Saving Lives!

Addison with here consentrated look!

The Nikua Coopworth stud flock is in full force lambing mode, or saving lives as Kate calls it.

So we have been doing the rounds daily to tag the new lambs and check that everything is okay. I'm normally the babysitter so follow round with Addison on my back, really great fun and intresting to see the way they do it over here. We have had a few dry days for lambing, but there are showers most days.

Tea cup lamb and his giant sister.

From then till now.

So for the last few weeks I have done so much and looking back it is all a blur of so much fun and I have stupidly not written much in my sketch book from being too tiered in the evenings so can't remember everything, but will try and list a few highlighters and things I am getting up to.

1.Chuk garden- I have been given the task of de-weeding and cultivating the veg garden, named the chuck garden. Great fun and from there you can see all the hills around so hard to get bored!

Not a bad view to plant veges from

2.Cooking- I have been in and out of the cafe cooking up banana cakes, Anzac cookies, soups and Jane Symonds' malt loaf (although don't think I took your recipe down right, Jane as it is not working properly!). Made toad in the hole for dinner one night and no one had ever heard of it before!

3. Babysitting- been awesome fun looking after Mattias and Addison to give Catherine and Emily some time off. They are just hilarious together and crack me up every time!

4. Shepherding- I have been tagging along with Kate on her rounds of the sheep a few days, crazy watching her call round this dog from the opposite valley! Also had a go at being a rousie ("separating the dags from the shit" is how it was explained to me!) and filling up the pens for Sam and Emily Welsch. Emily being the women's world record holder for speed shearing, claim to faim!

5. Walks- In my spare time I have just walked around and really sussed out the whole farm. Some great bush walks to the waterfall and to the top of the farm where you can see right out to sea. 

The Kiwifruit vine/tree

Monday19th

After many ties to hold it all down!

Today and for many days to come starts the task of picking then pruning the Kiwifruit vine. Sounds lovely, well the Kiwifruit vine has not been pruned for over two years, so now looking much more of a tree than a vine. Plus someone kindly picked half the fruit of the tree but only round the edges! So hilariously fun climbing right into the top of this tangled web of vines picking the fruit, well hilarious till you drop the bag! Had to stop and to stop and pinch myself several times because of the whole irony of being in New Zealand, stuck up a Kiwifruit tree, eating Kiwi's, just bazaar. So there is now loads of fruit in the bamboo room, filling every laundry basket and box that is available. 

No TV or decent Internet connection at the farm so really cool just to sit and read books or do something different with my time rather than blob!

First day at the Woodwards

Sunday 18th July

Woke up to Tui's and sunlight through the curtains, there is an amazing view from out my bedroom window to the hills and rocks on the opposite hill. Really cooling round the garden remembering memories of previous trips to the Woodwards farm.

Went to the cafe and made a ribsticker soup, almost felt like an assessment to see if i could cook and to see if I could live up to the picture my mother had given them!(always something majorly exaggerated, so extra worrying for me!) Thankfully everything was great and it tasted good (phew!).

In the afternoon i took my first trip caving, made a stupid mistake of only going in shorts and a T-shirt, twas very cold, mind the sun was shining so soon warmed up hen walking back to the cafe.

The sky was super clear that night, you can see right up into the milkyway, with no light pollution to distract your eyes, just amazing!

To the wop wops

Saturday 17th July

Franks car had broken down a few days before so we had to drive to the woodwards farm in his little roadster. Really entertaining looking at the size of my suitcase then looking at the size of his boot! It didn't fit, we had to squeeze it in in lots of smaller bags leaving non-essentials behind.

But when we finally got on the road it was a glorious drive through the countryside Th.ere are so many hills that and unpredictable road surfaces that the road has to go on the top of all the hills following where they go. So some crazy cliffs either side of the road and very severe bends. Great feeling at some of the things on the journey reminding me of earlier trips to the farm. Turning into the cafe was really impressive, especially walking in and seeing all the great views from inside.

After meeting everyone at the cafe and having a cup of tea, Frank and I took the bush walk round the back of the cafe.

When we got back from the walk we came straight into a busy saturday lunchtime, so was put straight to work. Although it didn't feel like work because everything is so much fun and relaxed.

That evening we went to Emily and Sam's to watch the rugby. Addison was hilarious when watching the Hakka she sit up and gets so excited that she gets so excited that she looks like she is about to explode!

Funtimes

Week beginning 13th July

This week has been full of trips here, there and everywhere. I potted up loads of strawberries at Carol's nursery One day Carol and I walked along Muriwhai beech and investigated the dunes.

Crazy frosts some morning's, really reminding me of England, then sunny days, then some days when the rain falls so hard that everywhere is flooded in a matter of minutes! No Joke we went into a supermarket and it was wet but only misty rain, we came out of the supermarket and the car park was almost flooded! Just crazy! 

