Home away from home
10 juillet 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C
3 months of travelling have just vanished and today we found ourselves back on the farm at the house which we moved into 11 and a half months ago. Before leaving Geraldine this morning we emptied and filled up our van's water and waste for the last time. This included using small bowls under the grey waste pipe to ensure we got every drop of waste water out that we could. We arrived back at the house at around 11 and headed over to see Bruce, Candy and the girls. It was so good to see them but also great how both girls didn't seem to be affected by the time we'd been away and still took to me like they always had which was quite reassuring. Bruce's mum had come to stay so we sat on the lounge floor talking about how our travels went. After catching up we went and collected our car which had been victim to quite a few birds since we left from the workshop, so our first job was to give it a good hose down. Luckily we have so many high pressure hoses on farm! After emptying our car we decided to head down to Timaru to do our first big shop in what feels like a lifetime. We ended up deciding to buy a TV for our room. Although we don't mind sharing a house with Jono he's not always great at sharing the lounge TV. I don't think it's intentional but we do get little say in what we watch. We had a TV and DVD player at our second farm and found the library had a great array of series and films to watch. We managed to find a Samsung one in a second hand shop and got given a random $10 off the price. We went and selected probably way too many DVDs, seeing as you can only loan them for 1 month maximum, but it feels good knowing that we will have our room to escape to if we just need some space. We spent way too much money in tbe supermarket after that and probably have enough food for a month but it felt exciting to be able to not plan every day's meal exactly as we have been having to do in the campervan to avoid waste. Bruce also got our house a new fridge which is huge compared to the one we had last year so we can buy even more things to freeze and store in there which will save on petrol going to the shops all the time. We treated ourselves to some Pak'n'save pizzas which are similar to the homemade style pizzas you get made in Asda back home. It's become our treat meal for whenever we need a pick me up or are celebrating something like coming back to the farm. By the time we got back it was quite late anyway so it was nice to just chuck pizzas in the oven knowing we had so little to do cooking wise. Jono has bought an Xbox 1 in our time away so Nick wasted no time trying that out with him and I can see both of them will be spending a lot of time on that console. We're a little unhappy with the bedding provided, our bedding from last year has been used elsewhere, so I think we will be buying ourselves a new duvet when we head up to Christchurch to take the van back. With it being winter we definitely want to be warm here. I still can't believe that we are back. Time has flown by and it feels strange knowing we will be working again so soon. We don't have start dates yet but hopefully it won't be too long until we're back into the swing of working life. We miss routine!En savoir plus
Goodbye camper, hello farm life
15 juillet 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C
The time has come to blog weekly once again. Soon we will both be back in to the swing of working so time will just melt away with most of our free time in the evenings spent simply eating, showering and going to sleep. We spent most of Wednesday emptying out the van and moving back into our old house. It's hard to believe it's been almost a year since we first came here and it feels strange to now be moving back in. Cleaning the camper was one of the least favourite jobs of the week but it wasn't as bad as unpacking. That's always been my least favourite job, for example I don't mind going food shopping but it's the coming home and having to unpack it all that I really dislike doing. We found homes for everything and got creative with some cardboard boxes that are now being used as bedside tables (one of our tables from last year has magically disappeared). Our towels seem to have been taken by Jono and trashed. I'm surprised Candy hasn't noticed this but the navy one is now covered in bleached out spots and the remaining red towel is currently on the garage floor after being used to mop up petrol. She's usually quite aware of where her belongings are so I'm surprised she hasn't twigged that these towels have gone astray. Luckily she went and bought us new ones and she plans on buying us new pillows as well as there is only one free one on farm available. We managed to get the van looking ship shape and on Thursday we drove it back to Christchurch to drop it off. Our car luckily passed it's warrant of fitness this week so we didn't need to borrow the farm car to get it back up there. You feel so tiny driving in a little car after months of dominating the road in a Ford Transit. It took longer than expected to go through everything to return the van. We did have a lot of chit chat with the ladies going on but I hadn't expected it to take 2 hours. We were worried about some scratches on the window that we weren't sure if we'd caused but they didn't seem too fussed and because of a huge chip caused by another customer the whole window screen would need to be replaced anyway. I think she appreciated our honesty really. We headed to K Mart after and picked up a cheap duvet and cover that will hopefully provide more warmth than the bedding we had been supplied with. After being in the country a year we had to order NZ licences but these unfortunately didn't turn up to the farm so we also visited the AA centre to get new temporary licences issued and order new ones to be resent to our address. Hopefully these ones do arrive. Soon we won't have much time together so we used some of this week to start working out what we wanted to see and do around the country in summer. There's some things we missed out due to the weather so it would be good to get to see these things if possible before leaving. The rest of the week has been spent enjoying just relaxing and not having to do much. We've signed our contracts and negotiated pretty good pay rises as well as cooked our favourite meals that we've definitely been missing. I wouldn't say I'm that happy to be settled down again but it is nice to have a different change of pace and lifestyle after a while on the road.En savoir plus
Helping with the calves
22 juillet 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C
Nick's has started working this week where as I'm not needed just yet. It's a little frustrating as I feel at a bit at a loss with what to do with myself but it's seeming like I will back into the swing of it full time next week so I should appreciate the time now. I worked in the cowshed on Monday afternoon logging all the new heifers that have come back onto farm. Heifers being the cows that will be having their first calf this year. They've all been retagged with their new cow tag number so my job was to select each number they had as calves and pick the new cow number for that individual animal. Without doing this the system wouldn't bring up all that cows information as they come into the shed when it reads it's ear tag. It was a rather mind numbing process and I'm pretty sure I spent two days dreaming of numbers worrying if I'd entered any wrong but it all seems to have gone okay. Nick's found doing the calves on his own a little challenging so I'm surprised Candy hasn't started helping yet as the numbers are increasing quite dramatically daily. I decided to go out and help him one afternoon which I think he appreciated because the pump isn't working at the moment so the milk has to be put into the feeders on the pens with buckets. With me there he could stand inside the pen and I could pass the full buckets over the gate to him rather than he try to jump over fences with buckets of milk. I was also able to spend time cleaning all the equipment while he went off and finished doing his other jobs. I'm glad Candy and I will start working soon so that Nick will get some help. Bruce and Candy had a meeting with the farm owner this week so I looked after the girls for one day and took them out to the beach. Despite it not being that warm we had a great time playing in the sand and going to the nearby playground. I've realised how much harder it is to be out with them now that Eliza can walk. At one point both kids ran in opposite directions and when it's the weekend and packed with people it was a little worrying and hard to keep tabs on both of them. It's definitely going to take some getting use to! It's made me realise how awesome it is to come back for another season and look after the same girls. It's another good insight into this stage of their development and definitely some practise for the future.En savoir plus
