Mt. Karioi

Te Kuiti – the sheep shearing capital of the world

I have been staying on a farm for the past week in the heart of the sheep shearing capital of the world, a country town called Te Kuiti. My hosts have been Chris & Susie Hoare who own a beautiful home up in the hills of King Country. Chris and Susie have a couple daughters that I never met who work and live elsewhere; they also have a teenage son named Mitchel that boards at his high school in a city called Hamilton about an hours drive north. Over the past weekend it has been a packed house here, we picked up Mitchel on Friday since he is now on holiday and two American gals who are traveling the South Pacific through a young people's ambassador program.


I've been working with Chris on the farm for most of the week ... Waking up at just before 7 AM to enjoy a cup of tea then breakfast (not at the same time). During the morning Chris and I exchange only a few words, mostly about the inclement weather for the day. The house sits atop one of the taller hills and it's pretty wicked to wake up and find yourself in the middle of the clouds as the fog nestles into the gullies in between the paddocks. We finish up our bowl of cereal along with toast topped with Waitomo honey (so dang good) then roll out on the four wheeler to carry out the daily farm duties; bring hay to the horses, cattle, and deer ... round up and shift the sheep to another paddock, maybe slaughter a couple lamb. On my first day, we headed to one of the lower paddocks steering across steep terrain, me sitting and holding onto the back while we traversed the massive hills ... Chris asked me to take the motorbike and head back down to the road, ride for a kilometer or so, open a steel gate on the left then ride til I saw a wooden gate to another paddock where we would lead the sheep. I said "alright" and hopped on the bike quickly trying to recall the direction where we came as the vastness of the hilly land is daunting; before I left, he told me, "remember, on the road ... left side", gotta admit, without the notice, probably would've forgot. It worked out well though, I remembered our route, made it back to open the wooden gate and watched as Chris directed his dogs by a series of whistles to funnel nearly one thousand sheep through the gate. It is absolutely awesome to watch him and the dogs go to work ... with each pitch of whistle meaning a different direction and the dogs responding instantly, even better when they don't a stern reprimanding accompanied by a cursing rant that echoes throughout the canyons.






Susie (the wife) has been fantastic. Contrast to Chris' quiet demeanor she is extremely talkative. She owns a haircut salon in town, I headed down there last Thursday for a free haircut, gave a healthy tip to one of her girls (any tip is a bonus down here as it is not apart of their culture to do so). One weekday afternoon I spent helping Susie paint a theater set at the local elementary school. The director was from the UK and he needed a log cabin set painted by the next week ... The man was extroardinarily technical, even pointing out that the logs would've most likely been from redwoods given the setting of the play and therefore should be 'this' specific width instead of the random foot or so measurement Susie and I had already started using halfway through. It was good to spend some time with her though as I had spent the majority of my time on the farm with Chris ... We finished up later in the evening, hopped in the car and with a large exhale she said, "Well, I reckon it's beer o' clock what do ya say?" It's a good thing they got goin here, work hard throughout the day then throw back a few beers at home.

On Friday before we headed into Hamilton to pick up Mitchel and the girls, we had to string up a couple pigs by their back legs and I was in charge of holding them still by sandwiching them against the fence with my leg while keeping their head from not moving by holding onto their ears as Chris threaded a steel wire through their nostrils to discourage them from digging holes under the fences ... The entire process took a few minutes and throughout the whole thing the pig screamed viciously like the world was about to end ... It was pretty intense, Chris figured he'd take care of it prior to the American girls' arrival so as to not scare them away.

Anyway, the week with them has been extremely comforting. I stayed there for 7 days and it starting to feel like my home in New Zealand as I was welcomed to anything in the kitchen or fridge, had farm work as well as household responsibilities like laundry, setting the table, and starting the fire. Toward the last weekend, Susie kept commenting on how we had guests coming from America and I'd remind her that I was one that came just a bit ago and she'd say somethin' like, "Yeah but you don't really count anymore, you're like apart of the family now, you've got to fend for yourself." Although, I'm sure they wouldn't have minded hosting me a bit longer; I figured that one week was enough of a burden and made plans to move on and out but with the intention to definitely return before I leave New Zealand.

Currently, I'm on the coast ... just about fifty paces from the Tasman Sea that sits between New Zealand and it's western neighbor Australia. I left Monday from Te Kuiti to head to Ortorohonga, another rural town only 10 kilometers away. I'm staying with a few of Chris & Susie's friends, Ged & Kay, who own a dairy farm as well as a beach house that needed repainting ... so Monday night Kay and I drove out to their beach house in Raglan, Ged made sure to pack me up some beer to enjoy after the day's work (checked the bag and their were 9 bottles for me, Kay doesn't drink beer ha). Yesterday (Tuesday), we spent the day priming the kitchen and living room with undercoat. It was surprisingly warm outside, the Raglan FM station had variety and was good for the most part, I was in a jumpsuit painting the walls and looked outside to see the water and realized, damn, I'm in New Zealand on the other side of the world with no agenda whatsoever, kinda rad...

