Been a while....

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Well, where to start? Hmmmm....

We have posted in aaaages because we haven't had much to post about really, well not after our little excursing in dairy farming!!!

Man what a bodge up that was, basically we lasted 3 days, we worked from 5am until 5pm each day on a farm with 600 cows that we as mismanagaed as you can get, the machinery on the farm was breaking down left right and centre and 3 people quit the farm whilst we were there!!! ... it didn't help that we didn't like being pissed and shat on by the cows as we milked them, not the most pleasing experience at 5am!!!

Anyway...we left as quickly as possible and we've been in The Bay of Plenty for the last 3 months just working and checking out the NZ lifestyle really. As we want to move here in the future then we have been looking for potential places to live, this is a fantastic place and is top of our list so far!!

We've been working in all sorts of places, Katikati, Te Puke, Whakatane, Waihi, to name a few, but we have used Tauranga as our base, always coming back after a few weeks!

We've done kiwi pruning, kiwi packing, landscape gardening half way up a mountain with no harness, just us and a 100ft drop!!, newspaper packing, avocado tree planting ... imagine trying to dig holes whilst 2 massive great danes try to help you!;o), painting houses, quit a bit really, but the main thing that was keeping us here has been the offer of managing the hostel!

The current owners are expanding from 20 beds to 40 beds and want us to managee the place once it is up and running, however due to council laws and complaining neighbours the go ahead has been put back time and time again!

So after waiting and waiting we have decided that it is time to move on and explore the rest of NZ and keep in contact with the owners and once the hostel has been expanded we'll come back and see what happens(we are not gauranteed to get the job due to immigration rules anyway) ... but we're expecting to be back here around April next year sometime to see whats going on.

So, we have decided to go to a place called Napier, in Hawkes Bay, which is on the east coast of NZ. It is not on the main tourist trail apparently, which is strange as it is supposed to be an amazing place! Anyway, we'll have the opportunity of Apple thinning and picking whilst there aswell as various other fruits(grapes, necterines, peaches etc) which will be kool as we've been wanting to do some actual fruit picking for ages, but we just have to wait for the season, bummer!:o)

Anyway, gotta leave it there for now as we have to go sort out some bus tickets and other last minute things, oh yeah, we'll be staying at a hostel called Aqua Lodge, right near the sea again, way kool!:o)

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Photos

Strike a pose...
Just imagine 10 hours down the road and this overall looking rather more brown and smelling like, well I'll let u imagine that one!:o)

I enjoy wearing loose blue overalls
honest, i'm really looking forward to standing behind a cow, trying to feel it's tits, oops, I mean udders!;o)