When it rains, it floods...

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Although Auckland was warm and sunny, it seems that the winter in Whangarei is quite wet. The good thing about this is that we havent had any run ins with possums. The bad thing is there is water in our 'gum boots' (rubber boots/wellies). It rained for about 48 hours, non-stop with very strong winds, almost cottage blow-over winds. The winds were actually so strong there are trees downn everywhere, some even taking out power lines. We didnt have power from about 2am until noon, so we all cuddled around the fire inside keeping warm and dry. When the power finally came back on, we ventured to the supermarket with the family. Here we discovered that Matt and I are going to have to give up shaving as razors go for $19 for a 4 pack ! You don't even want to know what a pack of 24 beer would run ya, still not giving that up yet though. After picking up lots of goodies, we made our way around the farm to check out all the flooding. Luckily enough Old-Man-River's calves didnt float away this year, like they did 2 years ago. The cow's grazing pasture has become limited but we still had to move them from one paddock to another to keep them from destorying the good pasture by moving them to a river stop where the grass doesn't grow much anyway. You should have seen Wags in action, there had to be something good in the name.
After taking care of the cows, we went for a drive down a 20 km logging road, which was also affected by the storm in which we had to cut down trees with a chain saw as we went. This took us up really high up the mountains, the road at one point was 2000 metres above sea level. He is going to take us back on a clear day so we can see the view better, you can tell it will be gorgeous. We stopped at one point along the way where the flooding was 7 meters deep!
Besides the rain, we've been keeping busy playing with the kids inside. Matt is catching up on his reading skills as he reads Fireman Sam to the little guys during quiet time. I never knew kids could have so much energy. We are hoping the rain will clear up so we can get them outside to burn some energy. Looks like Sunday will be raining but hopefully Monday and Tuesday will be sunny and about 15 degrees !

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Photos

Rachel
The kids loved the flags and stickers we gave them.

Reading Time
Fireman Sam keeps them quiet!

Goofballs
Rachel, Ryan and Sarah

Old Man River's donated calves
The calves that got donated to a farmer 2 years ago after all his calves floated away.

Pump Room.
Ryan and Sarah by the pump that regulates the water flow.

City Slickers
200 of the 1300 cows

Wags squared
Sarah and the farm dog Wags.