Ged showed up in the afternoon and after we finished painting for the day, we got to enjoy a few of those beers he packed. He tossed one my way once I'd gotten my jumpsuit off and said, "Go ahead and get some New Zealand piss in ya." Ged is a staunch fellow, built like a boxer; he shakes your hand hard but even moreso, he pulls your arm down a bit when he grabs it, caught me a bit off-gaurd the first time. Both Ged & Kay are another prime example of Kiwi hospitality. We went out for dinner at the local pub later that night, Ged bought me seafood chowder, dozen or so mussels, and a basket of chips (fries) for all us to share; oh yeah, and a couple pints that came in the big handle-glasses too, always feels better drinkin' beer out of a glass with a handle for some reason, maybe it's because you get to stick your elbow out a bit when you raise your glass, makes it feel heavy, like a man's drink. The seafood was spectacular, the chowder might've had some curry in it as well and the mussels were dipped in a spicy sauce that was delicious. Ged asked if I was ready for the T-bone steak by the end of it, dead serious as well, I declined politely as I wouldn't had even been able to make a respectable dent in it if I was served one.

The plan for now is to paint some more tomorrow ... May head to a town called Rotorua, it's the main Maori (indigenous people of NZ) location later on in the week. After that, I am going to start to make my way south toward the South Island with a couple stops planned, the first to visit a friend whom I met in Kenya last spring. I'll keep you updated. Hope all is well where you are!

Out In The Styx

On my flight to New Zealand, I was thinking how difficult it might be to get around and make connections in a country where I literally knew not one single person prior to leaving, excluding my Facebook acquaintance with Stella. Many people had asked me what I intended to do when I arrived to which my only truthful response was something like, “not a clue, just roll with whatever comes along I guess” … In just the last couple days, I attended a Kiwi girl's 21er party, traveled in a camper-van to see the other side of the Pacific Ocean, joined a Dutch family on a night-walk through one of NZ's most treasured nature reserves, hitched a ride with university students hailing from South Africa, Australia as well as NZ and joined them on a venture through the Waitomo Caves to check out the glowworms. Presently, I find myself in Te Kuiti (farm country) and in a scene that could be taken right out of the movie “City Slickers” where I'm staying with the quiet, no bull-shit, tough guy character called Curly and I'm taking after the role of wannabe-cowboy Billy Crystal; the only difference is that instead of sporting a Yankees hat, I've got my Mariner's throwback cap. However, before I tell you how I failed miserably in my first attempt at steering the herd through Curly's paddocks, I need to tell you a bit more about this wonderful place called Out In The Styx where I spent most of my weekend.

At the end of my first post I mentioned that I was going with Stella to her parent's home where they run a sort of bed-and-breakfast place called Out In The Styx. It's a beautiful house/restaurant/hotel located in a small rural town that is called Pukeatua, two hours drive south of Auckland. Here I met Lance and Mary (Stella's parents), both of which are excellent cooks who spoiled me every few hours with a free meal. I also met her twin brothers, Adrian and Nolan, as well as their friends Bonnie, Anushka, and Ashlee. Because they weren't accommodating any large groups of visitors over the weekend, each of us got our own guestroom fitted with a queen-sized bed. We took advantage of the various amenities, an evening spa on the deck while enjoying one of NZ's local beers or wines is one that sticks out in my mind. On Saturday morning a few of us took a hike around the area and ended up going for a swim as well. The river that we swam in is used for bottled water in NZ and is the clearest water I've ever seen. We swam out to a little side pool, which was ridiculously blue to the point I swore there was food coloring in it. The water was a nippy 10 degrees Celsius too, I was told the temperature holds constant year-round.

The 21er party was a good time. It was out in another small town called Toruanga; we took Lance and Mary's camper-van so we wouldn't have to drive back that night. Not gonna lie … it's kinda nice being the foreigner with the intriguing accent at a party and having girls introduce themselves and say, “oh, so you're the American” … enough said ;).

We woke up the next morning and headed into town to pick up some powerade, Anushka and I were relegated to the rear of the camper and were eventually lulled back to sleep by the steady rhythm of the road. We were startled back to consciousness by the sudden halt of the camper and instead of arriving back at Out In The Styx, Ashlee and Adrian had made an executive decision and drove to Waihi beach just an hour or so in the opposite direction.

We stayed for the afternoon, played hopscotch on the beach (Ashlee won), then enjoyed breakfast (well, 1:00 PM but it was breakfast for us) at this Swiss cafe that was incredible. One thing to mention, I have been here 5 days and already had some of the best food I have ever tasted; credit mostly Lance and Mary's cooking. If anyone ever travels to New Zealand, they must stop in and stay a night or weekend at Out In The Styx.

The people, the food, the scenery are unbelievable … and it sits at the base of a protected nature reserve where NZ's national bird, the Kiwi, resides. Lance allowed me to join a Dutch group who had signed up for a guided night-walk through the reserve. We walked through complete darkness with our headlamps guiding us and were comforted by our guide's knowledge of the bush and his bits of information such as the fact that over 900,000 spiders were suspected to be within the fenced area, meaning you were never more than a couple inches from one at any instant … not normal spiders either, the giant Weta is bigger than my hand easily!

