Gills adventures

Hello!
I'm sitting here at the computer on a beautiful sunday evening having just arrived back from another successful weekend trip with my trainee friends. I haven't updated this blog in a while so I will give you a quick recap on what I've been up to.
Because there are so many of us trainees around here AgriVenture has organized a few weekend trips for us because everyone has every second weekend off (but lucky me, I have every weekend off!). The first trip was to the White Island off the west coast, it is NZ's only active marine volcanoe. It was an hour and a half boat ride out to it, then we had a guided tour around the safe parts of it. We had to wear gas masks for part of the trip because the air is is acidic that it makes breathing difficult. It was a pretty fun day trip. It was 5 trainees birthdays that same weekend so we rented out a pub and a backpackers hostel and had a massive party that night. The next weekend was one that most people worked but those of us who had it off climbed a nearby mountain for a beautiful view and went to Hamilton for some Christmas shopping. This weekend we just had was another AgriVenture organized one and it was by far the best thing ever!!!
It was called "Blackwater Caving" and it was just an awesome trip! We did a 5 hour trip in groups of 8. We were outfitted head to toe in spandexy wetsuit type material and helmets and boots. We first abseiled (like repelling) down a hole 100m down into caves, then were hooked onto horizontal cables and whisked along and down deeper. All our helmets had lights on them but the guides made us turn them out a lot because we really didn't need them due to the glo-worms! There were so many they were just like stars in these caves. Did you know the glo-worm is actually a maggot and the flourescent quality is actually in their feces? The caves were like a labyrinth, some big spaces and some parts where we had to crawl through on our stomach. We had to jump off a cliff in one cave with an inner tube around us and paddle through the water for a long time. Our guides were pretty cool, they liked having fun with such an international group like us. We ditched the tubes and had to alternatively swim and walk through water for miles is seemed like, we went over a waterfall on a slide and had to stand under or behind a huge rushing waterfall that was almost deafining as we waited for our guides to help us one by one to climb the waterfall!! I thought it would be harder to do, but the rocks were different - they weren't slippery even when wet! So we climbed 2 waterfalls it was amazing and then somehow we swam/climbed up out of the caves into the daylight! It was so awesome! Exhilarating! Amazing!
I want to do that again! But it was quite expensive and I think we got a special deal because we are so many. But yeah, it was the best thing I've done so far!
After that everyone went to one of the fellow trainees Tammy's host family's beach house on the west coast. Had a bbq, soccer game (scandanavia vs. world) (World killed them!), beach party. Then today we just hung out on the beach, got sunburns all around, you know that old chestnut.
So back to work tomorrow...... It's going alright, but I think you may be able to tell from reading above that I have been living for the weekends. We have started to get some little calves (the smallest is 57 kg) coming in. This will be there home for the next 2 years till they become milk cows. They are so frustrating at the moment. I try to move them to a new paddock and they get near the gate and just SCATTER!!!!! It drives me bonkers!!! When I am not moving heifers I have been fencing, washing windows, clearing grass away from newly planted trees, hammering insulators onto posts, slaying weeds left and right. I think we are getting some more calves this week......more fencing I think.....more weeds....... Next weekend - camping trip to Cormandle Pennisula weeeewww!!!
Till next time!!!
Gill

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!

I made it back from my Scottish adventure last night after a long old day in the glasgow airport full of plane delays, late buses, and general confusion. But the actual trip was excellent!
My Aussie friend Ruth picked me up in Glasgow on monday night and we went bowling with her Young Farmers Club, then stayed at her placement that night. Her placement is on a B and B and sheep farm on Loch Lomond which is a pretty famous lake in Scotland. It was very nice, I got my own Caravan to sleep in! The temp dipped down to 2 degrees that night but I have discovered the wonder of electric blankets. I am going to get myself one when I get home!
The next day Ruth took me to the train station to catch my ride to Oban where I was met by John MacDougall's sister in law Barbara. Then we were off to Lismore! It is so beautiful!!!! Mountains and ocean and green grass. It rained off and on for my days on Lismore, but I think it kind of fit the scenery, I didn't mind it at all. I stayed with Barbara in the MacDougall house where John grew up. I walked all around the farm, saw where John went to school, and met some of his old buddies! Over the next couple days I met lots of relatives, did a bit of hiking and biking, drank lots of tea and ate like a queen. A very nice time, I must say!!! On friday I took the car ferry to Oban and spent a large part of the day looking around the shops and enjoying the picturesque coastal town. Lots of fisherman! Not too many tourist at this time of year, but I am told that during the summers Oban is quite a popular destination as it is called the Gateway to the Western Isles or something of the sort. Friday night I took the train back to Helenburgh to stay with Ruth again. Had a good night out on the town then had an interesting day in the Glasgow airport. As you probably know the airport was bombed this summer, so security is quite tight (which I'm not bothered about because I'm no terrorist). However, they seemed to think they needed to keep flight information a secret or something. Anyways, I ended up getting here and then had my first going away party last night.
The next thing to look forward to is only 8 days away and that is the arrival of mom and dad!!!!!!!! I would write more, but I have to go get ready for a tour of Belvior Castle I am going on today!
If any MacDougalls are reading this, thanks for the hook-up with your family, it was wonderful to meet them all and see Lismore!

