Wwoofing on Taramoa Farm

Sunday 16th October

It turned out to be a bit pointless moving campsites. We were woken at about half 11 by a rowdy group who had arrived back from town but it didn't last too long. We were still up early to get a shower and get the tent away. We hit the road by half 9 and started the relatively short drive down to Napier. On the road map we have their tends to be stars indicating things to see or do, for this journey however, a 140 kilometre drive, there was none. To add to the tedium, the first 60km or so out of Taupo were dead straight with hardly anything to look at through the windows. We quickly dubbed it the most boring road in New Zealand and were pleased when we started climbing some twisty hill road. When we crested the hills, we could just about glimpse the shimmer of the Pacific Ocean in the distance. The road wound its way down the other side and we turned down towards Napier. We didn't stop in Napier for long but did manage to grab a pie and a cake at a very busy and very cheap bakery we happened to pass on our way to the supermarket. We were returning at some point in the future, so we weren't worried about missing anything. Once out of Napier, we got on to Puketitiri Road and followed its bends for about an hour until we reached Taramoa Farm, where we'd be wwoofing. When we pulled up, passing a small herd of ewes and their lambs along the driveway, we were greeted by Billie and her daughter Eva. It wasn't long before we were joined by Dan, Billie’s husband and their son, Luke, who were returning from a father-son fishing competition on Lake Taupo. We were given the background on the farm once we were all there. It was a proper farm, no small holding or “lifestyle block” as they like out this way. There was a whopping 550 hectares of land mainly filled with sheep but with a few cows too. We wouldn't be starting work until the following day, so we're allowed to settle in to our accommodation for the afternoon. It turned out to be a whole house really, separate from Dan and Billie’s house. It had 3 bedrooms, kitchen, lounge, bathroom, laundry and a sun deck out the front. We'd definitely landed on our feet here. It seemed even better when we walked back to the farm house for dinner. Starter was 2 large trouts caught by young Luke in Lake Taupo, with stuffing inside. They were really tasty and well boned. We all polished them off with the help of Chris, a family friend who had joined us for dinner. Main course was chicken, salad, Cous Cous and various other bits of bobs that we can't remember but we're very tasty. You always associate good food and plenty of it with farms and we weren't disappointed. After dinner we learned a bit about their backgrounds and found out that both Dan and Billie had both worked for the Department of Conservation before taking over the farm. We were listeners whilst they and Chris talked about various things that were going on. They apologised for probably boring us to death by we said it was fine and how interesting it all was compared to an incredibly boring discussion in Brazilian politics there had been at out previous wwoofing location in Nelson. With the time getting on and work to do in the morning, we said our thank yous and walked up to the cottage and settled in to a proper bed for the first time in a while.

