Hello Dannevirke!

Oh man, it's been a couple weeks. I'm so out of the habit of writing now. And so much has happened, so much to be said. I can't remember a lick of it.

I will start by saying that we finished our time at Turanga Creek Vineyards in Whitford, east of Auckland city. Our next venture was supposed to be Waiheke Island which is a 45 minute ferry ride from where we were staying. Our to-be host there had to postpone our stay, and it's likely we won't be going up to the island till winter time (Summer for those back in the States). Despite tons of planning for this venture, we weren't disapointed and instead found it to be a blessing in disguise. Another host randomly invited us to their farm just a day before receiving the news of cancellation. We jumped on it and are now 6 1/2 hours south of Whitford in the Viking town of Dannevirke (lots of Norwegians live here). We bought a car also, as he we had originally intended. A bright purple Ford Falcon station wagon. It looks like a hearse. We both adjusted to driving on the opposite side of road really quickly and it was a beautiful and fun drive down the North Island.

So we're staying now with Kim and Karen Phelps, helping on their farm--which is really a farm this time. Within 30 minutes of arriving we were helping with the cows and learning how the milking machine works and feeding ducks and I even got slightly electrocuted by a fence! It's been great here so far (second full day as of writing). We get up at 6:30 and go help Kim start the day with milking the momma cows, feeding the calves, chickens and turkeys, and some general cleanup down at the barn. During the week we're left to accomplish a list of tasks on our own time while they're at work. We've still got a lot to learn, but it's very exciting and we're both pretty happy to get into a routine and also have some space and creativity for approaching our jobs. 

I'll write more tonight (no promises). We've got to go track down a mother turkey and her children and give them food, then go on a tramp through the bush (hike in the woods) to figure out why one of the electric fences has gone cold. Then we have some general weeding, egg cleaning and dating (duck, turkey and chicken eggs--oh my!), and then some baking of cookies and prep for dinner before our hosts get home from work. Pretty exciting day ahead of us!

That is all.