Off Once Again!

Well, I've been at this farm for a week and tomorrow we're off again! It's strange how the time passes so quickly here! Hannah has been here for over 5 weeks and I have been here for over 7 weeks! As a celebration of our last night here, Hannah and I decided to go to town and get us some ice cream. We got two litres of the stuff for just $3 (2 euros, or 1.20 pounds). The flavour is "Hokey Pokey" which is typically a New Zealand-ish flavour.....basically vanilla ice cream with honey combe (the middle of a crunchie bar) bits in it. It's really nice! Looking forward to that!

I've been getting up at 6:45 every morning and starting work at 8am and finishing at lunch, having every afternoon off. On Saturday we tried to go horse riding. I was the most experienced rider (haha! Haven't regularily ridden a horse since I was 10 years old!) so the idea was that I would look after Hannah and Jurek (a German Wwoofer staying here too). There were only two horses with shoes so we couldn't all go on a trek, so we decided to stay in the paddock. I sat on a grey horse named Apollo, Hannah on a brown horse named Peter, and Jurek on another brown horse named Ticket. These were trekking horses and boy did we notice! Ticket was willing to go and walk, and the other tow would just follow....or at least, Apollo followed while Peter just stood there! No amount of coaxing would get him going! Lol! So Hannah had a nice view from sitting on a horse, I had a bit of a ride, and Jurek had the most fun....oh well, it was interesting, because we groomed the horses and had to saddle them up too....which I hadn't done for like 14 years!

Yesterday we took the dog for a nice long walk! He doesn't get walked very often but then again he does have a couple of hectres of land to run about in! And he has 15 horses to chase as well as "playing" with 14 or so cats/kittens. The poor thing was dead tired though! It has been lots of fun feeding these cats....there are like 8 kittens and they are just adorable! Black, grey, long haried white, grey stripped.....all from the same litter! And I love the little runt....so much smaller then the others but what a personality! But then they do say that dynamite comes in small packages!

One thing to remember about this place is the red stains that get left on your clothes when you do your washing. The Iron content of the water here is very high as well as the Sulphur content. The washing machines, dish washers, toilets....anything really that has contact with this water has rusty blotches! So some of my whites are now....hmmmmmm....not so white! Had to use some not so nice for the environment chemical to remove the stains. Although drinking the water is safe....we drink the rain water....much better in taste! I mean, a mouthful of sulphur and iron isn't exactly mouthwatering, is it?

I apologise for not having any photos online yet.....all the interent cafes in this village will not allow any CD's in their computers....they are paranoid about getting any viruses!!!! And the internet connection here is by a telephone line so I reckon uploading about 50 photos will take a while! LOL! So next week when we're in Wellington, Hannah and I will upload a selection and I guess i'll put them up in sections.
There will definately be lots of pictures of the view from this property!