Monday 17th October

We were given a pretty late start time for our first morning, so we were in no rush to get up. We had to though when we received a phone call from farmer Dan. He said we'd be starting around 10:30 and suggested we visit a small conservation area just down the road before we start. That sounded fine to us, so we got ready and headed out. The area was called Bull’s Clearing and was only a 5 minute walk down the road. We followed a wooded walk through for about half an hour, passing what gives the area its name, Bull’s Clearing. The track wasn't in the best condition and we'd been told that the reason for this was heavy snowfalls that had brought the trees down and destroyed the bush. It was still passable though and we managed to get back to the farm in time for work. We met Dan and Billie at their house for a cup of tea and some elevenses, before setting off in the side-by-sides. The sides-by-sides are sort of modified quad bikes with roll bars, lockable doors and seat belts that have been introduced to New Zealand farms recently due to health and safety concerns regarding quad bikes. Before getting to the main job at hand they used the vehicles to round up some cattle in to a different paddock. From there Charlotte and Billie went to the main farm area, whilst Dan and I headed off round the houses to muster some sheep. There were a couple of times I was glad to be strapped in as the narrow pathways ran across the top of some pretty deep valleys.Dan knew what he was doing so we made it to the sheep paddock  safe. Dan had picked his working dogs up along the way and they did most of the work. His main dog, Mel has been injured a few weeks previously so was out of action so  a younger dog, Eve did most of the work. The dogs were so loyal, Dan could go and tell them to have a drink and they'd run to the nearest trough and have a drink. One of them was so keen, a Huntaway called Zed,  jumped right in the trough and took huge bites of water. We eventually mustered the sheep in the main farm area where Billie, Charlotte and farm owner, Andrew had set up the equipment we needed for the day. We all herded the sheep through the yards and into the race, splitting the lambs from the ewes and then getting down to work. The job was docking, which simply put is removing the lambs tails. There were other things that needed doing whilst the tails were being docked though. Billie caught the lambs and loaded them in to a cruel looking torture device that put the lambs on their backs and kept their legs steady. When they were loaded she would snip a piece of ear off depending on their gender; left for female and right for male. After that, I injected a small dose of b vitamin mix into their necks, whilst Charlotte scraped their inner leg with a vaccine for a disease known as scabby mouth that the sheep can get from thistles. Further down the line Dan would apply a rubber band to castrate the rams amongst the lambs and finally, Andrew would use a hot iron to burn off the lambs tales. It all sounds pretty gruesome and it was. When Billie had cut their ear there would be nothing for a couple of seconds and then blood would start to pour from the wound, generally covering Charlotte and myself in blood. The occasional one would projectily bleed for a while and you could feel the warm spray covering your arm long after the lamb has moved on down the production line. Once the paddock of lambs were all docked, their tales would be counted up to get a total of lambs, which would be compared to the total of ewes. The docked tails were them put in a sack that would later be collected by a Maori person, who cooks them up and eats them. The others did joke that you haven't been to New Zealand until you've eaten lambs tail but we didn't get the impression we'd be having them for dinner. We did a couple of paddocks worth of sheep before hopping back in the ute and driving to the house for lunch. Lunch was left over dinner from the night before as well as ample cake and other snacks. Afterwards, it was back out to the yards for some more docking. By the time we finished for the day our hands were a deep claret from all the blood that had gushed on to them, so we were grateful for a long shower when we got back to the cottage. When we were fresh and presentable again we wandered up to the main house for some dinner. Dan and Andrew were in and out for most of the night, as they were having issues with cows dying. They concluded that it was due to magnesium deficiency but they couldn't be sure without confirmation from a vet. Dan joked with us that wwoofers always seem to bring them bad luck, having had heavy snow and rain when they had hosted previous wwoofers. He didn't know yet how much he'd regret saying that. After dinner, we spent our evening doing a bit of browsing regarding,post New Zealand travels that needs to remain top secret.

Tuesday 18th October

We had another day of docking ahead of us but still had a bit of a lie in before starting at around half 9. We were out in different yards that were about a 10 minute drive from the house. It was astounding just how big the farm was and how scenic it was too. We set up our instruments of torture and got to work mustering some sheep in to the pen. After we'd got a couple of “mobs” done and moved in, we sat down to have some lunch in the field. It was a beautiful day in the countryside and we were all catching the sun. Everybody disappeared to various places over lunch and we were left talking to Andrew’s partner, Julianne, who had joined us for a few days. The lunch lasted for about 2 hours thanks to the various comings and flings but we eventually got back up and running. We finished around half 5/6 o'clock in the end. A wwoofers hours is generally suppose to be between 4 and 6 hours but we were perfectly happy doing the times we were as we enjoyed the work and we'd had a very long lunch break. Still, Bille and Dan offered to keep the car topped up with petrol if we ever needed it.

