Saturday, November 14, 2009
Brrr, where's my jersey? I'm friesian!
Well, we’re back in the swing of farm life!
We’ve been staying and helping out at another farm for the last two weeks. We're just outside of Motueka, which is about a half hour drive from Nelson. This time we're at what is called a “lifestyle farm” here – 50 acres of land and some cows, sheep, horses, chickens, cats and dogs. The young couple who own it, Ivan and Canada, are about our age and we get along very well with them. They also enjoy good food, wine, cold beer, and relaxing in their hot tub on the deck – what more can you ask for?
We’ve been doing lots of different jobs on the farm and helping Ivan and Canada get it established, since their farm is less than a year old. From shovelling horse poo to building rock gardens, painting fences to clearing brush and scrub, we’ve been helping where we can. In exchange, we are getting a place to stay and wonderful home-cooked meals. Canada has made us many things we’ve never had before, including pavlova (a New Zealand dessert that is like a huge meringue with whipped cream and fruit on top) and crème brulee.
Ivan and Canada have also been tour guides, showing us around the area here. They took us to a local sheep farm to watch the shearers work their magic shearing the sheep. We also spent yesterday in Golden Bay, a two-hour drive north of here, where we visited a town full of hippies. While we were there we caught a few salmon, had them hot-smoked, then enjoyed a picnic on the beach of fresh smoked salmon, bread, cheese, and spiked cider. Mmmmmm!
Our plan is to stay here until mid-next week, and then hit the road again. Not that we will be going very far. Craig’s parents, Lynne and Dave, arrive in Auckland on Monday, and will be joining us to travel the south island the following Tuesday. It will be nice to see familiar faces from back home, as well as enjoy the goodies they are bringing us from Canada!
We’ve been staying and helping out at another farm for the last two weeks. We're just outside of Motueka, which is about a half hour drive from Nelson. This time we're at what is called a “lifestyle farm” here – 50 acres of land and some cows, sheep, horses, chickens, cats and dogs. The young couple who own it, Ivan and Canada, are about our age and we get along very well with them. They also enjoy good food, wine, cold beer, and relaxing in their hot tub on the deck – what more can you ask for?
We’ve been doing lots of different jobs on the farm and helping Ivan and Canada get it established, since their farm is less than a year old. From shovelling horse poo to building rock gardens, painting fences to clearing brush and scrub, we’ve been helping where we can. In exchange, we are getting a place to stay and wonderful home-cooked meals. Canada has made us many things we’ve never had before, including pavlova (a New Zealand dessert that is like a huge meringue with whipped cream and fruit on top) and crème brulee.
Ivan and Canada have also been tour guides, showing us around the area here. They took us to a local sheep farm to watch the shearers work their magic shearing the sheep. We also spent yesterday in Golden Bay, a two-hour drive north of here, where we visited a town full of hippies. While we were there we caught a few salmon, had them hot-smoked, then enjoyed a picnic on the beach of fresh smoked salmon, bread, cheese, and spiked cider. Mmmmmm!
Our plan is to stay here until mid-next week, and then hit the road again. Not that we will be going very far. Craig’s parents, Lynne and Dave, arrive in Auckland on Monday, and will be joining us to travel the south island the following Tuesday. It will be nice to see familiar faces from back home, as well as enjoy the goodies they are bringing us from Canada!
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