Meri Kirihimete!

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Well I think the fact that I haven’t updated my journal this month at all is indicative of how incredibly busy and tired I have been recently. Mating (artificial insemination) is over so days on the farm are generally shorter and easier, but we’ve still got plenty to do in a short space of time, with lots of grass baling for silage, rock and stick picking removing debris on the paddocks due to be sown with winter crops and endless pressure washing of machinery and the shed. We had a huge party to jointly celebrate the end of AI and Dale‘s 39th birthday, with a shed BBQ and homemade pizzas thanks to Gordon (AI tech). Freddy and his tribe came and the Filipinos, who never miss an opportunity to have a free beer! Being the only sober one I spent most of the evening playing horsey to 6 children! It was really good fun though, apart from realising that Gordon’s 12 year old son has a crush on me - bless him! With the end of AI came the introduction of the bulls. Originally we were only going to have 2, but that quickly increased to 8 and now we have 20! There are 10 Herefords, which are scatty and stupid and have a tendency to jump the railings; 2 Jerseys, with a reputation for being evil but ours are ok. They are very small and light so rather quick on their feet but they haven't had a go at anyone and are quite placid really; and 8 Angus crosses, which are beautiful and quite well handled so much calmer. They do however have a tendency to just stand still if they can't work out what you are trying to do with them, so sometimes, when trying to get them out of the yard, they will stand in the middle of the gateway but go no further because they can't see where you are trying to move them to. I have to admit, at the beginning I was very cautious around them all, but now I have got used to them and don't mind getting in the yard with them to move them around. Jemma made the mistake of hitting one with the motorbike the other day (by mistake of course) and he didnt take too kindly to that!

Needless to say the whales were awesome. We saw 4 - Tutu, Rua, Big Nick and Tutu again, which is a lot, normally you only see 1 or 2. The first sighting of Tutu was particularly amazing as only about 5 of us saw him as he dived just as we got out onto the deck. Seeing Rua was also quite exciting as he had only returned to the area the day before. They were all bachelor male sperm whales, around 18 metres long, which is basically huge. The sea was ‘jobbly’ according to the skipper, meaning we were bobbing around quite a bit. This made it hard to take pictures and I was very jealous of all the amazing SLR cameras around me with lenses as long as my arm, but I got a good few and some video as well.

The boat set off at 7.15 am so we were all done and back on the harbour by 10.30 am. After second breakfast (I think I am turning into a hobbit!) I decided to find something else to do before heading home, so on a whim booked myself in for a horse trek in the hills as I love the Marlborough scenery. It was too windy to head up too high but I really enjoyed the valleys and dry river beds. My horse was called Dale, same as the boss, so we had lots of jokes about behaving and listening to me! I mentioned that I am a vet student and that I was heading to Australia for jackaroo school and they offered me some free horse training before I go! So now I am finishing at the farm at the end of January and spending a fortnight at Fyffe View Ranch before I head to Australia. They are going to put me up for free, in return for a couple of hours work each morning (all good for the work experience). The rest of the time I get to ride out on the 3 daily treks plus time for individual training on the ranch in the evenings. I am so excited about it, and its going to be so helpful, I’ll get a lot more out of the jackaroo school if I can ride better when I arrive, and it will increase my chances of finding a good job. Danish friend Emilie also offered me some riding lessons on her “horse farm” (trotter racing stables) before I go - not on the racers!