Wednesday 19th October

The day was on a downer from the word go. We weren't up at the time but when Dan was out on is motorbike, his dog Meg that had been on the back had fallen off and got her paw caught in the chain. This had meant Billie had had to rush her to the vet, an hour away in Napier to see what the options were. Julianne had told us that it may have to be put down which wouldn't have been good news. We went docking anyway and ventured out to yet more yards that were even further away than the ones in the previous day. It was about 20 minute drive and the farm somehow got even more picturesque. There was a herd of sheep already  in the yards when we arrived, so we got straight to work. By lunch Billie was back from the vets with bad news. Poor Meg had been put down. In private Charlotte and I had wondered why she just couldn't be retired but came to the conclusion that the cost of the vet would have been too much. The mood was pretty somber for the rest of the day but we did manage to have a laugh when trying to get a herd of sheep into the yards. Despite the efforts of 6 people and about 6-7 dogs, they managed to give us the slip twice, meaning we had to start from scratch on what was a pretty steep paddock. Andrew, Julianne, Charlotte and myself had dinner at the cottage that night, letting Dan, Billie and the children have a bit of time to themselves after losing the dog. It was a nice evening, so we all sat out on the decking and enjoyed the pleasant weather with a beer or cider.

Thursday 20th October

We were promised a shorter day today and what with the weather due to turn in the afternoon, we were fairly happy with that. We were finishing off the yards we'd visited the day before, with only about 100 lambs having their tails off. We were finished, but still covered in blood by 11, so we went straight back to the cottage to get cleaned up. We walked down to the house for lunch but due to the others being full from cake they'd had when they finished work, it was only really Charlotte and myself. We cooked up a couple of pies that had been left out and sat down for lunch with Dan. We spent our afternoon in the house catching up on Internet related business and watched a New Zealand film called “Boy”. The weather did close in as expected but we still managed to get ourselves out the house, and went for a wander round the farm. We could only go so far as we encountered some cows that Charlotte didn't really fancy facing. We got a few photos of the land though, so we deemed the short walk a success. We had dinner with the family once again, although this time Andrew and Julianne had left and returned to Napier. As ever, Billie supplied a wonderful dinner of Curried Sausages. She had said that she'd made them due to curried sausages being a British dish, so we had to be honest and tell her that a curry was considered British but curries sausages is new to us. It was tasty anyway and we throughly enjoyed it.

Friday 21st October

We'd been given the weekend off due to it being Labour weekend in New Zealand and that we were pretty much out of lambs to dock. Rather than sit around and get in the way, we decided for a bit of a road trip in to Napier. The rain looked truly set in but we stuck with it. Dan filled up our car for us and we set off along the long and windy Puketitiri Road. We skirted round Napier and headed to its next door neighbour instead. We'd been told that there was a show on so we asked in the visitor centre where we could find it and headed in that direction. The directions we were given turned out to be completely wrong but after some searching, we found it ourselves, in the show grounds. The show was an A&P show, which is the Agricultural and Pastoral society. It was chocked full off numerous things farming related, so it seemed fitting to pay a visit seeing as we were currently working and staying on a farm. The $16 admission seemed slightly steep but we paid it and started wandering around. There first area we passed was the shearing shed but nothing seemed to be happening, so we carried on through and ended up in the carnival area, which was full off rides. Obviously, we weren't after that, so walked back out. We did find something worth a stop when we came across the wood chopping arena. The first competitors were just lining up to chop a thick log of poplar in half. The first man up was built like a brick privy and got through the log in 26 hits. He was followed by numerous scrawniness chaps who couldn't quite beat his tally. The last few did manage to get the better of him and finally, the last guy up, who seemed twice the size of the first guy, annihilated the competition but getting though the log in around 13 or 14 hits. The wood chopping arena seemed like New Zealand down to a tee, like the Highland games for Scotland. We walked off, looking for some food but only ended up back at the chopping arena, so watched as 3 of the competitors, did a stand up chop between their feet. One slip and they would have had split their foot in 2. Their aim was true though and somewhat surprisingly, the smaller competitors got through the log quicker than the heavily build guy. We left the chopping there and wandered off to see if we could find any sheep dog related things. Along the way we ordered a kebab but had to wait 20-30 minutes for it to be prepared. Whilst we were waiting, we were incredibly disappointed to find out that we'd just missed the terrier race. We'd been told about the event by our wwoofing just down in Queenstown and thought it sounded like a lot of fun. If we'd known about it, we would have gone out our way to watch it. We returned to pick up our kebab and scoffed them,, as we walked towards the sheep shearing shed. We found a seat near the back that had a great view towards the stage. About 6 competitors came out and got to work with their clippers. It was hard to see the action but a highly excitable commentator kept us abreast of what was going on. Eventually, someone sheared the 6 sheep quicker than the rest and was announced the winner. The fleeces were all bagged up and put aside to be used for whatever their intended purpose. We left the Shed for a wander round the sheep. They all seemed to be British breeds, with one that was particularly close to home, called the South Down. We fealt as though we'd seen the lot but when it was announced that there would be a cattle race over the tanoy, we had no idea where it would be held. We searched and searched but to no avail, instead stumbling across the poultry and pigeon barn. Most of the poultry had been sold off but there was a few cockerels and pigeons dotted around the place. We'd almost given up and left but found the pig and cow area on the way out. Unfortunately, we'd missed the cattle race but still had a look round the animals. After the pigs, we returned to the car, deciding our next move. It was to drive through Napier, via the supermarket and then continue through to the campsite, which was located outside of town. By the time we arrived, it was pouring with rain, so we elected against putting the tent up and decided it would be a good idea to sleep in the car. By the time came around to sleep in the car, after our jacket potatoes for dinner, it seemed like a pretty bad idea and just too uncomfortable to sleep in, so Charlotte got the tent up in the dark, whilst I stood holding the light.