Today is the day I make good on my word to MacDougalls that I would go to John's hometown!!! I have to go to work this morning because we need to move sheep while the foot and mouth ban has been temporarily lifted, then I am off to the airport this afternoon for my flight to Glasgow (which costed me £2 - there was some tax on that, but really, what a deal!). I am staying overnight near Glasgow with my Australian friend Ruth - she is on the AgriVenture program as well, then taking a train to Oban on tuesday morning where Barbara (John's sister-in-law) will pick me up. How exciting!
I haven't posted since I got back from Germany I just realized, but I don't really have time at the moment to update. When I get back from Lismore and have exciting things to write, I may try to fill some gaps. But for now, I must shoot off!
Bye!

Finally, a little uninterrupted internet time so I can finish off this recap! I believe last time I posted I ran out of time while talking about Hitler's Eagle's Nest. So that's where we were, and it was lovely - right on the top of a mountain, and you'd look out and see the tops of other mountains and you could even see into Austria from the height! But apparently, Hitler only used this house 14 times because he was very claustraphobic (which would be no good for the elevator ride up the mountain), and he was scared of heights. What a chicken!
From the eagles' nest we took a bus to a beautiful mountain lake called Konigsee (sp?) and spent a couple hours lying in the sun and enjoying the impressive surroundings. The lake was damn cold, I did not want to swim! Took a train back to Munich and that was our day!
Our hostel in Munich (Jaegres or Tigers as I called it) was pretty good I think, as I said before it was a 40 bed room, and mine and shannon's beds were right by the door. Super. The first night I got no sleep, cuz it was the weekend, and let's face it - get 100 or so young people together in a hostel with a bar - there will be a party, and people will be coming and going all night. But it was alright. I'd stay there again.
Because so many of the German words are so long and consonant filled, I got into a habit of reading the first two letters and the last letter and making up the middle bit, maybe it was impatience, maybe laziness. But it actually turned out to be quite a laugh. Everytime we'd see a complicated word, I would read it out in my own special way, and Shannon would correct me, as best she knew how. Yep, good fun!
The next day (my last full day), we took a train to Salzberg, Austria. There we walked and bussed around the city, saw some sights, ate some food, just had kind of a relaxing day. Salzberg is the birthplace of Mozart, did you know that? There are tons of statues and museums and depictions of him. It is a really beautiful city. My last couple days, I had started to budget my money a little bit, and I made it so I would have just enough euros to last me to get to the airport. So on the train trip back to Munich from Austria, I had about 9 euros (in coins mostly) to my name, enough to pay for a little snack (we called it dinner) and the transit ride to the airport the next morning. The previous day I had asked a train man what train ticket to buy to get to Salzberg and he said and that's the one I bought for the ride there and back. However, it became apparent that we had taken a different kind of train back (a faster, nicer one), so my ticket was invalid. When we were staying with Jens and Ester they said if you get caught without a valid ticket you have to buy an new ticket and pay twice the amount of it or something. So me with my 9 euros was not prepared to pay for this.
The train guy who told me I had the wrong ticket was so nice though, when he told me I had to buy a different one from him, he watched me turn to Shannon and ask to borrow money, and then he said, "13 euros.......special price" I still ended up having to borrow money, but I am not complaining! Thank you, nice train man!
The next morning we got up early and got organized, I walked Shannon to the Hauptbanhof as she was taking off to Berlin to tour around there, then to Colonge, then back to Frankfurt to fly back to Calgary on Friday. She was a great travelling partner, we had some fun!!! I went back to the hostel and made friends with 2 members of the Canadian national rythmic gymnastics team over our hostel breakfast of toast and jam. I took the underground to the airport and flew back to London Stansted Airport where I caught a train back to Melton. So here I am back. Ahhhhh, what a great trip and what wonderful memories I will have from it!
I went back to work today......boring, but necessary! I have an alright work schedule coming up for August, so should be able to tour around here a little bit more. It'll have to be by public transit or friends though, my orange van is not up to snuff.
So that was my trip in a nutshell. I heartily reccomend Germany to any and all of you reading this!
Bye for now!!