The Final Week

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The final week on the farm came, nice and cruisy work-wise, not so much socially! I obviously had planned to say goodbye to all my buddies but i didnt realise exactly how many i had until the farewell tea invitations came flooding in! And just to make it more interesting (read stressful) there were a few more January Challenges thrown in! And of course i actually had to pack...

Monday: Went out to tea with Paul and Jo, friends from church, at their farm. I think these are the people i will miss the most from my time in Methven. They have been so much fun and just awesomely supportive when things havent quite gone to plan. It was lovely to say goodbye to them properly and see the girls and thier wee baby boy again. I have been to their house lots of time, including over Christmas, so i felt really comfortable. After tea (inc ice cream mmmmmmmmmmmm!) we watched the Worst Ever Shark Attack (Paul's choice!). i gave them a thank you present of a book called Great Lies to Tell Small Children, which Paul loved and i think is now his second Bible, giving him so much inspiration for silly things to tell his girls! I actually cried on the drive home, but i am hoping to see them again before i fly out.

Tuesday: As mentioned in the last blog, i had plans to see Amie's host family for tea that night, to say goodbye and they wanted to say thanks for my help and pay me (!!!). However, this day also brought the first of the final January Challenges as Amie fell out with the guy she was milking with on the West Coast (again!) and ended up packing her bags and coming home, landing up at our house after an argument with said host family. Originally she was all set to call the airline and head home that weekend (!!!) but James and i managed to persuade her that that would be a bad idea. After a lot of discussion i managed to calm her down from quitting entirely and going to work somewhere else or go home, to returning to the farm the next day to talk to them, with her agriventure contact person if necessary. To cut a long story short she did eventually go back the next afternoon, had a chat and decided to stay and is now quite happily working the harvest at the main farm and milking on the West Coast on occasional weekends, and thus disaster has been averted! This did make things slightly uncomfortable for me doing there for tea in the middle of it all, especially as they were hoping she would return with me, but ducked out at the last minute. I was over an hour late in the end after extended car troubles, but they are really lovely people and didnt mind at all. We did of course dicuss the Amie situation but lots of other things too and i will definately visit them again if i come back to NZ. They have had a lot of trainees over the years, and have managed to visit most of them in their home countries, so i am hoping they can come see me in England some time.

Wednesday: Some minor farm dramatics when the solenoid that controls the molasses output in the shed feed system broke, causing the milking platform to flood with molasses, and the cows the spread molasses over every rail, post and gate on their way out in an attempt to remove the sticky stuff from their faces! We spent 2 and a half hours bucketing the stuff out by hand! i had lunch with Roz Mackenzie, farm owner who is the area rep for Agriventure and got me my job, so i could hand over my paperwork as contact person and say goodbye. they are having some massive redevelopment work done on their house so i got to see the brand new kitchen, which has the most amazing bar stools! It being wednesday we headed for pub night at the Mayfield Tavern that evening, via a BBQ at Mark and Lawrence's, who work on a 1200 head dairy farm nearby. Amie gave us a lift (all now forgiven with her host family) but we realised half way there that her fuel guage was on zero. Having trawled along the road trying to find Mark and Lawrence's house and failing, we decided to drive on to Mayfield to the petrol station, only to find it closed. Fingers crossed etc we drove back to find the house, hoping we could find a jerry can to get us by til we got to another petrol station. The BBQ was ace and the boys took us on a tour of their farm adn shed, which is massive, before we headed to the pub. i did mention the petrol situation before we left but no-one seemed bothered and apparently there is a 24 hour credit card pump in Mayfield so we headed for that, with fewer people in the car to make it lighter and me driving as everyone else had been drinking. We got to the pub and Amie decided we could sort out the petrol at the end as we were already late and everyone else was already there.

Mayfield is a pretty small place, one of those everyone-is-related-in-some-way types, so having 25 young adults descend upon it, from a huge range of european countries plus canada and america, kind of shell-shocked them! it didnt stop the barman and his wife being the grumpiest people on earth, and therefore the only unfriendly kiwis in the land, but the locals couldnt believe their luck! we met a couple of local contractors, one of which ahd been teaching drama and music in the Brecon Beacons in Wales and told us with great glee how much fun it ahd been watching the local shop burn down the other day! clearly not much happens in Mayfield. Around half 11 we were unceremoniously kicked out (they turned the lights off!) even though the pub was still full and plenty of people still wanted drinks. So finally we headed for the petrol station to find the 24 hour pump was diesel only! but there was a truck stop about half a k up the road where they do unleaded, hoorah! got there to find the machine not work (aaaaaaaaaaah!) but a little button above to call for help, yay! Duly done we spoke to the control room for about 20 seconds, only for him to have to hang up for an emergency call. We waited 5 minutes and called back, only to have him hang up again for the same reason! By this time Amie wants to "wing it" home to Methven (over 40 km!!) and is getting stroppy but james and i persist. when we finally get to talk to him we find the reason is that the eftpos (chip and pin) bit is broken. he can send a technician but that will be 6 hours minimum and no, he cant override it and give us 5 litres on good will. Before we got to the pub none of us had any phone credit, thus making calling anyone if we broke down impossible, but James had got some in the pub, so with no other options we decided to head off, get as far as possible and call someone at the to bring us petrol (or call my boss and tell him i wouldnt be there for milking!).

