The Life of a Farmer

We have been in New Zealand for two weeks now. It seems to have gone by at a steady pace as we have been enjoying every minute of it. Although, as we look ahead, our time seems to be escaping us! Only 9 weeks left for us to fit everything in! Yikes!

Alright, better get to it! :) Wednesday the 13th we arrived in Whangarei planning to meet our next host at the bus stop. We forgot to ask what they looked like or to tell them what we looked like. People would pass by and we weren't sure if it was them or not. Eventually, an older man with skin tanned by long days in the sun, strolled up to us with a lovely smile on his face. We were relieved that Keith had found us! After taking us for a little drive around the town and him and Courtney racing up the steps to a gorgeous view of the whole city, we knew this would be a wonderful visit!
Keith and Jill are a lovely older couple who have been all over the world (Jill has visited 73 countries as the president of Girls' Brigade!) while maintaining their humble farm of 160 head of cattle and 40 sheep. They have four children who all have families of their own, two of which live in their own houses on Keith and Jill's farm. Their grand kids would occasionally come over and help us with the different jobs we were given. The whole family is very close and there is much love all around.
An average day on the Clarke farm would look like the following: 7am start waking up and head to breakfast and tea at 8am, work until about 10:30am and stop for morning tea and biscuits (cookies), work again until 12:30pm and stop for lunch (also called tea), then work until about 3:30 and come in again for afternoon tea and biscuits, then either stop for the day or do some more work until dinner at 6pm. whew! Lots of tea! But we are hooked on it with milk and sugar!! We also had the option of coffee or Milo (a hot chocolate beverage) but normally we just had tea. They valued this time of fellowship and saw it as more important than getting the work done. They were very wise and took the opportunity, when the situation arose, to share their wisdom with those around them, whether it was us, their grand kids or their own children. We were so blessed to be amongst the wise and experienced.
That first day, we were eager to get to work right away and didn't want to waste a moment! Therefore, after a lovely lunch with tea and some good fellowship, Keith and Jill were more than happy to give us a job right away! Into the garden we dove! For a couple of days, we helped Jill pull weeds from the garden. Waking up the next day, we were already sore just from pulling weeds! Man, has it been a while!!! Our next job was helping Keith shift his cattle from one pasture to another with the help of is trusty dog, Del. Next up, we moved dead branches from one pile into the burn pile, straightened some metal boards, fixed fence lines, and swiped weeds. The majority of our time was spent swiping weeds. They are these huge rushes that grow along the creek bed which have huge roots that take up a lot of the creek. Our job was to swipe them with a hockey stick looking tool filled with weed poison that would kill the weeds in three weeks time. Their Granddaughter Adelle (21) joined us in the weed swiping for a day. The time passed by quickly as we walked along the creek bed together swiping and talking away. More hands make light work!

On our day off, they dropped us off at Whangarei falls so we could hike from there into the town basin, which is about a 2 hour walk. It was a beautiful walk along the river, enjoying the shade of the variety of trees that made up the forest.

Sunday afternoon, after joining them at church, they took us to their beach house on Tutukaka Harbour. It was a beautiful bay where we swam all day with their granddaughter Ella (9) and rested in the sun. Trina fell asleep in the sun and got a bad sunburn, but it's healing nicely.
Whangarei was plum picking, driving the 4 wheeler, enjoying a motorbike show, ice cream, eating Jill's yummy cooking, swimming, bush tramping and meeting a couple from Canada who were also staying with Keith and Jill. We stayed with the Clarkes for a week and Wednesday saw us in the car with Adelle headed back to Auckland where we would stay the night and catch our flight to Dunedin!! While in Auckland, we stopped at Moustache one more time, met a friend of a friend (Annie) who is going to Uni. in Auckland and visited once again with the lovely Miss Alice! Now we're off to the airport for our next adventure in the South Island!

We are learning so much about different types of hospitality, how to be a polite guest, what to do with weeds, different ways we can serve and much more! We look forward to what other adventures the near future holds!