I've missed that view
29 juillet 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C
This week I'm back working and both Nick and I are definitely not being eased back into it. We've both had pretty full on weeks. The number of calves has just rocketed and were not even at the cows due date yet. Luckily yesterday I picked up our third calf rearer from the airport. It was a mammoth day for the girls in the car but unfortunately Bruce wasn't able to go and collect him as planned. Turns out he's from Somerset which makes you realise it's a rather small world! Candy fell asleep at the wheel last weekend and crashed the car on the driveway, so lucky that it was on the 30km/h driveway rather than the highway. On Monday I took the car to be assessed and there's only two panels on the whole car that aren't damaged from the impact of the electrical wires on the fence. She's pretty pleased that she didn't snap the wires and only took out a fence post, I'm mostly happy it happened to her and not me! The company applied some beautiful yellow tape to hold the front bits together and we've lost a wing mirror so driving to the airport was harder than usual. At least it gave Tarran, the new calf rearer, a very easily identifiable car to look out for! He definitely laughed when he saw it and realised I wasn't joking! He's a very friendly chatty guy so I think he will fit in well as long as he doesn't talk too much when things need to be done. I tried my hand at making apple pie for the first time this week. Candy had picked the last of the apples from the tree outside so I made up 3 pies, one to have for tea and two to go in the freezer. It's surprisingly easy when they always use ready made pastry that we store in the freezer. I'm enjoying going to work each day and loving seeing Eliza with the calves. She is so into them and goes right up to the fence with her hands through the bars to pet them. When we first came back Bruce and Candy talked about how she is refusing to say any words but in the short time I've been with them I've got her saying loads just by talking about everything I'm doing and her copying me. One morning I had her saying; all clean, all gone and all done. Bruce didn't believe me at first until he heard it. I have also taught her to call me Nanny. He was adamant there's no way she can say that after so long of her not talking until one day this week she was shouting "Daddy" over and over until I walked in and she smiled and shouted "NANNY". Bruce just looked at me and said "okay now I believe you". It feels bad to say it but I feel their approach of asking her to say things all the time wasn't working for her. She's definitely more prone to copying so I'm excited to see how her language develops while I'm here. At 5am on Thursday a black Labrador turned up at the shed. It was put into Tika's kennel, much to her disliking, and it was my job to find out where it came from. Luckily through the power of Facebook by that evening we had found the owner. It had travelled a good 3km to get to our cow shed so I'm happy we found it as it was a much loved family pet. Candy, Grace and I went to watch Mama Mia 2 as a preschool fundraising event so Grace dropped the dog off on her way to that which was helpful. We watched the film in Geraldine cinema which is the cutest single screen cinema where most of the seats are old comfy sofas and armchairs. I had to bake a cake for a cake raffle at the event and made a great lemon drizzle cake. It was great up it the point where I took it out the tin and the whole inside fell out everywhere, oh did Bruce laugh! It still tasted awesome and I now like lemon flavoured cake it seems. The sister will be happy! In the end I used a packet vegan chocolate cake mix, something Candy bought by mistake, it turned out rather well and went for $15 so that's something!En savoir plus
Logo design brought to life
5 août 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C
The coolest thing in the world happened this week. Last year I spent a day designing a logo for Bruce and Candy and this week boxes of hoodies, shirts and hats turned up all embroidered with that logo and it feels amazing! It's so much more exciting seeing your design brought into the physical world than just on a screen and what a thing to put on the CV when we're back. Bruce organised a big meet up in the shed and I picked up $170 worth of pizzas to celebrate the occasion as he handed out all the new uniform to everyone there. I opted out of having any shirts because I just felt I wouldn't wear them. I also didn't really want to have to try on sizes infront of everyone. I've still got a hoodie, wooly hat and baseball cap. They also got small kid size hoodies so the girls have some to wear too which is just adorable. It was nice to sit and socialise with the people I've always waved at but haven't been introduced to. It's hard when you're so separated from the farm which is why I enjoy going on walks around farm with the girls because at least I get to speak to people briefly. I'm pretty excited that this year I've been given a pair of gumboots from the garage for when we do go on these walks to protect my shoes. It was funny when I did get them and we headed over to the calf sheds where Nick and Tarran where working and I said "look I've now got gumboots!" to which Tarran replied saying "Charlotte, you're English and those are wellies, not gumboots, wellies." I guess being around the girls is really rubbing off on me and the terms I use. The day I start always calling trousers pants will be a very sad day indeed! Bruce is always saying I've got such a kiwi accent now but I just can't see the difference. It's quite refreshing and comforting almost hearing Tarran talk in his strong west country accent and does remind you so much of home. I've been on lots of trips to town this week to get things for the farm as we all get use to being in calving once again. We're running it differently this year and trying each day with just two calf rearers to see how that goes. This means Candy has 4 days off, two with the girls when I'm off and two days where I'm working still so she doesn't have to look after the kids. I think she's the only mum on the planet who gets an opportunity like that and she could achieve so much on those days if she wanted to but at the moment I think she's just enjoying relaxing with Netflix. It is a bit tricky if she's home on those days as the girls want to go to her so I'm trying to take them out as much as possible so she has some space. I do hope she makes the most these days as I do feel she will regret it is she doesn't after calving is done and she's back to caring for them full time. We will see as calving progresses if this plan manages to last but for now it seems to be working.En savoir plus
Teeny tiny calves
12 août 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C
We had our first twin calves born on the farm this season this week. They are so tiny compared to the other calves and it's sad that they are two boys so they won't be kept. Even if they were one girl and one boy the girl couldn't be kept because it will be born without any reproductive organs which is rather strange. Only twin girls would be kept. One wasn't doing well at all so in the end it had to be shot which was pretty sad but he would have been killed at 5 days old anyway so it didn't really make a difference. It definitely is a cruel industry if you're a boy. Unfortunately that is what has to happen if you want to eat dairy products, there's just no need for all the bulls. We truly are experiencing some amazing sunrises and sunsets and I realise it's one of the main things I've missed about being here and having to go to work so early. You realise how much of the sunrise and sunsets we miss back home just by having such an obscured view from being in the city. The only things blocking the view here are the odd tree and mountain. It's incredible to see daily and most of the gallery on my phone is filled with pictures of dramatic colours in the sky. We've had a bit of a colder week with some frost on the ground for most of the days and rain in the air. I've been able to dress