"Its like your body is covered in velcro or something..."

Hey Everyone!
I have now been in New Zealand for a little over a month and since my contact with my Canadian life has been slim to none I figured I should probably update you all! As it is now obvious (because I wouldn be typing this otherwise) I did actually manage to make it to NZ without being arrested at the boarder for being covered in explosives, or losing all of my luggage because I wasn sure if it was going on the plane or not or anything else that was predicted I would do along the way. The trip was actually most uneventful, other than a little fist fight I witnessed in LAX between two taxi drivers, one of whom was a small white man and the other a rather voluptuous coloured woman, after he tried to tell her that she was in his parking lot. {Lesson 1: Don start fights with overheated female L.A. cabdrivers, it leads to being hit in the head a few times and then escorted to god knows where with the LAX security}. I was then lectured for a short period of time by a Qantas Service Attendent that didn understand me when I read her my confirmation code because it was "Zee not Zed" and that "I should learn about the customs of the country I am traveling to before visiting there". Once I made it past these distractions I found myself sitting in the corner of the terminal 4 waiting area in LAX for 9 hours trying to pass the time without falling asleep, and then proceeding to sleep most of the 15 hour flight from L.A. to Auckland. Once I arrived in Auckland things went pretty smoothly and they gave me a work permit without any hassel after I let them take all my riding equipment into the back room to be meticulously examined and irradiated. Jordan and Cathy Bartlett picked me up at the airport and I spent a week at there amazing home on Weiheke Island (which is like the marijuana growing capital of NZ with some very secluded island type people, it reminded me a little bit of Smithers) off the coast of Auckland. They have a beautiful house right on the beach and I spent my time there happily relaxing and exploring the island by bike, walking or swimming in the ocean out there backyard. Tim and Josh went fishing in the afternoon one day and we had fresh caught snapper for dinner one night, as well as a delicious NZ lamb dinner another night. They were more than hospitable to me and I had a great time meeting Jordans friends, doing yoga as the sun rose at the vineyard Cathy works at, and seeing Auckland with Cathys mother. I also got to see all of Auckland while I was staying with them...by accident. On my last day with the Bartletts I went into Auckland to do a little bit of shopping for some little stuff that I didn bring over with me so I took the ferry into the city and hopped on the bus feeling all proud of myself because I was such a worldly traveller and could do it all by myself then got off the bus and proceded to wander around Parnell which is like this fancy street with all these cool stores on it, however imagine my suprise when I went to go buy a coffee and my wallet with my credit card, drivers lisense, debit card, insurance information and a bunch of cash was not in my purse! Since the bus was the last place I had taken out my wallet I ran back to the busstop and proceeded to beg the driver of the next bus which arrived to help me, he of course thought I was a dumb "ignorant tourist" and couldn believe that I didn "even have a cellphone" but took pity on me and ordered me to sit on the bus while he used his personal cellphone to call the depot and report my wallet to the lost and found. So in the end I rode the Auckland Link bus #1191 around for two and hours and saw parts of the city that Cathy and Jordan assured me after that most of the locals have never seen until by some miraculous stroke of luck the depot called back saying that they had my wallet. Haha it was a big mess and I am amazed that it worked out in my favour but in end I met a bunch of really nice people, including an older American woman who felt sorry for me and gave me fifty dollars to survive until I sorted my self out, and the bus driver ended up being a really nice guy.