Saturday 22nd October

We had a much better sleep than we would have had in the car, despite the lack of air mattress. When we got out of bed, we got everything away immediately, just incase the rain came and got everything wet as usual. After a quick breakfast, we were ready to head out towards the town of Napier. We found a parking spot right on Marine Parade and walked up towards the iSite. The plan was to go back in to Napier, pick up a few walking brochures and then head to the walk. It didn't really transpire though,as the clouds threatened to soak us at any given moment. Instead, we went for a stroll round the city of Napier. Thanks to being totally levelled by a huge earthquake in the early 1930’s, the city had to be completely rebuilt. Rather than go dull, the architects went all out and went for Art Deco. It's there to this day and the city is very proud of it. Even the road signs are written in an impossible to decipher Art Deco font. The nearby city of Hastings was also rebuilt using the same design but Napier seems to draw the crowds more, probably due to its choice location right on the beach and the Pacific Ocean. We only had 2 hours of parking for free, so we stayed local, eventually stumbling across a very petit market adjacent to a small park. When the clouds looked at their most ominous, we ducked for cover in a small coffee shop and let the worst of the weather blow over. Our car parking time was now short, so we headed for the car. On our way back, we witnessed a current phenomenon we never thought we would actually witness. Charlotte chanced to look up at the same time someone in a creepy clown mask was staring out of the window of a car that was driving through the town centre. We'd heard on the news about the numerous incidents in America, at home and even in New Zealand but thought it was mainly a night time thing or by schools. It seemed a bit pointless as it was broad daylight but it only added to how stupid the whole thing is. The car was obviously doing circuits, as when we got back on to Marine Parade, it passed us again. We kept our fingers crossed that a policeman would see and humiliate the moron. We sat in the car for a short while, eating our lunch and watching a pair of camper vans driving up and down Marine Parade searching in vain for parking spaces before leaving ours and driving up to Bluff Hill lookout. Bluff Hill is at the north end of the city and looks out across the port. On a clear day you can see right across Hawke’s Bay but with such poor weather, we could hardly see beyond the port. We sat for or while, observing the workings of the port as one container ship from Dalian in China departed and was swiftly replaced by another one from a place we had never heard of. The whole time we were there, there was a car parked next to us with an occupant sat in the drivers seat staring out to sea. He had the Captain Birdseye/Uncle Albert look about him, which was very amusing. When we got out of our car, we could hear a radio crackling every now again inside his car. We guessed he was a former worker of the port or ex-navy and just couldn't let go of his love for the sea. He was there the whole time the new container ship was coming in and when the radio fell silent, he started up his car and moved off. Thanks to it being such a miserable day, we decided to do a wet weather activity and go to the cinema. We picked up some treats from the supermarket and headed in to the film. It was the new Robert Langdon film, Inferno and it was terrible. The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons had been good but this was just awful. The acting was terrible and the story was pretty poor too, which is unusual when based on a book. Slightly disappointed (but not too much considering it had cost us well under half the price of watching a film in the UK) we headed back to Taramoa Farm. It took us about an hour to get back and the weather had cleared up nicely. We'd been in contact with Billie whilst we'd been away and told her that we'd eat at the cottage tonight as we hadn't done any work to justify them cooking us dinner. She still left us some food in the freezer though. We ducked for the cover of our bed pretty quickly after dinner, as it was a freezing evening.

