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Today is our last day at the farm and tomorrow we are driving to one of the most anticipated places of our trip - Rotorua.
The last week on the farm has gone by even quicker than the first one and it has been really eventful!
Apart from all the day-to-day stuff like milking, eating, painting fences and building fences we have bought something new, and made a Swedish dinner for the farmers!
First, we bought a car! A red Honda Accord, 1993 and in good condition - a car now called Rosie (Jen).
And on the same day, we made Smörgåstårta! We had pate, mayo, tuna, cucumber, meatballs, eggs, tomato, ham and cheese - everyone loved it! Great job jenny!
We had another fishing trip on Friday; this was a little different than regular finishing. It's called Carnegie fishing you attach a long line to a motor that you put in the sea, the motor then goes out about 3/4 mile on a timer. You attach 15-20 fishing lines on this and leave it out for half an hour or so - was fun but only caught 5 fish :(
The actual highlight of the day even more than that could have been the drive off the beach, where Rob decided to get the van stuck in the river that passes through, meaning we had to jump out and push; walking boots, trousers and socks were a bad choice at that moment but rob was left laughing at least!
On a different note, we went to see two amazing sights on the day either side of the fishing, the first being Mangapohue Natural Bridge; a walkway built through the bush comes to a huge canopy, where above is a gigantic rock face that you can walk underneath whilst looking up at the bridge itself, a completely natural sight and it was brilliant.
If the bridge was good, the next one is off the charts! After fishing we stopped off in our soggy boots to go on a 10 minute walk through the trees to Marokopa Falls, an utterly beautiful waterfall. It was probably the most amazing sight we have ever seen just surrounded by plants and trees, such an awesome experience! It reminded Jenny of the movie "Mighty Joe Young / Joe Jättegorillan" and she almost started singing "himba wimbo, wau-pepo wakatu una do wan tan.." to see if Joe would come out. So that'll give you an idea of how beautiful it was!
All week we had been hearing about the wind and rain impending for the weekend, from a cyclone that was called Lusi - the Friday night, we went for a BBQ at Robs parents house, the food was brilliant and we even got a tour round an English motor home!
So Saturday and Sunday were empty days for jobs given the anticipation of Lusi's wind and rain, but Saturday was mainly calm throughout although we did see the effect Luci had on Paihia, which resulted in high tides, blocked roads and a general s***storm!
Basically, Luci turned into nothing for most of New Zealand but it was exciting in the build up at least! The most exciting part of it all was discovering that Millie, the young pet cat Jen was obsessed with, had fleas and she had been all over our bed for 2 days - so Jen got her just rewards by getting bitten like crazy everywhere while I got none...bazinga!
So with the anticlimactic weekends weather past, we were ready for a new week and the last two days on the farm before moving on; Monday was a day of fencing; not the sport, but actually putting together new wire fencings on paddocks; a good job but oddly tiring, good end results at least!
Tuesday was a quieter day of work, the farmers were out most of the day so we cleaned our room, cleaned Rosie and packed up - but also came up with a scavenger hunt for the kids, Rob and Jaqui for some post-milking entertainment!
Basically, it was a great idea and bloody hilarious! Everyone running around like they've lost their heads, screaming at each other from opposite ends of the house - priceless!
Everyone got prizes even if they won or lost; for the record Jaqui, Alex and Kate won as Rob deceived me with a dove feather instead of chicken!!!
A good old barbecue for tea with a mini-film night too; we watched 'Boy' which is a New Zealand film about a young Maori boy and his family, mainly his estranged dad coming back...not a bad film but not something we would usually watch!
So Wednesday has arrived and is waiting us tomorrow, off to Rotorua in Rosie. Our plans there? Staying at Cactus Jacks hostel with a trip to a little place called Hobbiton...
Stay tuned, stay safe!
Peace
Dave and the Bear
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