Jan 2008

Kia Ora everyone!
It is a beautiful sunny saturday afternoon here in Hamilton - about 30 degrees so I am welcoming a few moments in the air conditioned internet cafe. Just so you know that is not a complaint! I know y'all are suffering back home! Alot has been happening lately, so I will share some of it with you.
Yesterday we had to start feeding silage to 2 mobs of calves because it is so dry! That was something different for me - wearing shorts and a tank top in the tractor to feed cattle, usually it is insulated tough ducks! There hasn't been a decent rain shower since before Christmas I believe. What was once impossibly green has turned a bit brown and dry! The dairy farmers production in the Waikato is 40% down from last year, so that is bad, but the price for milk solids is so high right now that they are able to stay afloat. At work lately I have just been doing weeds (Ragwart is the bane of my existance), making a rock garden, drenching heifers and calves, sorting bulls and sending them away, waterblasting and painting the fence around the house. We are trying to get everything looking good around the house because the wedding is in less than a month. It is not at our house but a lot of friends will be staying there and the sunday pool party will be there. Hopefully the pool is ready, we are waiting on the tile man to do that then we can concrete around it and get some water in it.
So I have just been plugging away working and spending as much time with my friends as I can. Some of the ones who have been here longer are getting ready or have already gone home which is sad, we were such a cohesive group - so everyone who leaves is really missed. Had some really bad luck a couple weekends ago when Tammy and I were driving my car through Auckland on our way back from Northland. We were on the motorway in rush hour and we were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic when we got rear-ended and crashed into the car in front. My car is a write-off, and the guy who rear-ended us managed to get his mangaled car right off down the exit, never to be seen again. We didn't have a chance to get a licence plate number or anything. I had only third party insurance which means it covers any damage that I do to someone else but not to my own car. So I have to foot the bill for that, but it is even worse for the guy in front of me because it turns out that my insurance won't cover him because it wasn't my fault and he had a NICE car, very expensive posh one that is probably about 10 times more expensive than mine.
But I am thankful I have great friends here. Katrine a Danish girl has lent me her car for a whole month while her father is here travelling. It is a very very dodgy car, but it works. Tomorrow I have to drive it to Auckland and meet her and her dad at the airport where they are coming back from the South Island.
Anyways, I will go. Hope you all are great and I am ready for some emails that tell me all about what is going on with you!
Love,
Gill

Hi,
I am in Russell today! It is the first established town in New Zealand in Captain Cook's era. We slept in Paihia last night and took the ferry across to here today. It is very beautiful - such a nice relaxed town where you could just sit in an outdoor cafe and read a book or look out at the wharf all day. Tonight we will head to the Kauri forest where we will apparently see some BIG trees! Like diamater of 10 m!!!!! That will be crazy!
I am on this trip with Tammy, who is a girl from Leduc, Alberta. She has been in NZ since May and is going home on the 16th. So we have to see everything before she goes! We went to Auckland on Sunday and spent the afternoon there - it is a happening city! We drove up to Kaukaupakaupa and spent the night at Pauline and Mark Norrish's. Good to see them again - the next time we will meet will be the South Island Trip that is coming up not soon enough! We think that we will get on a bus trip to go all the way up to Cape Reinga - where the Tasman Sea and South Pacific come together because that way we get to drive along 90 mile beach and not have to worry about getting my car stuck. The tour we have picked out also offers sand dune surfing which is something we definately have to do!
My memory card on my camera ran out yesterday I still have 3 months left! I will have to buy another one..... another expense! It is very expensive to travel I have found out - if I wasn't working 40 hours a week there is absolutely no way I could have seen half the stuff I have. So yes, this is me endorsing AgriVenture - fantastic program.
Anyway speaking of moola, I better get off the internet here. More of Russell to see today! Hope everyone is well and not shivering too badly in the cold Canadian winter. I'll think of you when I lay on the beach tomorrow. |
Cheers!
Gill