Anyway, it soon became Monday and I had plans to head to Te Kuiti to start work on a sheep farm. I had originally decided on taking a bus, but a few other of Adrian's friends came by for lunch and were on their way down to the capital, Wellington, along the way passed Te Kuiti. They volunteered to give me a lift and said that they were going to check out the Waitomo Caves on their trip down so I joined them … boat ride through the limestone caves through utter blackness except the thousands of green lights overhead given off by glowworms. The caves were cool but the whole thing was a little too commercialized for me. The best part was driving down with the group, there were a couple girls from South Africa, one Aussie, and one Kiwi … we joked how they had stopped in just to say hi to their friend, decided to stay for lunch, then ended up leaving with an American, it was a 'feel good' moment realizing everyone came from all different parts of the world but we're enjoying each others company as well as helping each other out. I made it to Te Kuiti and as I said previously, I'm a bit out of my element; herding cattle, sheep and deer. I asked Chris (aka Curly from “City Slickers”) what work needed to be done for the day and pretty much what it entailed was moving this herd of sheep from here to there, then move the cattle from there to there, so we could move the deer from there to here. It seems simple enough, but try 1800 sheep scattered across hundreds of acres and you've got yourself a full day's work!

Well, I'm tired. It's late. And this nearly wraps up my first week in New Zealand. I'll keep you posted, have a good one!

Welcome to Auckland, New Zealand!

Hey!

Well, I made it ... just took 14 hours on a plane, simple enough. I arrived just passed 6:00 AM local time on Thursday, 24th of June. I missed out on my Wednesday completely by crossing the International Date Line, it's a good deal though because they give it back to me when I head home.

After exiting the plane, I headed towards customs, they split up the masses according to the titles overhead "NZ passport-holders" "non-NZ passport-holders" and the "U20 National Rugby Team" where about 25 huge dudes were passing through with trophy in hand from beating the runner-up Aussies in Buenos Aires, Argentina to win the Junior World Championship. Jokes about maybe playing some rugby while I'm down here aren't funny with the possibilility of a 225-pound samoan all tatted-up, lining up across from me ... think I'll just catch an All Blacks (NZ's natioanl team) match and call it good.

It's quite cold here now, being the southern hemisphere. I'm realizing that I ran away from summer this year with it just starting to heat up back home and it being the middle of winter here. First thing I did when I arrived downtown was head to Stella's work (Stella is the old roommate of my friend Jess and she offered to put me up for the first few days). I dropped my pack off at the law firm where she works so that I could wander around the city. I met up with a couple other backpackers (a guy named Patrick from England who had been all over Africa and had just finished up traveling around South America) and Fuoede from France who spoke just a bit of English. Patrick and I grabbed breakfast at a tavern and watched highlights of the England/USA matches (round of 16!!!), I could feel some resentment from him since we topped the group. While we were there, we saw two people be carted off by police (extremely drunk or trippin' on somethin), couldn't have been later than 10:00 AM at this time.

Anyway, it was nice weather and I walked for a few hours stopping at random shops and hanging out down by the harbor. It's a beautiful city with the water and all the sail boats around. Sleep depravation from the previous day caught up with me though and I ended up passing out on the couches in Univ of Auckland's Engineering Center. It's the midde of finals week for the students as everyone was frantically pouring over their notes outside the lecture halls, I must've looked strikingly calm and confident about my grade as I napped right across from them :)

Stella is staying with her godfather, Max, while she finishes out her work in the city; she is traveling to Europe in a few short weeks. We met up in the afternoon and took the train to Max's house. It's a very nice neighborhood, small victorian-style houses line the street. Max is a fanastic guy and a perfect example of a Kiwi host (or so I hope). When I arrived he had already set up a cot for me in the living room and within a couple hours we had all sat down to a delicious meal featuring lamb, veggies and potatos and a couple glasses of red wine to which I stopped after two (since it was my first night and didn't want to appear greedy), but I'm sure he would've opened another bottle no questions asked as he was more than happy to fill up a third glass for me. We enjoyed a couple scoops of ice cream topped with fruit, a cup of coffee to go along with it and ended the night discussing politics and rugby (a *political conversation with a Kiwi is much more pleasant than any with my friends back home ha). *Note that I did not initiate the political convo.

We all went to sleep around 10:00 PM ... then all of us woke up at 1:55 AM and congregated in the living room to watch what would be the final World Cup match for the New Zealand soccer team, a 0-0 draw. Nonetheless I fell asleep for the second time that night extremely appreciative and grateful for the hospitality I had received throughout the day ... people are awesome. I'm looking forward to learning a lot from New Zealanders and my experiences here in this so far exceedingly wonderful country.

Leaving for Stella's parents' place in Pukeatua this evening, they own a cafe and guesthouse called 'Out in the Styx', supposed to be quite beautiful ... might even pick up a dishwashing shift at the restaurant on Saturday night ;)

Lookin' forward to sharing stories and experiences with you over the next couple months! Have a good one 'til next time!