So I haven’t updated my blog for a while so I figure I’d let everyone know about adventure up to this point. Let’s just say Kiwi’s are Freaking Hard Out workers… The work ethic here is ridiculously incredible! There are days where I seriously can’t believe that I’m in New Zealand and I try to soak in every second of the day, while there are other days where I wonder what the Hell it is I’m doing here. I still have no regrets and couldn’t be happier that here but I think I’ll be appreciating an office job after this experience a little more than I did.
We’re finally reaching the end of calving season which is the busiest time of the year and after calving season its I.A. (which I don’t want to explain so those who are curious you can google it :) I get every other weekend off, so I work 12 days straight... Yep, I said 12 days straight :) With it being the busiest time of the year my days typically start at around 4:30am – 5am and end around 7pm – 8pm depending on what goes on that day. Usually get an hour breakfast and lunch break which is nice but still makes for a LONG day. The best part of all of this is that I get a month off during the summer (our winter) and I already have my vacation time planned out. I’m getting use to the hours but have to say that once this adventure of mine is over I will definitely never be stepping foot onto another farm again. I have also learned that I HATE cows. I nearly went through a vegetarian stage a few years ago and I’m super happy that I didn’t… Sorry to all of my friends that chose that path in life but cows are big dumb animals and I will eat beef until the day I die!
The hardest part of my time so far was simply getting use to the hours I work… the work isn’t that bad and is getting easier by the day. But it was still hard adjusting to coming from an office job where I only work 40 hours/week. I found myself getting so incredibly anxious and frustrated that I would literally have nervous breakdowns. At first I didn’t know why I got so worked up and then it clicked… I was yelling at cows to try to get them to do what we wanted them to do ALL day long. I finally asked Brendan for help because I was going to go crazy if I had to yell at another cow. He gave me some amazing advice and I haven’t yelled at a cow since. His advice was… Just don’t yell. He also walked me through the milking process a little more in depth and work has been pretty darn pleasant ever since.
I also wish I could kiss the person who invented the backing gate! It’s the gate that guides the cows up to the shed with a little electric shock as an incentive for them to move. The gate is officially working and my stress level has gone way down!!! Eventually the cows won’t need the gate at all and will guild themselves into the shed, which they are already beginning to do. It is amazing how much faster milking has gone and it will only get fast once all of the heifer cows get more into a routine.
I’ve had a few weekends off now and try to take advantage of every moment I get. One of the weekends off I decided that I needed to get away from the farm and figured the best way to distress was to go on a wine tour through Hawks Bay which is New Zealand’s wine country. I was extremely excited to take a biking wine tour through Napier and took off early Saturday morning to make it to Napier in time to catch the tour. It is currently the end of winter here and we’re entering spring so the weather is unpredictable. It ended up pouring down rain all day and while I still could have gone on the tour I decided that it could wait for another weekend. So I spent the day walking along the coastline and touring the local Shops and Cafés that Napier had to offer. The Cafés here are amazing! I think that I could live off of coffee and scones seeing how that is the only thing I wanted to eat and drink all weekend. I went to a few wineries which were nice but I’m still excited to take that biking tour! One of the attractions that Napier has is The New Zealand National Aquarium. This was pretty sweet because they had an aquarium that you could walk through while sharks and sting rays swim over you. The aquarium wasn’t very big but I’m still happy that I took the time to see it.
It continued to rain all day Saturday which I didn’t mind too much. I stayed at an FHA Hostile which was very nice and had all of the amenities that I needed. I woke up Sunday morning to beautiful blue skies and sunshine which turned my entire weekend around. I went out to breakfast and took a really long walk along the rocky coastline which was amazing. Drove up to Bluff Hill which is a viewpoint in Napier that looks over all of Hawks Bay. I stayed up there for quite some time before I decided that it was time to head home. All in all even though the weather was a bust I still caught a bit of sunshine and enjoyed my weekend off. The weather stayed nice the entire drive home which ended up being a beautiful drive. One thing that surprises me is how quickly I got use to driving on the other side of the road. The only time I get confused is in parking lots. I’ll get the hang of them eventually though.
This past weekend my cousin Jen and I drove up to Auckland to spend the weekend with my Aunt. Both her and I were looking forward to a relaxing weekend and that is exactly what we got. It took nearly three hours to get there and besides the fact that it rained the entire way up the drive wasn’t bad. I figured that the weather was going to suck all weekend so I was surprised to wake up to sunshine Saturday morning. Took a run down by the Bay near my Aunts house, got a pedicure, and spend the day shopping with my Aunt and Cousin. Can’t get much better than that. I’m not sure where my next adventure will take me but I’m sure it will be amazing.