Sunday 23rd October

We had yet another day off but we're still up early and headed down to the house. We felt bad as we were there to use their internet to Skype home but it was only for an hour or so. We spent our day in the house, entertaining the kids as best we could in order to give Billie and Dan a bit if respite. Billie was insistent that we eat with them that evening and made a couple of fantastic quiches that went down a treat.

Monday 24th October

It was a bank holiday Monday in New Zealand, which meant the kids were off school for yet another day. We did have a job to do though. We drove with all hands to a small holding that used to be Billie and Dan’s home. It boasted about 4 paddocks that each contained about 5 ewes and their lambs. Dan had set them aside from the rest in order to run an experiment. The grass they were eating had been treated with fertiliser, so he wanted to see if that made bigger lambs. We were docking the tails as usual but once that was done, we were weighing all the lambs and all the ewes do see if Dan was benefitting from the fertiliser. The ewes varied from about 50kg to a whopping 85kg, so the conclusion was that it was worthwhile. Part of wwoofing is that the farm or host is organic. Dan and Billie admitted on our first day there that they weren't organic, which we didn't really have a problem with. Obviously with the use of fertiliser the crops and lambs can't be organic, but Dan did tell that you simply make more money from your stock by using fertilisers to feed them better. Once we were down down at the smaller farm, we returned to Taramoa for the rest of the day off. Once we'd had a wash, we walked up to the main house and spent an evening playing cards in the sun. During the evening we were joined by 2 more wwoofers who had come to help with some planting that was to be done over the next week or so. Stina and Joanna were from Germany and had been travelling around New Zealand for 2 months having come pretty much straight from school, aged 18/19. Having travelled myself at that age, I felt it was too young to really appreciate it but it seems the common thing amongst the Germans. Although, we always get the impression that it funded by their parents and not themselves. They seemed nice though. The only problem though was after dinner, as there were 4 of us trying to fit in a small kitchen and wash up.