Eliza in the adorable rain coat I got her last year so that's one bonus to the weather. It's definitely not as cold a winter as they thought it would be. It's awesome getting to spend so much one on one time with Eliza when Cassidy is at preschool and seeing her personality shine through more and more each day. She is definitely all about making you laugh and is just a joy to be around. This is the best age I've decided where everything is exciting, everything is new and everything has the same level of amazement as the next thing. She gets so much pleasure out of the things you overlook as an adult from a shadow, to the wind blowing the trees, to her reaction every morning as she sits at the table eating breakfast and I open the curtains to reveal the sunrise and get the same "wow" said every morning because it really is wow to her. It's so awesome to see and so easy to overlook when the two of them are together so I'm so grateful we have some one on one. Cassidy had sole attention at her age so it only seems fair that Eliza gets to experience some too. I'm pretty excited that I managed to get her hair into pig tails for the first time as well this week. Candy's reaction when she came home for lunch was amazing. A year on and we're still battling with toilet training Cassidy and have had a bad week of "accidents" this week. She's fully aware when she needs to go so we think it is a behavioural thing for attention. Preschool seem to think it's to do with me being here but we just don't buy that when Candy has had the same issues most term times before we came back. We do feel it's something to do with preschool where it seems to happen most so hopefully we can all work together to help her get to grips with this fully. We're not even going to try with Eliza yet as it's just too much to deal with and Candy does think she started Cass too early. I am getting such a good glimpse into being a parent and it's like having a practice run at it. There's definitely some techniques I will try on my own children that we use but then there's others I know I won't be using so it's all a great learning experience for me.En savoir plus
Reunited after 18 months from home
19 août 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C
Oh hey parents! After 18 months away from home this week my parents turned up to Bruce and Candy's house to see us which was amazing and surreal at the same time. 18 months just seemed to dissolve away and it was like we've never been apart. This trip has been planned and talked about for so long that I couldn't quite believe it was actually happening. It was so lovely to introduce them to all the people they know about and they can now put some faces to the names. It took the girls all of a minute to take to them and be happy with them being in their home. Cassidy even drew them a picture at preschool which was pretty adorable. They just visited for one night this week on their way down south and will be back for more days next week. It was Nick's day off so he got to spend some time with them alone and even though they only went out for lunch in the end because it was raining I could tell he really enjoyed seeing them. It's a shame that because of the rain the mountains weren't visible during their visit but hopefully next week they will be able to see them. We've managed to put an extension lead through our bathroom window so at least they can use the heater in their van for the chilly mornings. We had a great evening together and it's absorbed any homesickness I had been feeling recently. My sister sent them over with a handmade card which both mum and I burst out laughing to in Candy's kitchen when we looked at it and soon realised it wasn't the best card to look at infront of children who then want to know what you're laughing at. Bruce and Candy also had a visit from their friend Josh this weekend so I spent a lot of time with him and the girls, exploring the farm and realising how daunting it is having to cook for a vegan for the first time. I put honey in something and soon realised honey comes from bees which are animals so had to question if this was okay. Turned out he's undecided on honey but didn't eat it anyway so I felt pretty bad about that. I did discover that most fruit and veg isn't actually vegan given the fact they have to bring in bees on trucks to the green houses to pollinate the plants so technically it's using animals in a farming kind of way. It seems like a tricky topic! I had an interesting experience on the highway where I had to pull over and slow down to allow a house to be driven down the road. I'm use to seeing huge silos or vats coming down the road but a whole house was a new thing and something I didn't really think happened anywhere but America! How naive I was! This week Eliza has learnt to say "cow". It's the most exciting thing ever when you live on a dairy farm and now we can't drive anywhere without her pointing out all the cows. Cassidy reacted to the praise that I gave Eliza for saying cow by saying "ask me if I can say cow Charlotte!" Oh the competitiveness of siblings!En savoir plus
Lovely time spent with my lovely parents
26 août 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C
My days off this week have been amazing because I got to spend them with my awesome parents. It's been a great opportunity to show them around this part of the country that we've been calling home for over a year. Knowing that they hadn't really travelled inland to the mountains that was definitely the first thing we had to do together. We drove the 1.5 hours to Lake Tekapo and unlike last week we had glorious weather for the trip. On the way we stopped at Fairlie to share some pies and enjoy a morning coffee before carrying on our journey. We split 3 pies but somehow I got short changed and only ended up with three quarters of a pie when I put my 3 pieces together. We eventually made it to one of my favourite bends in the road in the whole country where you get to see the surreal turquoise blue waters of Lake Tekapo stretched out infront of you as you descend down the last hill to the lakeside. We pulled over to take some photos and just to soak in the scene and having been here 3 times now I can tell you it doesn't get any less amazing the more times you visit. It's a breathtaking view and that's what I love about NZ is that I know most of the things we have seen would take my breath away just as much as the first time we saw them. We stopped by the Chruch of the Good Shepard and being an expert now of visiting this place I managed to get us some photos with no one in them by standing on a rock while everyone else took pictures including the crowds of tourists. Mum bought a new fleece in Fairlie and I think she was so glad she did when we headed up to the observatory at the top of the hill and stepped out the car. The wind was bitterly cold to remind us it's still winter but the view was 100% worth it. You can't not be blown away (quite literally) by the scenery of this country and its been so awesome that I got to share that feeling with my parents. I think they loved the day as much as I did especially when we escaped the wind to head inside the cafe at the observatory to have some drinks and cake. I felt bad that the next day we didn't do anything nearly as exciting but at least that gave them time to clean out the campervan ready to drop it off the next day. If New Zealand wasn't so far away and we could family visit regularly I think we'd definitely want to stay here. I could spend a lifetime exploring this spectualar landscape. Maybe everyone should just relocate here! The rest of the week was uneventful in comparison. I took Eliza to a music group for the first time on Tuesday which she loved so we will be doing that every week from now on. It's only $3 and we get morning tea after so it's even great for me as well. Nick and Bruce have managed to put a huge milk tank on one of the trucks which means as long as they have another person helping them the calf rearing team can split up in the mornings and get the job done by lunch time rather than by the end of the day. This frees them up for the afternoon to milk. It's working well so far and with more calves out in the paddocks I think it will be the best way forward as long as there's enough work in the afternoon for them. We have a lot of staff at the moment so Nick is a little worried but I'm sure it will be fine. Bruce knows we are here to work and there's always odd jobs to do. I can't believe we've done over a month already, time is just flying by!En savoir plus
Calves, calves and more calves!