My Birthday

Monday 12th July

Woke up to find lots of people in the living room watching the World cup final. Rich had borrowed a projector from his work and put the game up on the wall.

Jan-Marie and Nicola bought me a packet of pineapple lumps, a bottle of L&P and a apron with a map of New Zealand on it. All awesome, but the food did not make the trip home. I got a lift in with Rich to work then got a train back into Britomart, then caught the train to Swanson, where I met Carol. We stopped at the train station and had lunch, a really quaint little cafe dressed up as a train station. 

On the way home we took a crazy detour to the Wikato ranges visitors centre. Really awesome views out onto the native bush and reservoir. Super sunny day! Got home to lots of cards and presents from England.

Later on Frank, Carol and I went out for meal, but it being Monday everything was shut! We ended up buying a cooked chicken from Woolworths and took it home and ate it with some fancy dips and Kiwi cider.

Very memorable day!

Richard's Race

Sunday 11th July

Woke up really early and went to the north shore of Auckland for Richard's half marathon. Got there before sunrise so got to see it come right up over the harbour.

After the race had started Nicola and I raced around in the car to some pre-planned spots to cheer Rich on. We had to miss some spots of the map because he was so quick!

In the Afternoon I took a walk up one tree hill (although it should be no tree hill as the tree was cut own!). Really amazing park with loads of crazy, different trees. There were alot of cars though, which was a bit of a shame, but was kind of asking for it walking up on a sunny sunday afternoon.

Nicola's Birthday and Trip to Themes

Saturday 10th July

Richard, Nicola, Jan-Marie, AJ and I took a road trip to Themes to see Andrew and Sharron. Andrew was working in a cafe in the centre of the town so we all took a walk round the estuary and met him at the cafe for a late lunch. Themes is a really cool old town full of really old beautiful houses, half falling apart.

Later on we took a drive to a beech further up the Coromandel peninsular. We took a cake and sang to Nicola. There was a cold wind coming from the see but an awesome sunset.

Auckland Central!

Friday 9th July

Got a lift in with Frank to work, very early in the morning but really impressive to see his T-shirt printing factory.

From his work I walked into the centre of Auckland, still early so not hugely busy but got to see all the corporates walking to work. From the bottom of Queen street i caught an explorer bus which took me all round the highlights of Auckland. Stopped of at the museum for 2 hours then jumped of at the sky tower. It was the school holidays so the tower was very busy with families but saw some great views of the city.

Then took the bus to Victoria Park market, saw some nice little market stall and some dodgy ones. From there I took a walk round the harbour and saw the immense amounts of boats that are there, Auckland is also known as the city of sails.

Then went to Britomart train station and caught a train to Greenland and Nicola and Richard's house to stay the weekend with them.

Auckland Zoo

Thursday 8th July

I helped Carol do some maintenance on a  community centre's garden in the morning then in the afternoon we went to auckland zoo.

Awesome fun or 'sweet as'. Lots of crazy animals, just hilarious watching the monkeys and seeing animals you would never see in the zoo's in England.

Out and about

In the next week I helped Carol out in the nursery, made sushi (surprisingly easy), sheltered from the rain (there was alot) and just caught up with my Kiwi family.

Wednesday of that week Carol and I went for a long bush walk round Muriwhai beech,I tried to learn the names of NZ's native trees, there's alot of them!

Mangawhai Heads

Saturday 3rd July

Carol and Frank took me to see their bach at Mangawhai Heads, around one hours drive north of Auckland. We stopped off at this beautiful stop of on the way, just these awesome views on to typical New Zealand country.

When we arrived we were all amazed by the amount of work that had been done in around two  weeks, one thing you can say about Kiwi's is that they don't mess around when it comes to building houses. But seeing the structure and layout of the whole thing was very exciting!

The Afternoon was just so sunny and Carol and I walked along the beech for ages. Saw lots of shells, pohutukawas and even a sand piper in a rock pool, apparently a rare sight. Ended the day with fish and chips for dinner, tasted really good!
On the way home I fell asleep whilst talking to Frank, Yet when I got to bed herdley slept a wink. Jet lag is bazaar!

'Leaving on a jet plane'

So my flight was from London Hethrow to Singapore, Singapore to Melbourne, Melbourne to Auckland.

The whole flying thing is a bit of a blur now, but all in all a succesfull flight. The first leg of the journey we met alot of turbulance and I was penned in with a grumpy old man to my left and a couple that did not stop sleeping! Just stuck my iPod in and tried to get as much sleep as possible!

The rest of the journeys were not bad at all, the last leg was a bit rubbish, but mainly because 22 hours of flying and lack of sleep were taking there toll.

Arrived in Auckland around 11am Thursday 1st July. Carol and Mitchel met me in the airport on a very sunny "winter's" day. I remembered feeling like it was only a few weeks since I saw them last but in reality a few years.

So great to sleep in a real bed and have a shower after all that time on a plane.