Tuesday 25th October

We started the day with a little bit of planting. The focus on a lot of New Zealand farms is to get the waterways on them fenced off to protect their stock and to keep the waterways clean. When they get them fenced off, they focus on planting native trees beyond the fence so that they will grow and give the waterways some shade, which helps the species that live in the water. We were planting Manuka, which produces flowers that bees love. Manuka honey is big business in New Zealand, so planting the Manuka on the farm and then letting out some space to bee keepers is also good business. We started planting in a waterway that was directly in front of the main house. It wasn't too harder job but would have been easier if the area we were planting was flat. Instead, it was right on the banks sloping down to water which could get very steep and very loose. It was also difficult to plant the Manuka amongst the grass, as the mud was incredibly compact and hard to break up. The bare patches of soil were much easier. After morning tea (a meal Charlotte and I could grow very accustomed to), the German girls went back to plant some more Manuka, whilst Charlotte and I went with Dan and Billie to do a bit of docking. The yards were yet more new ones, located in an exposed hill, not far from the farm buildings. We didn't notice until we got up there that we were missing a vital piece of equipment. The elastrators that are used to apply the rubber band to the male lambs had been misplaced. Billie and I went in the hunt, while Charlotte stayed back to do a bit of mustering with Dan. By the time we returned, having had to borrow a spare elastrator of a neighbour, Charlotte and Dan had already started the docking process by just catching the female lambs. There were still plenty of lambs to be docked though and we still managed to get a good soaking from all the blood. When we finished, we left the equipment there, as there was still 2 paddocks to dock, on a different day though. We had one final job to do after lunch, which was head down to the wool shed and give the floor a damn good scrubbing. The floor was filthy from the previous years sheering and a years worth of bird poo, so we got our brushes and cleaned it all off ready for the sheering to start on the Monday. Dan told us the reason behind having such a clean floor was that when they sheered the sheep, it's easier for the shearers helpers to sweep the odds and ends off a clean, smooth floor, rather than having a dirty, sticky floor, and the wool getting stuck on it. We were pretty pleased with our efforts once it was finished, so Charlotte, Joanna and myself went for a 4 mile run down the road to celebrate. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing at the house and entertaining the children..

Wednesday 26th October

With Dan having to take the kids into town for a sports day, we wouldn't be getting any docking done for the day. On top of that, it was a pretty grim day weather wise. After a little bit more planting, we were driven up to a paddock right at the back of the farm, where we helped with a bit of fencing. It was to be an electric fence, so we had to hammer in a load of insulators and then bend the wire in to fit it. The wooden posts we were applying the insulators to just kept going and going, so by the end, our arms were pretty worn out from all the hammering. The weather changed from sun to rain to sun to rain but it was still a pleasant day out in the paddock. When we got back to the main house, we had been joined by 2 of Andrew’s (the farm owner) friends. It was all a bit crazy in the house, so Charlotte and I walked back to the cottage for a scrub up and a bit of piece and quiet. When we returned, everything had calmed down a bit and we settled down to yet another fantastic dinner.