9 septembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C
It's definitely feeling like calving! Nick has quite a few mobs out in the paddocks now to go and feed with the feeders. The cows are still giving birth so there's a steady flow of new borns in the sheds too for him to tube feed and teach to drink. Eliza absolutely loves going to see the calves in the sheds and continually tries to reach out and touch them. She's giving Cassidy a new found confidence that she didn't have last year and slowly this season she's getting closer and closer to the fence. She's yet to touch one but I think she might do it by the end of the season especially after seeing Eliza do it so often without any reason to be alarmed. We had our first calf neighbours of the year when I got home the other day. Our house is right next to paddock 1 where they have been put and it's so nice to see them all running around from our window. They get so excited by grass when they experience it for the first time so it's very sweet to see them enjoying it. Some come up to you at the fence for a good scratch or to suckle on your fingers hoping to find some milk. You can tell Nick truly loves and cares for the calves when you see him with them. We've befriended a German couple, Anja and Simon, who are working on farm for 8 weeks. They've been here a month all ready but I hadn't really met them until recently. They invited us over to dinner at their house where they made what they called German noodles. Essentially it was homemade thick pasta with a white style creamy sauce which was full of cheese. They made 3 bowls full and went through 1.5kg of flour and 1kg of cheese! It was the most dense and heavy meal to eat but tasted pretty good. The salad we had with it helped make it feel less heavy even though it was only for a brief moment. We really enjoyed getting out and socialising for a change. I felt bad though when we were an hour late because I couldn't leave work until 7pm. We've started playing a German card game with them as well which initially was hard to understand, especially when the written rules are in German only, but we seem to now be getting the hang of it. I think we will have a few nights playing cards while they are here as something to do in the evenings to unwind and to enjoy each other's company. I plan to cook for them another week and I'm trying to work out what is a good British meal to introduce them to. I'm not sure what to make yet but it will definitely not include kilograms of ingredients that's for sure!En savoir plus
2 months back on farm
16 septembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C
It's quite impossible to believe that we arrived back on farm 2 whole months ago. We only have 2 and a half months left and that's both exciting and super scary at the same time. We've become so comfortable in our little bubble of Geraldine and what is familiar that it will be very hard to walk away from this place knowing we aren't coming back this time. At the moment we are just trying to make the most of being back here and enjoy it while we can. The weather has been very up and down this week with freezing days followed by afternoons of intense sunshine. It's hard to work out how to dress a child for all possible weather outcomes and you end up taking whole new outfits with you just increase we get that sudden heatwave or downpour. I've been trying to make the most of Cassidy being at preschool and having that one on one with Eliza. It's actually pretty awesome to see her get to play with everything she wants to and not have to negotiate with an older sister to try and get it. I think it's made me realise how important that is for her and how it's only fair when Cassidy got so much undivided attention before Eliza came along. Developmentally she's also at a very different stage to Cassidy so it gives me time to sit down with her and teach her so many new things. One thing that is beyond brilliant is her counting. From us playing hide and seek all the time she can now count to 10 without any slip ups most of the time. Admittedly she counts at 10 times the normal talking volume because of how you play hide and seek but it is so exciting that she's counting before she's 2 when it took Cassidy until she was well over 3 to start. I'm not deluded about it though and do realise she doesn't have a concept of what those numbers mean in terms of quantities but the fact she knows the words will just make learning that association so much easier. She's even learnt the "ready or not, here I come" part which is beyond adorable. She does believe that she needs to hide herself while she counts but at least we know she isn't peeking while counting behind the curtains unlike Cassidy who loves to peer through gaps in her fingers. We often play team hide and seek with Eliza and I teamed up against Bruce and Cassidy which is a rather entertaining way for us all to spend weekend lunchtimes with dad. The calves are still coming thick and fast and it's beginning to feel like the numbers will never end. Cassidy loves it when we spot them in the paddocks, especially the brown ones and the ones with pink noses. I told her that the calf in the shed was adorable the other day and she went around every pen saying "oh Charlotte look, that one's just sooo adorable" repeatedly. Such a parrot! Speaking of parrots, Eliza and I went to the playground together, despite the fact everything was wet, and visited parrot McKenzie for the first time this season who we met last year. She is so into animals that she was blown away by the fact he could say "hello" to her but she found it most exciting when he said "tickle, tickle". She spent the whole afternoon going up to people and tickling them while saying "tickle, tickle" in the same voice as parrot McKenzie.En savoir plus
Nick feeds calves, I feed lambs
23 septembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C
On Tuesday this week Eliza and I went to our music group after dropping Cassidy off and it just so happened that Bruce and Candy's friend Manda was there with her baby McKinley. She's a very down to earth, laid back woman and this has been passed down to her daughter with her parenting technique. McKinley wasn't at all worried about where mum was and was off toddling around the group going from mum to mum to get as many hugs off as many people as possible. After the session ended Manda asked me to keep and eye on her daughter and Olive, another child she was minding that day, while she went to go and pick up 3 lambs, as you do. Luckily the music group have a bit of a playgroup session afterwards so I was able to keep track of them all as they moved around playing with all the toys. The session did draw to a close and I was a bit worried because Manda wasn't back yet when we were asked to leave but luckily as we made our way outside she just pulled into the carpark. Eliza walked straight into the door and gave her head a big whack which has now come up in a beautiful egg shaped bruise. We went over to see the lambs in Manda's boot, which managed to settle Eliza, and as we were stroking them she invited us to come with her to take them to their new home and give them a feed. It was pretty strange driving up to a strangers house when they weren't home but it seems she's doing them a huge favour coming and feeding the lambs because they need to be fed 6 times a day initially. It took a while to make up all the bottles but soon enough I was able to give feeding them a go. It was such a cool experience and the girls were really interested in what was going on. McKinley is such a cruisy independent little one year old and she spent most of the time off on her own happily exploring the garden. It's amazing how little she cries. Eliza and I also visited Peel Forest this week after dropping Cassidy off. It was a beautiful day weather wise so I decided to make the most of that opportunity and go on a walk with her. It was an amazing experience because she really applied all the colours I've been teaching her to things she was seeing. By the end she was saying "yellow leaf, brown bark, green tree and moss". I also spent time teaching her the names of different types of plants and she fully engaged with the whole experience, even squatting down to get a closer look at things. Children are definitely like sponges and I feel so lucky to be a part of this key learning with her.En savoir plus
So many different daffodils
30 septembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C