Since then I have arrived that the farm that I am working at with the Wakelings which in is the middle of nowhere New Zealand, hahah none of the Kiwis I have met have any idea where it is I actually live, but it is really beautiful with all the big green rolling hills and everyone I have met is lots of fun. We have 8 sport horses in work at the moment who we are training to sell and compete in the jumpers, and 4 newly broken 2yo race horses. Most of the sport horses Michelle and Bruce bred themselves and the racehorses are bought. Michelle runs the horse part of the farm and I spend most of my days working with her. Bruce runs the other parts of the farm he has around 1000 cattle and 800 sheep/lambs. I have also spent a few days with him and now am a self proclaimed expert in milking cows and feeding calves, since I have managed to milke 95 and feed another 500, twice, in one day. Ive also been learning how to chase the livestock around on the quad with the work dogs polly and queen. Plus we spent most of last week docking the 800 lambs so that they can go to the works at christmas time (sorry to the vegetarians reading this). And occasionally we have to go turkey/wild pig hunting on the farm since they ruin the paddocks and eat all the horses feed, I havn actually killed anything (I don think I could) but I get to carry the gun and shoot trees and stuff every once and a while hahah. We also have three pet lambs on the farm which their daught Sammy and I take care of, Sammy is three, so really I have been taking care of them but it is lots of fun. They get bottle fed every morning and night, and Stripes the ram, who is black with white spots all over him, follows Sammy around like a little lost puppy and she lunges him around the area while Michelle and I ride. We have been to a couple competitions so far and I am completing Michelles old hunter in the jumpers, as well I am riding one of their friends horses for him. The hunts down here are huge with hounds and hundreds of people galloping through the fields and jumping wire fences. They arn running any this spring but hopefully in the fall we will. I have adapted to life on the farm pretty quickly and I think it suits me I love getting up in the morning and knowing that I will get to ride 8 or so different horses that day. So far I have only come off twice (two bottles of gin worth...it is expensive to fall off here hahahah), gotten a nice big bruise on my arm which the most expensive race horse gave me while I was out feeding them dinners in the paddock (he wasn aiming to kick me, just the other horse) and I have learn very quickly not to grab the electric fence {Lesson #3: Don grab anything touching the electric fence either!} We have four more race horses coming into work before christmas and another six or seven sport horses who need to be broken in sitting in the field but before that happens we will need to sell some of the current ones, there isn any more room in the truck! Speaking of trucksthedrivers here are absolutely terrifying, hahah andi thought harumi was a bad driver, the roads are all really narrow (especially in the country where I am) and they all drive ridiculously fast. Michelles mother drove me down to Auckland to catch a bus and I have never been happier to get out of a moving vehicle or more amazed when she The past weekend I had a few days off and I took the bus down to Rotorua the tourist capital of the North Island which is kind of like a geothermal wonder. You walk down the sidewalks and in the grass beside you will be this big opening into the ground with a hotwater sulpher spring and a bunch of steam rising out of it. I went skydiving yesterday which was absolutely amazing!!!I went with a company called NZone and it was myself as well as this chinese girl who could barely speak english and was absolutely terrified but wanted to rebel against her conservative chinese parents. She was hilarious because she was so scared but so determined. We got all suited up and hopped into this tiny plane which barely fit the two of us and our dive masters plus a photographer and then we flew up high above lake rotorua and when we reached cruising altitude they opened the door and out we jumped! It was sush a crazy feeling because you didn actually feel like you were falling, more like floating, but you had the pressure of all the air moving past you at the same time...I have been on a permanent adrenaline high ever since! I have also been to the racetrack here and watched a bunch of the flat races, I won $50! As well I been out to a geothermal park called hells gate where there are all these hotwater lakes which are permanently boiling hot and having little explosions, there was one pool that stayed between 120-140 degrees celcius all year round and they can actually cook a whole pig in, in less than two hours. Apparently the Maoris actually still do that for certain ceremonies! Off course this all couldn have gone smooth sailing so I did manage to misplace my camera on the way to the race track, I was so excited about skydiving and on the phone to my sister and apparently didn notice that I had set it down. But don worry I managed to find it later after I realized and went looking for it! {Lesson #4: When in doubt of where you left something retrace your steps} I found it in this little asian tourist shop where I had bought more minutes for my cellphone. Later after recounting all this to some of my dorm mates from the hostel while we were out for drinks, the bartender walks up to me and says "Are you Katharine?", confused I said that I was and she gave me my wallet saying that she had found it a little earlier and had been looking for me. I have now vowed to my American and German friends that I would keep a closer eye on my things, since they all seemed very concerned for my well being after this incident. Im heading back to Wellsford tomorrow, and missing the horses already. We have competitions every weekend after this until mid December, as well all the sheep have to be shorn soon, so I will be really busy!! Ill make sure to send photos soon! And I really do miss you all!
Please, please email me and let me know what you have been up to!
xoxoxoxox
all my love Kate

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