So off we go, with me driving, james snoozing in the back after 5 pints and Amie gibbering on that we would be fine and i was stressing too much (note i was calm and rational while she talked at 100 kph!). We got about 2 and a half km down the road (just past the Mayfield 2 km sign) when the car started to judder and slow down (discovered the car does NOT have a fuel warning light!). Thankfully (hoorah prayer works!) the very next farm house had lights on, despite it being gone midnight by now, and the car just about made it to their drive. James suggested i go and "do my feminine charm thing" so i got out, fell over the cattle grid and woke up all the farm dogs! As i got about half way up the drive the farmer emerged to discover the source of all the noise, but was very friendly when we asked for petrol. He and his wife duly donned their gumboots and poked around in farm sheds for jerry cans used to get petrol for their motorbikes. During this time the batteries on their torch died and the wife fell down a hole in the drive the kids had made earlier that day! eventually we found a few litres in a can they forgot they had and some 2-stroke in another. they were so lovely and kind and didnt want payment for it or anything. They gave us just enough to get back to the farm (via the back of Methven because Amie insisted on us going down the wrong road!) where we filled the car from the farm supply tank and sent Amie on her way. i got to bed at 1.30 am and had to be up at 3! oh joy!

Thursday: beginning to panic about the fact taht i hadnt started packing, but i finally got the car back from the garage where it was getting its WOF (warrant of fitness, like MOT) and new tyres and found the time to buy a box of chocolate and a card for the guys at the farm. i then spent the evening sitting amid chaos in my room and the spareroom, desperately trying to work out what to take with me to Oz and what to do with the rest. Stayed up until midnight and didnt get very far!

Friday: Final day at work, went nice and smoothly, got some good video of the boys taking the mick while herd stripping (testing the milk for mastitis). Said goodbye to all my favourite cows and Dale was nice enough not to give me heaps of horrible jobs. He suggested i shout a round that night but i had already planned to go out to dinner with friends. I had been to the Salmon Tales cafe restaurant in Rakaia once or twice for lunch on days off back at the first farm, but never for dinner, but the food there was so good i had to try it. After the Emma debacle i decided not to invite her, Gary couldn't make it as the brakes had failed on his car (not something that would stop many of the locals!) and James couldnt come as he had to start harvesting at 10pm (some strange thing about moisture levels at night!) so Amie, Melinda, Anna and Elin and I had a girls night. The food was awesome and it was great to catch up with everyone for the last time. I had made loads of friends amoung the trainees and local contractors, but these guys were the main ones and had really appreciated their friendship over the last 6 months. Anna and i are travelling together and Amie might make it out to Oz at some point and Melinda is going over for 6 months for the harvest so we'll have to meet up again! I was going to attempt to pack a bit more when i got home, but gave up and went to bed in the end.

Saturday: With no more work i had also run out of excuses not to pack properly. So finally i managed to fill 2 rubbish bags (!!!) and a spare backpack with things to keep but leave with little brother Rich and pick up on my return. i had bought this awesome wheely case thing the week before, with all-terrian wheels, and boggled at how fast i managed to fill it! After delivering the chocolates to the shed Theresa informed me that Freddy would be arriving at 4.30pm for a house inspection. i knew he would do one, but as James was staying in the house for another 2 months i figured i only needed to do my room and make the rest of the house clean and tidy. But Freddy wanted it moving-out-entirely clean, including the garage that was full of junk that wasnt ours, and the gardens which i had been told i didnt have to do, and the lawn was dead anyway and the pet sheep Vinnie ate what was growing anyway! And so the final January Challenge began. Still only half packed i sent an emergency text to Anna and Amie, who were out walking, as a plea to come adn help me clean in return for a free tea! james had gone to Christchurch for a night out as he wasnt harvesting, so couldnt help! Amie had a friend to meet but Anna was an angel and did all the windows and the light shades and a few other random things Freddy insisted on being clean even though they werent when i moved in. By about 10 pm we had done most of the inside stuff and decided to leave the outside stuff for James who said he would do it in the mornign when he got home, including his room even though he was still living in it! I agreed with Freddy taht he would come abck for the final inspection around 9 am but i would call when i was ready....

Sunday: I stayed up until 2 am but finally i had finished packing. James arrived at 8 am and did his bit, but then ahd to head for work as the harvest was on again. i did all the floors and mopped everything then called Freddy to say i was ready. He was out of signal so l left a message and sent a text. Anna arrived around 10.30 am to take me to Kaikoura to start at the horse trekking centre, but we still hadnt heard from Freddy. I called several more times, left more messages saying i had to leave soon, adn called his home to see if his wife Helkya could get hold of him, but that number was engaged. Finally at 11.30 am we had to leave to get there on time, so i left him another message to say i was leaving but james had agreed to do anything that wasnt up to scratch. After we loaded the car and i said goodbye to everyone we hit the road. 20 minutes later Freddy called (but i didnt hear it) and left me a message saying he was available any time from 3.30pm! Well, i had done everything i could so he would have to sort it out himself with James, i certainly couldnt wait that long!

So, finally i left the farm and started the next phase of my big NZ adventures, riding horses for a living....

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