Its now only a couple of days until Christmas but it really, really doesn’t feel like it. There are Christmas songs on the radio all the time - Solid Gold remains just as repetitive, with Snoopy’s Christmas on at least 3 times per day! The other day, when it was boiling hot and the cows didn’t want to walk up the track, I sang Jingle Bells and Silent Night to them, while mooching around on the motorbike, which made them move but still didn’t make me feel Christmassy. This week has been quite English, with lots and lots and lots of rain. The tracks are about 4-5 inches deep in mud, making motor biking rather hairy, and lots of the paddocks have big puddles in them. This put the brakes on our silage making but does mean Jemma and I don’t have to do any irrigator fixing or sprinkler fixing! Hoorah! Finally, after a lot of faff, I have finalised my Christmas plans. I am working right up until Christmas Eve, so that day will be spent doing last minute shopping and baking before heading to Paul and Jo Kuriger’s for tea. They are my church cell group leaders and a really lovely couple. I am babysitting their children - Maddison, 5, Caitlin, 3 and Ethan, 2 months, in the morning so that Jo and Paul can milk without taking the children to the shed. Jo has already warned that its likely that I will have both of the older ones in my bed with me by 6 am but they are really lovely so I don’t mind. After breakfast I am heading into town to help out with a charity community lunch. As I am away from home this year, without my family and close friends, I figured it would be good to spend Christmas with other people who are in the same situation, mostly not by choice. I have had so many awesome Christmasses already in my life so I reckon I can give one to God. After that it is back to Paul and Jo’s for tea, probably with lots of the cell group guys. Kiwis are crazy - at Christmas they eat at both lunch and tea time, usually with a ham at lunch and a BBQ for tea. I don’t know where they put all that food, no wonder their kids are so big! On Boxing Day we are heading to the beach. With all of the Agriventure trainees used to a wintery holiday we figured we just have to go this year. Apparently the breaches south, near Timaru, are really nice so that’s where we’re going. Then sadly its back to work. I don’t have New Year off, and neither to several of my mates, so we’re just going to go to the local pub then crash out at my house. I am quite tempted to stay up and milk and then go to sleep for the rest of the day until afternoon milking, or until one of the others wakes me with breakfast! As it’s a statutory holiday so we only have to milk, no other jobs, thank goodness!

The latest big, exciting news is that I have a new housemate. At the end of last week Craig (farm owner) called me at work, saying, “so Freddy has told you about this new guy moving into your house?” to which I answered a definte NO! SO he quickly filled me in. unfortunately this was Friday afternoon and I was due to be away for the whole weekend and he was going to move in on Sunday, but I said that was fine and spend the whole of Friday evening cleaning the house. James and I met on the Sunday night, after I returned from the church party, and got to chatting straight away. He is 21 and from Frampton Cotterell (about 10 minutes down the road from me back home!). He is tall and quite nice looking, very easy to talk to and with the sweetest tooth on the planet! He has a girlfriend back home, which makes things a lot less complicated for us here, and has just graduated from Hartpury Agricultural College. Its very weird as he knows several people from Wotton-under-Edge, even my old dairy boss Chris! On the Tuesday we went out for drinks at his friends, who is over here as a contractor, and it turned out to be Dan Evans who I went to primary school with! He hasn’t changed a bit. On the Wednesday he went to the pub with the trainees - they had been texting me non-stop since they heard I had a guy moving in, I figured it was easier to let them all meet him at once - while I went to my cell group Christmas BBQ, which was ace. They boys sat outside and talked cars, cows and other such things, while the girls stayed inside and talked bras, babies and movies. It was a bit weird as the group is for 18 -30 year olds but I am the only female and one of only 3 in the whole group that isn’t married. We had plenty of honourary wee members, aged 2 months to 6 years, but it was mostly the adults on the trampoline that night! As usual I got the joys of cuddling 2 mo Ethan most of the night and generally having a good giggle. On the Friday James and the trainees went to The Shed (the only nightclub in 200 km!) so he has settled in well and met plenty of people! This backfired slightly as he still smelled of beer the next morning when he went to work (only smelled, he wasn’t still drunk) so got sent home again. It did mean we had a good weekend together. We spent the rest of Saturday at Lake Hood sunbathing and admiring mate Darren’s bosses boat (not quite brave enough to go out in it) before heading to the farm Christmas Party. They got the 5 farms in the partnership together for a massive BBQ and pool party. The kids enjoyed the pool early in the evening, then after a few beers and some brave talk the men took to the water at 11 pm to prove whether they could do 2 lengths without breathing! The silliness escalated and pretty soon plenty of people were in there, whether they wanted to be or not, many fully clothed!

