chowder has been my favorite.
We recently went up to Ken's other farm, much larger and a few hours away up in Taihape. We helped weigh sheep and seperate them into different paddocks. Threehundred plus sheep were the right weight to be sold, the other lambs were left to get fatter. Taihape was a step back in time, true kiwi farmers, no more than twelve street lights in town. It was beautiful, but we did have some adventure dealing with clustercuss flies (swarm flies). They had got into the rooms, hundreds and hundreds of them, Big Horse flies. Other bugs attacked us through the night, but we survived to bear the wounds. We are back on the other farm (near Napier) and Ken has left to Auckland. He left us a list of chores and trusts us to take care of the farm, all thousand sheep and some eighthundred heads of cattle. RIGHT. We will report later, oh and ps, We are going to fly a plane.
We recently went up to Ken's other farm, much larger and a few hours away up in Taihape. We helped weigh sheep and seperate them into different paddocks. Threehundred plus sheep were the right weight to be sold, the other lambs were left to get fatter. Taihape was a step back in time, true kiwi farmers, no more than twelve street lights in town. It was beautiful, but we did have some adventure dealing with clustercuss flies (swarm flies). They had got into the rooms, hundreds and hundreds of them, Big Horse flies. Other bugs attacked us through the night, but we survived to bear the wounds. We are back on the other farm (near Napier) and Ken has left to Auckland. He left us a list of chores and trusts us to take care of the farm, all thousand sheep and some eighthundred heads of cattle. RIGHT. We will report later, oh and ps, We are going to fly a plane.
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