And somehow September is over. I know every year most people say this but for me this year has gone and is going way too fast. We've done and seen so much this year yet it only feels like it started a week ago. Spring has well and truly hit the South Island and this is made obvious by the explosion of yellow daffodils in the garden. Candy and the gardener Dennis have planted so many different varieties over the years and it's always an exciting time to see them come up. I went out with the girls and we picked as many different ones as we could. The great thing is that there are so many plants with hundreds of flowers so as soon as these die we will be able to go and get some more. Spring has brought some glorious weather with it this week and I've been trying to get out as much as possible with the girls to enjoy it. It's half term for Cassidy so even walking around the farm or playing out in the orchard is a lovely activity for all of us. Plus the house is getting super hot now so it's not so fun staying indoors. We met up with Manda and McKinley again and visited a cafe called The Shearers Quarters. Neither of us had been before and we were so impressed by the place over all. It had a lovely cafe, play area, mini golf, a maze and a large amount of farm animals to feed. You don't pay to get in either which was a nice bonus. I treated the girls to some drinks and cheese scones as we waited for Manda to arrive. We ended up buying two bags of food and fed as many animals as we could. Eliza was in her element seeing as she loves animals, Cassidy not so much and would only throw the food through the bars. She's very wary of all animals even Tika sometimes. I don't think the goats helped with that fear seeing as they'd managed to eat through their metal fence and escape onto the pathway. One instantly ate one of our bags of food and we had to rush around to try and get the gates closed before they escaped out onto the road. The adults were huge and both Eliza and Cassidy were screaming about having them so close to us and trying to bully us for food, food we no longer had. McKinley, this small just walking one year old, wasn't fased at all by the goats almost 3 times her height. She was barging and pushing the adults out of her way to try and get the animal food on the floor for herself. It was quite amusing to watch and definitely something I won't forget seeinf. Also this week I made shepards pie for us, Jono and the German couple Anja and Simon who cooked for us before. It went down really well and we've had quite a few nights of playing cards with them since our last meal. They are leaving farm early next week so we had a leaving meal for them at the pub which was lovely. Everyone came so it was nice to sit down and socialise with all the people I don't usually get to speak to for more than 2 minutes.En savoir plus
Eliza's 2nd birthday
7 octobre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C
The gorgeous little 10 month old who couldn't even sit up when we first met turned 2 years old today. It's quite astonishing when you look back at photos of her from last year and see how much she has changed from a chubby baby to the little girl she is today, although she is still rather chubby faced! Candy was in hospital this week, all fine, but this meant sorting a cake for Eliza fell on me. I rented a horse shaped tin from the cooking shop in Geraldine to use and had to invest in brown food colouring that I know won't be used again. Eliza is a little obsessed with the horse Lego pieces they have so it seemed the most fitting shape. I spent a day and half baking 3 different cakes, using a ridiculous amount of eggs and probably my own body weight in butter trying to get a good cake. The struggle was that the tin took 2 cake mixes to fill but no where does it give any guidance as to how that affects the cooking times and temperatures. It was an incredibly stressful day and in the end Bruce ended up baking a packet cake mix at 9pm at night which actually ended up saving the day. The rejects didn't go to waste though because I cut the uncooked parts out and after adding some butter cream and icing they were consumed by the farm staff in the shed within an hour or so. Everyone seems to be quite pleased with the baking this year especially a brownie recipe I discovered that Tarran, the other calf rearer, has fallen in love with. He's always sad when my baking isn't brownies. I spent most of Saturday morning icing Eliza's cake and by the time Bruce and Candy came home at lunch it was more or less complete and they both loved it. It made all the effort, struggles and time worth it. Candy went out and bought food and decorations so on Sunday I decorated the front room ready for Eliza's party. As Candy and I put food on the table just before everyone arrived Eliza hopped up on the chair and looked incredibly excited by all the food infront of her and said thank you every time we brought another plate over. She wasted no time tucking in despite there being no guests yet. I guess that's allowed when it's your party! She had her cousins and the other children on farm come over and even though not many people came in the end she seemed to have an awesome day. Also this week Cassidy spotted her "favourite" calf of the season on one of our walks. He had a pink nose with a black spot in the centre of it. Her response was "Charlotte it's like the mole on your head", I guess she's a little right! It's just a shame it's a boy so won't be kept but she seems to understand this concept more this year. There's definitely a very sad reality to dairy farm when it comes to bull calves.En savoir plus
"I woke up like this"
14 octobre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C
Eliza's personality has been shining through this season and she's the biggest trickster going. Everything she does is to make you laugh and this week was no different. I could hear her awake in her room and I go in and there she is already in her dressing gown with a pair of trousers on her head covering her eyes and she just says "morning!". I had to run down and grab my phone to capture it on camera. She then refused to take the trousers off and ended up eating breakfast with them still on her head but with her eyes uncovered. She loves laughter and will do things like run and bounce herself off the edge of the sofa so she falls down repeatedly for 10 minutes just because you laugh at each and every time. My favourite one is when she emptys the Lego out and comes walking into the kitchen with a tubtrug on her head and you can only just see her legs at the bottom. Cassidy loves her doing this too and luckily there's two tubtrugs in the lounge so they will often shuffle around together looking like brightly coloured Daleks. It's really refreshing to see how much excitement and joy they get from simple jokes like this. The weather has been fantastic again so we've spent lots of time in the garden and out and about this week. Cassidy was a little envious of our Peel Forest trip that we took while she was at preschool so we went back there all together this weekend. The girls loved seeing all the deer through the fence that came over curiously as we pulled alongside them. We still had some sponge left from the disaster birthday cake making so Cassidy and I made a rather impressive trifle. Turns out neither of the girls were that keen on trifle so it looks like Bruce and Candy will be eating most of it! The rest of the tiny bits of sponge went to the chickens who were rather pleased by this. We also made some not very gingery gingerbread for the shed which Cass decorated beautifully with icing and sugar stars. On Wednesday all the farm went out for dinner with the owner Dave. He paid for the whole of our farm and the staff from the farm across the road to have drinks and dinner as a thank you for all our hard work this season. We've still got calves to come so we all guessed a day for when the last calf will be born. I think it's an actual bet but I'm not too sure. We went to a really amazing restaurant and Nick and I were very impressed with our lamb shoulder and pork belly meals. We shared a cheese bread fondue with Bruce for starter because it was just too filling for two people and a chocolate three ways desert between us two at the end. It was a beautiful meal with lovely people and although it meant we had quite a late night it was nice to get out and socialise with not only our farm but new people as well.En savoir plus
On call babysitter
21 octobre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C
The one good thing for Bruce and Candy is that we live on farm so when Bruce needed to pop out one evening for half an hour and Candy was out, I was asked to come over just to be in the house while the girls are in bed. I don't mind helping out like that and it hasn't happened before plus I was also able to come over in my pjs with my dinner and just sit there eating it while he popped out. It was basically what I would be doing at home anyway and it felt like he was back in no time at all. On Saturday I took the girls to see the Winchester rodeo and Bruce and Candy came along as well. I went to it last year with Candy so it was nice this year that Bruce could come along as well. Bruce knew a lot more about the events so I spent most of our time together with him explaining what was happening. There was a scary moment when a bull wouldn't go back into the pens after being ridden and it ended up charging at one of the people on horse back pushing the horse up against the fence. Not surprisingly after that the horse was very wary of all the bulls and didn't get more than 20m away when rounding them up. Sometimes they use the technique of releasing a second bull into the arena to try and guide the other one to show it where it is meant to be exiting. It doesn't always work and there was a couple times where they had up to 4 in there before they all left together as a herd. Eliza wasn't walking last year so this time it was a lot harder with a mobile 2 year old running around. At one point she went a joined two other girls in their gazebo and started playing with the play dough they had which resulted in their mum pulling out a mini camping chair for her to sit on alongside them. It was so sweet and it reminded me how much I love her confidence around other children and people. She did throw a few tantrums when I stopped her running into a whole other seating area though. Bruce paid for Cassidy to go on a huge inflatable slide that she had been begging to go on since we got there. After a few minutes we realised she was too scared to come down and it took us asking one of the older children who were on it to go down with her before she was willing to slide down. When she then begged to go up again we all gave a definitive "no" seeing as we were there for almost 15 minutes before she came down. It's amazing how easily they forget fear and past experiences sometimes. The girls and I have had the best Sunday today and spent almost 5 hours at the beach. I took us a picnic, blanket and all the sand pit toys to use and we all had a brilliant time. I do love how most of our best days together are free except for the petrol cost.En savoir plus
