Woofing in Wairapa

March 16, 2008

Today we went out on the boat with the family. We brought a small BBQ and cooked up some sausages. We put the boat in at this river and set up camp on the shoreline. The water was so freezing! Typical NZ background, cows grazing along the river, huge mountains in the distance. I did ok, it was pretty choppy and I killed my knees wake boarding. Good to know I could still get up though. The girls were real good too. Seems like they don’t get out on the boat much, but they were still real good. The rest of the day we just lounged around, it was another day off, so we napped and relaxed the afternoon away.


March 17, 2008

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! We took the train in to Wellington this morning to see the city and figure out my Indonesia visa at the embassy. Fun day! I really enjoyed taking the train in for the day with all the business types. We sure did a lot of walking/wandering around the city figuring out where stuff was. There is this huge botanical garden in one area of the city (near the Indo embassy) that we had to walk through, and then you can take a cable car down town from the top. We saw the wharf and explored a bit downtown once I got my visa squared away. It happened to be St Patty’s Day so we went to a few Irish pubs to have some Murphy’s. The pubs were packed in the middle of the day with live bands and everything. Fun, but we both missed St Patty’s Days at home with all our friends. Buzzin, we stumbled back to the train station and made the 5:30 train home. Quite a day.


March 18, 2008

Same old, same old today on the farm. Ian really trusts us to drive the truck up to the fields and move the fences to feed the sheep and cows. We’re getting good too! I could never be a farmer, I would get too attached to all the cute ones! I have only been working on the farm 4 days and I already have my favorites. In the afternoon, Heather and Ian helped us out on finishing the roof on this deer shed. We didn’t get too much done, but we started the job. The boards have rotted through from the rain, so we’re supporting them and making an eve so the water runs off the roof instead of pocketing up in different places. It was our international night to cook dinner for the family tonight and we made killer venison fajitas! Oh they were so delicious with all the fixings, and apple crisp for dessert. Not quite an American or an English dish, but I love my Mexican food! It was a hit! That night, all the sheep were put in the sheep shed as they will be sheared by a shearing company bright an early tomorrow morning at 5! Oh they were so loud all night! A million hooves all tramping around on wood planking at 3 AM, imagine how we slept!


March 19, 2008

This morning was an early morning! The sheep shearers came and got setup at 5 and started shearing by 7. It was crazy to watch them shear the sheep though, glad we got the chance to see it. 4 guys shearing at different posts, 2 girls sweeping up wool (separating bad and good wool) and then one guy sorting the wool and packing it in bags. A big production! Some of the shearers were really good, fast, no cuts, and no squirming sheep, and others were not so good. A younger guy was sure having a hard time.

We woke up this morning and shifted the fences for the cattle and sheep. Later we helped Ian feed bales of hay out to the deer. The stags were in there with the does, so we kind of had to play it safe and watch out for the feisty stags. It’s still crazy to me to see so much deer just hanging out together in a fence. They are so prized and hunted at home. After the stock work, we finished up what we could on the deer shed roof and then we were done for the day.

Our next big venture is to another woofing farm on an island in the Marbolough Sounds on the South Island. I’m really excited that we’ll actually be making it down there. It’s quite a lot of logistics that we’re still figuring out, but we’re leaving tomorrow! Ahh! I don’t do well with this sort of planning, but I’m sure it will all work out. The farm is a small family farm of colored sheep (whatever that means!) and mussels. Should be neat. Their place is pretty remote too as they can only be reached by a small boat. Onwards to the next big NZ adventure….