Thursday 27th October

The weather was back to sunshine for the day, after yet more planting of Manuka, we all went up to the paddock we'd docked in a few days before, to dock the final 2 mobs. With 2 extra hands on deck, we all did our usual jobs, whilst the Germans mustered the lambs down towards Billie who'd pick them up and load them in to the torture device and reloaded the elastrator with rubber bands. It was today that we finally got to have a wee go at the jobs that Bille, Dan and Andrew had been doing all the previous times. We all got to do the ear tagging, which when done by anyone but Billie seems to be really cruel on the poor lambs. I jumped at the chance to burn a couple of tails of with the iron. A hard press and they came off nice and easy. The tails can be done by applying a rubber band with the elastrator sort chopping it with a knife. Burning with an iron is much quicker, less painful and the heat seals the wound and stop the blood. I got to do the final one and with that, that was all the docking done and dusted. There were the late lambs still to do but we'd be long gone by the time that came around to do that. That evening, to celebrate the end of docking, we all headed up the road in a couple of Utes, to the hot springs on the edge of the Kaweka Forest. We brought along a BBQ in order to cook up a feast before heading for a dip in the hot springs. Whilst Dan cooked up the burgers on the BBQ, Luke, Stina, Joanna, Charlotte and myself had a kick around with a football on the green space around some benches. Unfortunately, I'd made the mistake of wearing shorts and was starting to notice the encroachment of fat juicy sandflies on my legs. I should have put trousers on when I noticed but left it. The burgers were fantastic and we were almost ready for a hot dip. We had to have desert first though. Dan chucked 8 lambs tails on the BBQ, so everyone could have one. Apparently, it's tradition and I had been keen to try them out from the moment I'd found out that they were edible. We were told the trick was to cook them on the BBQ and singe all of the hair off. Obviously this creates a bit of an odour, which is why Dan and Billie were reluctant to cook them at their house. I stood downwind, breathing in the odour and immersing myself in to New Zealand culture. Once they were cooked and looked like 8 sausages burnt to a crisp Dan said they were ready. I went first, with Dan showing me how to eat the delicacy. You had to rip the charred wool off, disposing it in any nearby shrubbery, in order to expose the cartilage of the tail. We couldn't eat the cartilage, instead having to scrape our teeth along the tail and rip off any small bits of fat that were there. We all had a go, some more reluctantly than others and all agreed that it wasn't something we'd rush back for. Charlotte and I had a second one each though. With the lambs tails eaten, we all headed down the short pathway to the hot pools. Somewhat surprisingly, there were 2 hot tubs right in the middle of the bush, with views over the valley below. We spent some time in the hot waters of the tub, starting to notice the sandflies more and more. Billie and the kids headed off down another steep pathway in order to have a dip in the river at the bottom of he valley. Dan and Andrew reckoned they were mad seeing as the temperature of the river would only be around 9°C at this time of year. Young Luke also made a $5 bet with his dad that he would jump in the river, with Dan reckoning he wouldn't do it. When they came back up, Luke ended up $5 richer and then somehow convinced Charlotte and me to go down with them. We were followed closely by the Germans and slipped and stumbled our way down quite a steep hill until we reached the river edge. There were stagnant pools of water on the banks that we tried our best to avoid when we walked along to an access point. These stagnant pools would have been a breeding ground for sandflies, so we just had to get out quick before we were eaten alive. I braved the icy water first, hyperventilating and letting out a swear word or 2” forgetting that there were children present. In the end, everyone had a dip, and everyone but one of the Germans managed to dip their head under the chilly river. When we got out of the river we warmed up quickly (and probably more tastily for all the sandflies) before climbing back up the steep hills to the hot pools. They seemed boiling after the frigid waters we'd just been in, so we spent a few more minutes making the most of the warmth. By the time we got out the sandflies were everywhere. I sat in the edge of a pool, looked down at my feet and had 4 sitting on my foot just below my ankle alone. I've mentioned in the blog before about workers on the South Island building a road along the west coast and holding their arms out, squashing the sandflies and keeping score. If we'd been mad enough, we could have easily sat there for a minute and done that ourselves. By the time we got dry, they had already taken enough of our blood, so we didn't bother with the games. We got back to the cars as quick as possible, packed everything away and headed home. The road that we'd driven out to the pools was incredibly windy, very narrow and included a very wide and deep fords, so we were glad that Dan, Billie and Andrew had taken us in their Utes. Our car wouldn't have made it past the ford. When we got home Charlotte and I thanked Dan and Bille for what had been a really enjoyable evening.

Friday 28th October

Charlotte and I were both woken in the middle of the night by itchy ankles. We had even ravaged by sandflies and I for one deeply regretted not wearing trousers and long socks. When it was time to get up, we inspected the damage and could start to see clusters of little red bites swelling all around our ankles where our sock lines had been. We itched through breakfast and through the entire morning we were planting Manuka along the water ways. What probably didn't help was that some of the water in the streams wasn't moving anywhere, stagnant, so there were probably more sandflies where we were digging, just not as bad as they'd been in the forest. We split up to do various jobs after we'd filled the paddock where we'd been planting, with Charlotte and me planting some native grasses around the cottage. Billie had asked us to cook dinner for everyone, which we were happy to do, so after some lunch the Germans and Billie went back out to work and Charlotte and I started to rustle up enough lasagne to feed 9 hungry mouths. We'd made plenty of lasagnes in our time so it was pretty straight forward, it was just making sure there was enough there for everyone to be full after it. When we noticed some rhubarb sat in the side, we decided to cook up an apple and rhubarb crumble for pudding, just to be sure everyone would be stuffed by the end of it. After dinner, every plate was clean, so it can't have been too bad. 

