Mangatarata (Thames)
Trip Start
Apr 15, 2008
1
41
58
Trip End
Apr 19, 2009
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Thames,
North Island,
New Zealand
Friday, November 14, 2008
We have now completed our extended placement at farm stay number 2! We originally booked to stay for the week but stayed on longer to help Jude finish landscaping the garden, luckily we had a four day unfilled slot so were delighted to stay. Jude is a great person; she lives alone now having lost her husband a few years ago. Until recently she has been running the dairy farm single handed, but after decades of early mornings and seven day weeks she has decided to slow down a bit. I say a bit as she is still running a farm with a herd of French Limousin cattle which she uses to breed calves and sell on, these are beautiful cows and are a prized herd. Now these cows are treated like royalty, we go up to into the green hills every morning on the quad bike, along with Shannon the sheep dog to check they are ok. Every few days we move them to greener pastures, much to the disgust of the neighbouring cattle who call out almost pleading to be moved to greener pastures too! Around the farmhouse there are seven chooks and their rooster, Julie has taken to calling him Hugh, as in Hugh Heffner, as he struts around with his harem of hens like he owns the place! The chooks have taken to playing hide and seek with their eggs! Julie goes out religiously hunting them down; a few days ago she cracked one of their hiding places (pardon the pun) amongst the agapanthus plants.
Jude has a wonderful vegetable garden and citrus trees galore, so we have enjoyed some delicious organic meals.
Julie & Jude cleaning the fish pond
It's a real treat just to step out side the back door and pick fresh fruit and veg straight from the ground and trees. Oh I mustn't forget the awesome strawberries too! We have enjoyed delights such as fresh lemon meringue pie, strawberry gateau and lemon cake, so as you can see no room for dieting on this trip! Our main task has been to weed the tiered gardens, cut and lay weed matting and then heave six tons of beach pebbles onto the beds. Back breaking work but really rewarding, and to look back and see the grateful expression on Jude's face is priceless, we have made one lady very happy, and that's good enough for us.
A few miles from Jude's farm one can find the Miranda Hot Springs, these are natural springs which pump gallons of steaming hot water into a large swimming pool and an even hotter sauna pool, we enjoyed a few hours wallowing in the waters and left feeling rejuvenated and looking 10 years younger, right! Well we live in hope, don't we! It was a good experience and the setting out in the countryside was very peaceful. If you drive a few miles further out to the coast you will find the home of New Zealand's best fish and chips, this place has won awards several years on the trot and Jude treated us to Gurnard and Kumara chips, eating them right on the foreshore with the waves lapping at our feet, was a real treat.
Just now Jude is having some building work completed around her farm, the builder, Doug is a great Kiwi guy who beavers away non stop in his digger all day! On one of the odd occasions he took a break we had a chat with him and it turns out he and his wife Kate are Jet Boat fanatics. They go boating nearly every weekend, it is their shared passion and they can't get enough of it. Doug said they were having a club gathering on the Sunday where they have competitions on the lake and then go speeding up the fast slowing river in the afternoon. He asked us if we would like to join them, always keen to experience new things, we accepted his kind offer. It was an early start, 6am; still the sun was shining brightly so it wasn't too difficult to raise our heads! We drove a few hours southeast to a lake near Whakatane. We were able to sit in the boat during the numerous exercises which was good fun and the group of boaters were very welcoming people. After the mornings exercises we enjoyed a small barbecue and then got ourselves wrapped up for the afternoon convoy up the river. Hitting speeds of 70 miles an hour on the water requires some warm clothing believe me! These boats can whiz through incredibly shallow water over the rapids, it a bumpy ride at times but a pretty awesome experience. By the time we got home it wasn't far off midnight and we were absolutely cream crackered!