Lucky for another year
28 octobre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C
Exactly 364 days after I found a four leaf clover on farm last year I managed to find another one. Cassidy and I went to feed the chickens while Eliza was napping and the grass in the paddock has grown rather long and when I glanced down there it was standing tall above the grass. Cassidy found a 3 leaf clover which she was very proud of and told everybody about which was pretty sweet. Both have been put into a glass with water on the windowsill for everyone to see. We also found a gigantic egg in the chicken coup which will definitely end up being a double yolker. I do feel rather sorry for the chicken who had to lay it! The quail is still hanging out with the chickens but I'm pretty sure it's a male because we've seen no nests or quail eggs being laid. He's just adorable to watch run around the garden with his top knot shaking all over the place. This week the girls and I took mum and dad on the pleasant point steam train. Eliza is now obsessed with trains, a phase I'm sure most children go through. We saw a train the other day going past and she turned and in a questioning voice said "Thomas?" Thomas is her favourite train followed by James. They own a lovely wooden puzzle of all the character from Thomas the Tank Engine and she often wanders around holding pieces from it. She's learnt to say Gordon and Percy too. I caught her calling Diesel "naughty" and she went and put him on the naughty step for a time out. The steam train was pretty exciting for them both and at the end of the track they had some stalls selling lovely homemade things, a bouncy castle and free face painting. Eliza hates anything on her face so she really didn't want to try it but Cassidy ended up returning on the train ride back as a unicorn. Candy's sister Cheryl has come to stay this week and gosh is she lovely. The girls adore her and her fun bubbly personality. We ended up going with her and Bruce to the A&P agricultural show. It was a huge farming event with stalls selling everything you could possibly need as well as horse riding competitions, fun fair rides and best animal competitions. Eliza was in her element with the animals and Cassidy was just happy that Cheryl was there too. We saw sheep getting shorn and watched young teams Irish dance in a competition. Bruce, Cheryl and Cass went on a ferries wheel ride that seemed to go on forever while Eliza and I watched. The whole time Eliza was shouting "Cheryl" at the top of her lungs which made Cheryl's day seeing as last time she saw them Eliza wasn't even talking.En savoir plus
She loves her animals
4 novembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C
Eliza loved the trip we took the other week to the Shearers Quarters where she got to get up close to and feed the animals so this week after dropping Cassidy off we went back there just the two of us. The whole time we were there we didn't see another visitor. Luckily we didn't have any escaped goats this time, instead it was pesky chickens who kept trying to reach up and peck Eliza's fingers for food. She didn't seem too bothered by it though and just turned around and shouted "no icken" at the ones who got too close. We sat in the cafe with the farm's cat and had a babychino and latte while Eliza tried and failed to explain to the cat that she needed to "hop down" from the table and sit on a chair. She loved feeding the donkey as much as she did last time although since then she's insistent that horses say "eeyore". A big change for us that happened over the last couple of weeks is that we now have a house to ourselves. Jono quit and after not working for 6 weeks has finally moved out. He didn't sort most of his stuff out though or do any of the cleaning he should of done when leaving which was rather annoying. After he said he'd taken all he wanted I just gathered up and chucked the rest of his stuff outside and Bruce got some of the farm boys with a trailer to pick it up to either put in the bin or burn. We found $58 dollars in change though which I consider our tip for having to do that. It also turns out that he hasn't been paying his electricity bill even though we have been paying him for what he claimed was two thirds of what he was charged each month. It does make us wonder if those numbers were accurate so I did ask to see statements from him but seeing as he hasn't responded to my last 5 messages it wasn't surprising that we didn't get a response to that. Luckily Bruce caught the power company coming to turn off our power and there and then managed to switch the power into his name for us and tell them where to find Jono now to get payment. The only good thing is that we haven't paid Jono for October yet and don't intend to until he proves that what we paid him in the past was correct. It's a shame it ended quite sour but after 6 weeks of him being home 24/7 not working we are quite relieved to have the space to ourselves even if it is a mess. He had until this Friday to clean it and hasn't so Bruce has notified him that professional cleaners will be coming and the bill will be taken out of his final wage. It is nice for us both to come home and relax without someone else there, even if we don't have a sofa to relax on at the moment. On a real plus note I managed to get a whole organic free range chicken reduced to $6 so we had a rather tasty roast dinner this week which was pretty special. With us working so much most days we eat simple easy meals so it's nice every once in a while to have treats like this.En savoir plus
"The caber toss will be on in 10 guys"
11 novembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C
New Zealand is such a mismatch of cultures and countries and this was even more apparent this week when Bruce invited me to come with him and the girls on my day off to the Scottish Highland games. I imagine it was brought over with the early settlers to make the Scottish feel more at home in this new country. The weather was lovely for the occasion and it was nice to spend time with the girls and Bruce and not actually be working. I felt I could relax more and enjoy the day. On the way we stopped off and grabbed some camping chairs to sit on which worked out really well because we could leave the chairs in our spot whenever we wanted to have a walk around or look for food. Rather impressively one of the competitors managed to beat the record for the shot put and even had a go at beating the world record but didn't quite manage to unfortunately. One man also managed to toss the caber over so fast that it split down the middle when it landed so that ended the caber toss early unfortunately because they didn't have any spare that were heavy enough for the top competitors. Seeing women doing the caber toss was super impressive and there was even a lady who must of been 80+ giving it a go. On Monday night we had to pack up and empty the whole house, every cupboard and every draw too. Even the bed and our new $40 sofa had to come out. This was so the cleaners could clean everywhere including the carpets and walls on Tuesday. Amazingly they got it all done within 6 hours which I found rather impressive. We haven't completely unpacked yet back into our new clean home and there are a few bits that they missed but it is lovely to be living in a clean environment after 7 weeks of mess and filth. Knowing it was Jono's responsibility to clean before leaving we refused to do anything to help out of principle so it had gotten quite bad. Also this week I actually got paid to go shopping with Eliza. One of the women who work in the farm shop RD1, that we visit often and the farm buys a lot form, is pregnant and going on maternity leave as of this week. Bruce asked me to put together a baby gift box for her full of bits for the new baby and her as well. It was quite an exciting job to do and I was so pleased with the end result and colour scheme I ended up with. Especially seeing as the gender of the baby was being kept a secret. Apparently it went down very well with Nicole, the expectant mum, so that's the best feeling.En savoir plus
Oh how I love these girlies
18 novembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C
Since Eliza turned two she has been going to preschool on a Tuesday only. I was initially worried as to what this meant for me job wise but it's actually proved to be a great day for me to deep clean the house, get up to speed on washing and do any other jobs that are needed. Eliza was given a preschool branded t shirt, something all the new children get or can buy. Luckily she got a really nice green one because Cassidy's ones are blue and yellow. Cass is a little jealous though but that is to be expected. I did a mini photo shoot of the girls before heading to preschool on Tuesday and I just adore this picture of them hugging. As Eliza's grown you really can see the sisterly love between them, at least until one of them hurts the other. In those moments of hugging it is just pure love and joy. Cassidy is so desperate for Eliza to love her so it's even more lovely that they are engaging more in these moments together. Nick and I are realising this week how common and easy to find 4 leaf clovers are. At the moment we have 5 in a shot glass and with the one I found the other week I think that means we have a lot of luck going on. On a sad note our car is up for sale. It really is all coming to an end faster than I'm liking. I cleaned out the inside while the weather was good and just decided to do the outside as well on the farm's wash pad with the high pressure hose. As soon as I got to the pad the weather changed and a storm started to roll in. The wind was so strong that it blew all the spray from the hose all over me and without a hair band for my hair I was pretty much scrubbing the car without sight. I got soaked from head to toe but we did have a lovely clean car afterwards. I got it too our garage just before the real rain started and gave it a wipe down to get off the dust we'd collected in that 200m drive. Luckily as well there was a brief window of better weather so I was able to take it out and shoot all the photos needed for the advert. This was the first car Nick and I jointly owned so it's rather sad to see it up for sale online. The girls and I got to help out Nick and Candy this week while they treated calves. Eliza demanded we go on a walk after we got out the car one morning so we headed over to the calf sheds to say hello. Turned out they were really struggling to get the calves treated and checked as well as trying to operate 2 gates with only 2 of them. We were positioned on one of the gates for about 45 minutes until other people turned up to help. It was quite nice to be so involved in Nick's side of the farm for once although it was a bit challenging trying to manage two small children at the same time but somehow we did it!En savoir plus
