Thanks for the emails from everyone! Sorry i havent updated this for a while - we have been out in the back of beyond working on a farm on the south canterbury plains.
The farm is about an hour south of Christchurch. Its a sheep farm with some crops and alpacas, cattle, hens and 4 dogs, and a cat. Its owned by a couple - a typical farmer type bloke (Lindsey) and his wife (Margaret) whos an ex head teacher. They are really batty, and generous, but arent really into getting work done so it can be a bit hard going- they tend to talk a good job (well, Margaret does) - and when you finally get on with it you dont get much instruction!
The house is a typical farmhouse house but has no central heating only a wood burning fire in the dining room. Its really cold especially at night and first thing in the morning. There is a tv too! so we can watch coronation street - tracey barlow went to prison last night.......................(NZ is a bit behind in quite a few areas not just tv)
Theres about 250 hectares here and 600 sheep, 15 cattle, and about 20 alpacas, - these are my favourite animal. we feed them every morning.
The last week has been really busy and we've done heaps of work here. Rich has fixed up part of a collapsed barn which is over 100 years old - thats why the end had collapsed. I have done quite a lot of painting. We have also done heaps of 'farm' work - rounding up sheep with the quad and dogs, working in the shearing shed, feeding the cows, sheep, dogs,chickens and alpacas every morning, putting up fences, tidying the farm, cleaning up alpaca poohs, fixing the veg garden....soooo much stuff........its been great experience. I also learned how to ride a quad motorbike with gears! We have been working pretty hard every day although today we only worked half a day because we started early sheep shearing (fortuately i didnt have to shear!). Rich also got to drive the tractor - but it was obvious that i wasnt allowed anywhere near it -because im a girl!
The couple who we are staying with have had quite a few people stay over the last year so they are well geared up - they have a beer fridge that we can help ourselves to every day after work (they stock it up).The beer here is better than the beer in oz i reckon. The food has also been really, really, really good - loads of it and all homemade stuff - i will be massive by the time i leave here. Its not always prep'd in the most hygienic conditions tho! i think it would make most foodies cringe - or barf...
We havent been too far from the farm really. Only into town and to visit another sheep farm. The views from here are amazing: the southern alps and mount hutt are only a few miles away over the fields. The land here is very flat too so you can see for miles - except when its foggy and you cant see more than 5m. The sunrises and sunsets are really cool - i have seen more sunsets.
Theres also possums here - they live in the massive hedge out the front. Theres lots of mice too. I think they live in the 4x4. When we first arived we went out around the farm in the 4x4 and i saw a mouse run into the back where i was sat. At that point i gathered that Margaret and Lindsey were pretty laid back, no fast moves, kind of people............
Anyway we are planning to stay here for another couple of days and then head back to christchurch and then to our next place next week...i think...........
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