My first Car:)

Since going to the mineral pools, Hannah and I dropped off the car and endured an 8 and a half hour bus journey to Tauranga. Here our host, Megs, picked us up with her 2 kids, Samantha (17months) and Alex (5 years). It’s been a very fun-filled 10 days here on the farm so far. I’ve learnt a lot about the organic and permiculture principles and realised just how much us humans consume chemicals. Not a very nice thought. Stuart and Megs (our hosts) want to live off their farm completely and hopefully be able to do this in 5 to 8 years time. They have a few hectares of land and have two steers, three cows, 5 goats (now actually just 4 since one went to the slaughter house not so long ago), 7 chicks, a rooster and several different vegetables growing as well as an orchard of orange and apple trees.

Just to keep it a bit brief, Hannah helped put up a net for the chicken pen, we’ve all helped out around the house (especially since the first 6 days for us here were the end of the summer holiday so we had to baby sit. The house was in such a state), we took a whole day to clean the carpet with a hired washer….very hard work but the carpet looks great now!, released the chicks into the pen and cleaned out their small pen which was inside (yuck did that stink or what!?!?!?!), re-potted several seedlings, watered the plants, fed the animals, cleaned the shed and barn, lots and lots of weeding and at the moment we’re attempting to dig out two tree stumps! Lots of hard work but lots of fun since there is another girl here from England called Caroline and she’s crazy!

One thing that was very funny (though only after we had sorted the problem) was when one of the cows escaped! We had to get it back into its enclosure because if a car hits a cow, you, as the cow owner, are liable for all the damage! So it’s almost dark and we have to convince a “tank” on four legs, with a mind of its own, to walk back into its pen. Well, that took A LOT of hard work: running, talking, shouting, tripping over all sorts of things and flapping your arms! But luckily it only took us 30 min because by this point it was pitch black outside (the irony being that it was overcast so no moon to lead us!). By the next morning she had escaped again and we had to do the whole thing again! But this time it went a lot easier since the night before we had realised that talking to her calmly really helps!

Every Thursday is a free day here on the farm, so Hannah and I went to see a mechanic about cars he had on sale, went to see the organic shop our hosts started up last year in a town called Katikati followed with a lovely relaxing day on the beach! Just collected shells, walked along the beach and slept on the beach. There were several different types of shells and the water was really nice and warm.

For those vegetarians, sorry, but the other night we celebrated a milestone: fresh lamb from the farm! It was gorgeous. At least we can rest assured that the animal had a bit of a happy life…

On Tuesday we went to test drive a car and decided that we were going to buy it. YES, that’s right….buy a car! Hannah and I had come to the conclusion that since you can buy a second hand car and insure it and register it for a reasonable price, we would be better off buying a car than relying on public transport. The buses here only bring you to the main cities but when you want to go to some place about 20kms out of town, you simply can’t. They don’t have local buses except in the big cities. So you have to take a tour, as shuttle bus or a taxi. It’s really frustrating and gets really expensive!

So yesterday was my big day! Hannah and I bought a car, got it insured, registered and changed the ownership… We didn’t have to pay any tax because apparently all the tax is in the petrol (even though that’s A LOT cheaper per litre than in Europe!). It’s my first car so I’m still a bit giddy about the whole thing! I’m like a baby with a lolly! I can’t stop saying “we got a car, we bought a car!!!!” I must be driving everyone insane here! We got a Toyota Corona, 1989, white, station wagon (if that means anything to anyone!). Will be putting on a photo real soon! The connection here at the farm is really slow, so I’ll wait till I get some broadband connection to upload some pictures. I have tons of them!

Tomorrow we’re going to a protest! Exciting stuff! People from around the area and the town Katikati, are protesting to get a bypass built around the town because there are too many trucks coming through the town. We’ll see how it goes. I’ve never gone to a protest! It will be interesting!

Happy birthday to Louise and Candice! Hope you guys have/had a blast!