Making memories
25 novembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ 🌧 13 °C
It's quite hard to believe that there is only one week left until we leave the farm. It's exciting, nerve wracking and sad all at the same time. I've been trying to do as much as possible with the girls this week which isn't the easiest with Cassidy at preschool most of the time. We still try to fit in at least a walk if there's time in the afternoon. We've had a lot of rain so that means it's also been harder to get out and about. While we were travelling I bought a puzzle for Cassidy that was quite advanced and this week she managed to complete it without the picture for help within 45 minutes which was pretty good going. Admittedly I was falling asleep on the floor but I was still rather impressed everytime Eliza said "wakey wakey Charlotte" and I saw how many more pieces she'd put in. Eliza was also very kind and got off the rocking horse and came right up to me and crouched down so our faces were almost touching and said "Charlotte, turn?" She's getting so considerate now a days and is definitely much better at sharing. After I said I was okay she hopped back on and started rocking again. I'm realising more and more how much I love these girlies and how hard next Sunday will be. Cassidy keeps telling me not to worry and that she will get her mum to save me some of her birthday cake for when I come back. It's become quite impossible to hide any more that we won't be back and I do think she's suspecting that this is more of a major goodbye than last year. I've also come to realise how much I appreciate Tika. She's helped me get over a fear of dogs and I couldn't have asked for a noisier dog to do that. I've learnt to accept the barking and am now fully comfortable with her being around me. We definitely have a bond that I will miss. I got a bit experimental this week and made ginger flavoured cupcakes with a cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg butter cream icing. They went down so well at the shed which meant it was a success. In RD1 this week Eliza saw the picture in the photos on the wall and said "Nick?!" which was followed by "Cheryl?" who is her auntie. I do hope she's thinking the guy who looks about 30 is Nick rather than the old chap in the photo! After visiting this shop 2-3 times a week it's weird to realise that I will miss the people in there as well. The lady I made the baby box for had a boy in the end so I'm glad I made it very unisex despite Bruce saying he was adamant that she was having a girl. Eliza has now started telling me she loves me when I leave in the evening, almost as if she can tell that there is only a week left. It's utterly adorable and so natural to tell her I love her too.En savoir plus
A truly hard, heartbreaking goodbye
2 décembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
Today was hard, harder than I'd ever imagined. We've had a rather busy and productive last week. Every evening has been filled with planning, packing or cleaning that it has kept us from thinking about the reality that we were leaving. We managed to rearrange our days off with Bruce so we had a day together to do one last trip to Tekapo. It was a rather miserable looking Tuesday but 20 minutes away from the lake it was as if the mountains were holding back the rain and we entered a little bubble of glorious weather. All the lupin flowers were in bloom which added a burst of colour to the shore side of the turquoise lake. We had a lovely time walking around, eating our last Fairlie pies and visiting the gift shops we've never gone to. We had planned to go out for a meal but after discovering the restaurant didn't open until 5 we decided to get the homemade pizzas from Pak'n'save instead. On Thursday night we had a joint goodbye meal out with the farm staff. Another guy called Shane who use to be Bruce's 2IC but had just come back to do milking was also leaving. Despite half the farm not coming we had a nice evening and were even gifted a $40 voucher off the meal by our friends Tarran and Grace. Bruce and Candy paid for everyone's drinks which was also completely unexpected. Then came Friday, my last day with the girls. I was in a rather low mood because everything I did I realised would be the last time I do it. The last time I do breakfast, the last time I do their hair and even the last time I drop off and pick up Cass from preschool. I gave the teachers some chocolates and had an emotional goodbye. They want me to go home and train to be a preschool teacher and then they "will get me back into the country". When we came home Bruce and Candy were there as well. Cassidy gave me a rock that says "world's best nanny" on it. I gave them the presents I'd gotten everybody as well as a card I wrote to the girls. Bruce cried when he read it and then it started to hit me that this is actually happening. When I left that night I gave the girls massive cuddles and had a brief emotional goodbye with Bruce. He thanked me but started crying and I had to leave before I started as well. Yesterday we were able to go to Peel Forest between cleaning so Nick could have his first go at riding a horse. We had a great time and Nick really relaxed into it by the end. We walked through the rivers and streams that wind through the forest and then at the end of the hour our horses sprinted us up the hill back to the stables. Nick was behind me and was shouting continiously for me to hold on as I bounced up and down off the seat. It was pretty cool but I was glad the horses got some well deserved food and water after that. Then came Sunday and we had a mad final clean of the house. Luckily we didn't have to leave until 11ish but it was very close to the wire when it came to cleaning and doing washing. Bruce took us to the bus stop with the girls because Candy was away for the night. We had a coffee together then waited on the bus stop. There was a heavy vibe of sadness over us all. As I hugged Eliza I started crying realising this was really happening. This started Bruce off and we all had as many cuddles as we could through the tears. Then the bus came and we made our way upstairs to a window seat. I then saw Cassidy was crying too and it tore my heart to pieces. That was the hardest bus ride I've ever taken and I couldn't stop crying for almost the whole 2 hours. Somewhere amongst the sadness we picked up our hire car, went shopping and drove out to Akaroa. We treated ourselves to a meal at a waterside bar which had a girl with a beautiful voice singing live. As lovely as it all was I was feeling as grey as the sky and I think it will take a long time to get over that feeling. We just have to try and throw ourselves into the experiences we have the opportunity to do and try and make the best of it. I feel honoured to have loved and been a part of those two girls lives and despite how I'm feeling right now I wouldn't change the time we had together for the world.En savoir plus
On the hunt for little penguins
3 décembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
