Oct 2007

I am in New Zealand!!!!
It was very sad to leave Britain - all my friends and my parents again. But once I actually got on the road (or in the air I guess is better), it was ok. I think I will be going back in May, after a stop at home to see all my Canadian peeps! The journey from England to NZ was LONG!!! But if you look on the globe those 2 countries are like the two furthest apart on the world. Once I get back to Canada I will be able to say I have been around the world (even if it is only by air!)
Anyways, I arrived in Auckland along with 38 other young people on Monday, and got whisked off to Hamilton Airport Hotel where the orientation seminar was to take place. The next 2 days we learned all about NZ, we had sessions on laws, driving atv's, agriculture, kiwi culture to name a few. There are 7 of us Canadians on the North Island, 4 from BC, me from Alberta, one from Saskatchewan, and one from Manitoba. 6 of us live within an hour of each other on the island. I am in a really great location - in the west wakito area. There are 4 of us on farms within 10-15 minutes of each other. 2 from Denmark and 1 from Germany. So we should be seeing a bit of each other over the next couple months as Agriventure organizes all sorts of events for us while we are here. Every wednesday night is pub night where we all meet up after work to catch up. In november there are 3 white water and blackwater rafting trips, then in feburary is the big 2 week south island trip, which I am already signed up for.
So Scott and Jodi, my host "parents" picked me up on the wednesday. They are 24 and 28 years old, so living with them is like being back at university, it's fun! We haven't eaten a meal at the table yet! Jodi is a teacher in a nearby town, so she is away during the day. We live on one of 2 farms that Scott owns. The other one is 5 minutes down the road. Now I will tell you about the job.
When you are a dairy farmer (what Scott and his brother and dad used to be), you rear the calves apart from the cows then you keep a portion of the heifers you want to keep for milking. But what do you do with those heifers when you are so busy milking like 500 cows twice a day? (There are tons of huge dairies around here)
answer: you send them to us!
What we do is take care of the heifers from many different farms on these two farms (350 and 400 acres). The acres are all divided up into paddocks (some bigger than others) and we shift the different groups of heifers from one paddock to the other. It sounds easy but there is quite a bit of thought involved because you don't want to ahve two groups right beside each other, and when it is wet, you can't have them in a steep paddock, and when you shift them you have to be really mindful of the power source, so you don't kill it for the rest of the fences, and you don't want to overgraze one paddock and undergraze another. So I have just been going out with Scott the past few days, then today was my first day by myself on this farm, and I did everything right, so I have been handed the reins and I am in charge of 300 heifers!
It is quite easy to move them though, they are so energetic and curious that I just have to get the right gates open and they follow me in and Mac (my dog Scott has given me for my time here) brings up the stragglers. Because the heifers are all other peoples we kind of have to cater to their demands like drenching (that is like giving ivomec) and weighing each heifer every 6 weeks, but they are all so docile that it is so easy to work with them. So every morning Scott goes to the other farm and works there and I stay at this farm and do the heifers here and drop herbicide granules on weeds that I find. It's so great.
The weather has not been great, rainy since I arrived pretty much, but it doesn't make it less beautiful. It is so green! I thought England was green, but this is something different! I sometimes forget where I am, then I see like palm tree looking trees and waterfalls in the paddocks and I remember, wow, I am in New Zealand! The house is quite big, 5 bedrooms and the one side of it is all like patio doors- glass and the doors are kept open during the days. Why not? No flies to get in!
There is a nice big pool just outside the house, but we haven't got it up and running yet. Hopefully soon! So yes, it has been an eventful week.......full of events..... Haven't got my sports sorted out yet, but hope to be doing yoga with Jodi, and maybe play soccer. Scott and Jody have bought a car for me to use while I'm here, I just pay the insurance and the gas. 1993 Nissan Bluebird, it's pretty sleek! I think I'll be putting the klicks on it heading to the beach on my afternoons off!
That's about it for me! Now that I have updated all of you, bring on the emails, and return the favor!
Bye for now!