Saturday 29th October

Thanks to our itchy feet we both struggled for sleep and were awake pretty early. The bites had really come up and our feet looked like we'd got some sort of disease. Our morning was spent doing yet more planting around a different water way. Andrew was determined to beat “the poms” with his planting but we didn't fancy the race, stating that we'd rather beat an Aussie than a Kiwi. After a couple of hours of banter, we'd planted over a thousand trees and we were done and dusted for the day. We had the remainder of the day off, so after a shower, we got back to the main house before the rain set in for the evening. Billie and Dan were having a BBQ with a few friends for the evening, and they happily invited us along to join them. Our main job for the evening was entertaining the children, whilst the men talked about farms. Billie and her friend were around though. It was a nice night though and it was good to hear various funny anecdotes from other farmers. 

Sunday 30th October

We had the  full day off although we tried our hardest to do some work, just for something to do. We felt guilty sitting around the house, using the wifi and eating their food. Over lunch, Dan did ask if we fancied doing anything to keep ourselves busy, which Charlotte and I gladly accepted. We'd go out with Billie and the kids to muster some sheep down to the wool shed.  The only problem was we weren't banking on the Germans wanting to come along too. There was so little room in the ute, young Luke had to sit on the back. After we'd mustered the Rams through a steep, pine filled paddock, we didn't think it fair to all cram back in, so Charlotte and I walked the half mile back to the farm. When we got back, we fed the chooks (that's what they call chickens out here) and were dismissed for the day. We got the impression that Billie had noticed the Germans presence had put our noses out of joint and to be fair, she sent all of us back to the house. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and reading at the house.

Monday 31st October

This was our final day on Taramoa Farm. We'd only hung around over the weekend due to the sheering that was due to start. Unfortunately, thanks to the miserable weather, it had to be postponed. With the sheep getting wet from the rain, it would make sheering the wool off hard work. So rather than hang around for something that probably wouldn't materialise, we packed our car (closely copied by the Germans), stuck the bedding in the washing machine (closely copied by the Germans, who tried their best to destroy the thing by overfilling it) and drove our car up to the farm in order for the very kind Billie and Dan to fill up our petrol tank (again, shadowed by the Germans the whole way). With a full tank, we drove down to the main house and had a final morning tea with Billie and Dan. Whilst saying our goodbyes, Billie very kindly offered us a stay in the cottage when my Mum and Dad came over. We gratefully accepted the invitation and agreed to it immediately. With that, they sped off to the wool shed to prepare just incase, so we started the drive down towards the coast and Hawke’s Bay. We decided to spend the night in Hastings, which we'd visited before when we went to the A&P show. We drove straight to the campsite, got the tent up and headed in to town to decide what to do with our day. We'd been recommended a honey place to visit, which was in nearby Havelock North, so we picked up a pamphlet and headed in that direction. It was a showroom/shop/museum of New Zealand's biggest honey producer, Arataki. We had a wander round the show room, tasted various types of honey, including Manuka and read up on a few things inside the museum. We'd visited a honey place near Taupo and this one wasn't much different to that one but we got to taste a lot more honey here. After the sugar rush of the honey, we drove out to Te Mata peak that rose above Havelock North and offered great views across most of Hawke’s Bay. Had it been a nicer day weather wise we would have been able to see a lot more, however we could still see over to the Pacific and almost make out Napier in the distance. Driving back down the hill we headed back towards Hastings and treated ourselves to a Rush Munro's ice cream. Lonely Planet recommended maple walnut flavour, so we both had a scoop of that each, with Charlotte opting for a scoop of hokey pokey (honeycomb) and I went for a scoop of Manuka honey. We sat down and admired the huge ice cream we'd just received. As ice creams go it was pretty tasty and was very cheap, so well worth a visit. After our ice cream, we paid a visit to the Library to do a bit of wifi work, before returning to the campsite for our first evening back in the tent. It had recently turned chilly, so we weren't particularly looking forward to it. As we were back to camping dinners too, we thought we'd go all out and plumped for beans and pasta, something we'd been getting bored of before arriving at Taramoa Farm. The few weeks away had helped and we were back to enjoying the old favourite.

James and Charlotte