It's beginning to sink in more that we have left and that this is the time we need to spend doing what we set out to do. Today we had a penguin tour booked for the evening so we spent the day exploring Akoroa town again which started with some lovely Crepes for breakfast in the town. Akaroa was first settled by the French so it has a strong French style of architecture so it was nice to see this has been carried through into the cafe we visited. We went to all the shops around town and although we'd done this before we still enjoyed strolling around together. After 4 months of working with only last Tuesday and Saturday off together it's lovely to just be in each others company again. We headed back to the campsite to make an early tea so we would be ready in time for our tour. After a quick easy pasta meal we met up with the tour operators back in town. We were divided into two small groups so their was actually only 8 of us in our mini bus. The drive to the site took us up and over the hills which gave some lovely views out over Akaroa. We ended up at a house right near the coast of Flea Bay. We discovered that the Little Penguins use to nest on the peninsula but after the introduction of predators they pretty much disappeared. The couple who built the house here discovered a couple of penguins nesting under their house and decided to help encourage the population to come back through building nest boxes and predator trapping. They now have over 1000 successful breeding pairs of penguins on their land which is just incredible. All the farm lands nearby have also helped with this process. The land is also private so no one can turn up with torches and disturb the penguin's natural behaviours. When we arrived we were greeted by the local sheep who help keep the grass between the nesting boxes and the shore short, making it easier for the penguins but also harder for predators to follow their tracks. As an added bonus we were able to feed the sheep before being given camouflage overjackets and binoculars to wear. As we walked up to the view points we saw many nesting boxes, some with chicks or an adult peering out from inside. We moved as quietly as possible to not disturb them too much. From the lookouts we could see the penguins bobbing on the water waiting for the cover of darkness to come ashore. It was amazing watching these little penguins jump out the water and on to the rocks. Our guide was very worried about not disturbing them so as soon as it looked like the penguins were going to climb up the bank to their boxes we retreated back to the house so nothing would be in their way. It was an amazing, informative tour and it feels good knowing some of the money we spent is going to continue to fund this great project. The best thing we learnt is that the penguins here are a much lighter blue colour on top compared to the ones in Dunedin down the coast. This is because the sea here is fed by glacier water so is much lighter in colour and amazingly overtime the penguins who arrived here changed colour to adapt to this colour change. How cool is that?!En savoir plus
Swimming with the Hector dolphins
4 décembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
Hector dolphins are the second rarest Oceanic dolphins after their close cousin the Maui so it was quite a privilege to discover that here in Akaroa you can swim with them. They are also adorable at 1.4m in length and weigh 50kg so rarely can jump out the water. We'd booked onto an eco tour but unfortunately Nick received an email yesterday saying it was cancelled due to a problem with the boat. Luckily we were able to book onto another tour that did have more people on it but it didn't disappoint. We were kitted out in wetsuits and little shoes before having a briefing about the experience. It wasn't long before we were heading out to sea and from the bow of the boat I spotted two dolphins in front of us. They didn't want to interact with the boat though so we carried on searching. We soon came across a pod that seemed more playful and hopped into the water making sure to be at least 2m a part so we don't scare the dolphins. The water was initially very cold but you soon adjust to the temperature. Then for 45 minutes we swam there with them racing in and out between us occasionally coming up for air. The difficulty is that from the water you can only see them when they surface but the people on the boat could see them all the time. They'd be shouting where they are but more often than not we wouldn't catch a sight of them. We did have masks but they said we shouldn't wear them all the time and should only hold them to our eyes to look under when one was near. I couldn't get the hang of this technique and I wish I'd come back to the boat and just put mine on properly. I also took my phone out in a waterproof pouch but while out there I thought it was leaking so had to really pay attention to keeping that above water. I did manage to get some amazing photos with it though so I'm glad I did have it. I will be buying a new pouch though. It was an amazing experience none the less and I'd love to do it with bottlenose or common dolphins in the future who are known to be a bit more playful. The Hector dolphins were inquisitive but they didn't want to come too close really. After being out there for 45 minutes we had to come back in because that's how long you can be with one group at a time. The pod swam infront of the boat almost half the way back to shore before we lost sight of them which was quite exciting to see. We discovered that the other group who went on another boat only saw a couple pf dolphine so it sounds like we had great luck with our pod of 15 or so. We had an amazing day and ended it by grabbing a few things we wished we had bought the day before.En savoir plus
Everyday's a great day with Nando's!
5 décembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C
After a lovely first start to our travels it was time to head back from Banks Peninsula to Christchurch. When we travelled down to Akaroa we visited the view point at the top of the hill only all we could see was about a metre in front of us because we were smack bang in the middle of a cloud. Luckily when we left today we had glorious sunshine so we were able to see the view for the last time in all it's glory. That's what I love about NZ is that even when you've seen things before when you see them again it still has the same wow factor impact on you just because the scenery is that beautiful. We realised before leaving farm that we needed some booster shots for Hepitis A and Japanese Encephalitis. We'd managed to book an appointment for today for 2pm so we had a good amount of time between leaving and our appointment time in Christchurch. We headed into the city and visited some shops we've been meaning to visit including Lush to get shampoo bars which are so much more conviennient to use when travelling. Being in Christchurch we couldn't not stop at Nando's for lunch. It's definitely a favourite restaurant on ours but every time we have it abroad we realise more and more how much we miss the UK version. Mainly because they do more sides back home such as sweet potato wedges and creamy mash. Eventually came the time to go to our appointment and we soon discovered that there is a shortage of the Japanese Encephalitis vaccine at the moment in NZ. Turns out that there was a case in Bali recently so it seems everyone has been panicking and getting the vaccine. The lady rung other centres across the country on our future route for us but everyone had either sold out or only had a couple left which would be used that day or the next. It's a bit of a shame because if we got the boosters we would be protected for 10 years however she doesn't think we are at much risk and we can get the booster at home to still get that 10 year protection if we are back in the next couple of months. It's mostly a concern if we are going to wet marshes or rice fields which we will just avoid now we know we aren't fully protected. She gave us the Hep A one though and it was the nicest, least painful injection we've ever had. We had around 10 jabs back home and all were so painful in comparison so I wish we had this lady back home! We got some advice on pills to take with us and insect repellent so we came away from the appointment feeling rather prepared for the next steps of our adventure. Seeing as we had Nandos for lunch we decided just to have sandwiches for tea and go back to the top 10 cabin to relax and play some cards. It wasn't a very exciting day but it was very productive in terms of achieving things that are essential for our upcoming travels from New Zealand.En savoir plus
Racking up the KM's
6 décembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C
I guess when you've spent 3 months travelling the country and only have a select few things left to do on each island you end up with days like today where you spend all day driving. At least the road between Christchurch and Picton does have some lovely stretches of scenery on it. We set off reasonably early and every time we pack up the car I realise how conviennient it is to be travelling this way rather than by bus. We can shove everything in and not worry too much about fitting things into two bags each. We are also able to carry cooking equipment and food with us so we can save money in each Top 10 by making our own dinners. We'd already decided to stop in Kaikoura for a break for lunch and to stretch our legs. I forgot how much I love this little town and I feel rather impressed by how it's brought itself back to life after the devastating earthquake that struck the region making it non accessible from the North. We visited our favourite gift shop here, with it's awesome artwork on the side of the building, to buy a few gifts mainly for each other. When you're in a sea side town you have to have fish and chips so that's what we shared for lunch as the rain began to catch up from Christchurch that we had thought we'd left behind. We'd hoped to get this amazing chai flavoured ice cream they had in a shop last time we were there but unfortunately the shop wasn't selling it now so that was a bit of a shame seeing as we loved it so much before. Unfortunately though it was soon time to hop back in the car and begin the next leg of the journey up to Picton. It was rather impressive to see how much the road has continued to be rebuilt on the stretch above Kaikoura since the last time we drove it and how it had nearly half the sections of road works and even some laybys and pull ins set up now for people to see the seals on the rocks below which weren't there before. Eventually we made it to the Picton Top 10 and after setting up in our cabin we went over to the kitchen to cook. To our wonderful surprise their was a teacher in there who had made a huge pot of rice and chilli concarne and offered us some seeing as all her 27 kids had eaten. It was an amazing gesture and just perfect to not have to cook after such a heavy driving day. We were in and out the kitchen within 20 minutes and I couldn't thank her enough for her generosity. Some people are just awesome.En savoir plus