It being summer (when not raining) everyone on the farm has to take some holiday. Obviously most don’t mind but as I am trying to save for Australia I didn’t want 9 days off to spend any! But Freddy insisted so I managed to wangle a few extra weekends off instead so I could spend more time with my mates, who get every weekend off (lucky people!). So last weekend, while James was moving in, Emma, Amie and I hit the shops in Christchurch and then drove up to Hanmer Springs to play in the thermal pools. It was scarily hot but we still had a great weekend. We met Matt, DiMar, Ed and Johnny at a bar in town, where they had already consumed 6 bottles of wine between them! We had a hilarious conversation about rugby and beards with another couple before heading to another pub for beer and dancing. The night went well until someone called Johnny a Pom (not exactly an insult), which for some reason he took badly and started a fight! Lads being lads they had to join in as well but Emma soon broke it up (she’s fearless!) and a local took the guys home before the police arrived. The next morning they were fairly tired and hung over so decided to head home. Emma and I had pancakes in town for brekkie before spending a couple of hours in the pools. It was about 27 degrees outside so not the best day for it, but we still had a lovely relaxing time. The 39 degree pool was a little too warm but the sulphur pools were very nice, making your skin all soft and smooth. A couple of hours were all we could handle so we dried off in the sun before heading off to play crazy golf. The golf centre also had a maze and we couldn’t resist having a go. It was fairly easy, with a load of symbols to find to make a sentence and a ‘water challenge’ with waterfalls and stepping stones. There was also some caves and tunnels with UV lights and some air jets and moving walls. It was quite tame but Emma was a total girl and screamed at everything and made me go first through most of it! She got her own back on the golf though, beating me by 13 strokes! I didn’t actually do that badly on most of the holes, and beat her on a few, but totally stuffed my score getting 10 on one and 12 on another! So I was definitely buying the ice creams after that one.

After a very, very busy fortnight I had 4 days off to chill out. The first to I slept, slept and slept some more, did some Christmas and food shopping and generally chilled out. Then on Sunday I headed north a bit to Rangiora, near Christchurch to see Buffy and Phillip - aunt and uncle to best make Kayt from back home. They live on a small farm (called a lifestyle block over here) with their goats, dogs and 1 chicken in lovely hill country. Once again it was boiling hot so I nearly expired on the drive up the Inland Scenic Route. I ad only met them once before, when I was about 14 years old, back in England, but they were so lovely and welcoming. After a salad lunch including home made bread and their own goats cheese (super yummy!) we went for a wander across their farm and into the woods and hills. Three-legged collie Elvis (so called for the quif on his head) struggled a little but coped admirably, while little collie Charlie bombed around after every hare that ever moved. The view from the hills was amazing - you could see all the way back to Methven across the plains, and down to Christchurch on the other side, framed by the Sothern Alps. Phillip is a lawyer but worked for years as a shearer, all over the world, and Buffy is really into homeopathy and animal behaviour so we had some really interesting conversations. They also showed me the video from a few years back when Kayt and her family had come over for the Lions rugby tour. It was quite funny to see them a few years younger and see the farm I was now on with my friends there - bizarre! After an awesome night’s sleep in the best bed ever I headed back out the farm to take some pictures, retracing my steps from the day before. I also persuaded Charlie to pose for a few photos, when I could control her from chasing the bunnies. It was so, so nice to have a chilled out, relaxing weekend instead of bombing around the country and lots of late nights like usual. I am hoping to head that way again when I go up to Kaikoura in February. James benefited from the weekend too as I was sent home with half of a fabulous carrot cake!

Well I think that’s enough from me, I must get on with the baking! James brought his computer out here with him so we do now have dial-up internet in the house. It is however pretty slow and rather weather dependent as the phone line is aerial rather than underground, but I do hope to be able to check my emails more often and update my journal a little more frequently! Meri Kirihimete and a Ka Pai New Year to all, hope you have a great one. Thanks for all the Christmas cards and pressies, very much appreciated. Looking forward to an interesting, exciting and challenging new year.

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