Dairy farming

The sun is shining and the temperature rises. It's at the moment 25 C and the Mt Maunganui area is one of the best places to be in Cristmas/New Year time. Heaps of young people comes here and I'm pretty sure that there will be some beach parties.. Hope that it isn't too bad in Finland though.

I have had past 6 weeks good farming experience. Living on the farm isn't the easiest way to earn money, but it teaches a cityboy like me a lot of new things and skills. Now I'm pretty confident milking cows and doing other daily farm work. On a farm there is always something to do. Basically you had better do maintenance and other stuff the whole time if you want to get your life running smoothly.

One of the new skills that I have learned during this period was definitely to ride a bike. Actually it was more like motocross, because I drove up and down hills in the terrain and controlled the cows with it. And yes there was pretty steep slopes too. First two weeks were difficult and I got some minor injuries (ended up having to pay a doctor a visit once). But now I have considered to get a motorcycle driver's licence.

Finland's next motocross champion?

The farm which I was working on is a small compared to the majority of farms in NZ. There was only ca 300 cows and only an elderly couple running it. My role was to help them. Turned out they are workaholics so the days start before 6.00 am and end with dinner at 6.30 pm. So after a full day's work I was pretty tired. Their attitude and principle was "keep going". They really didn't know what "chill out" means.

The Waikato River

The Reporoa area is moorland like in Scotland with the difference that the sun is shining. The Waikato river which incidentally is the longest in NZ runs through the farm. There were nice camping grounds with nature and views which could just as well have belonged to a summer in Finland.

A Finnish or NZ lakeside?

All in all the experience was great, and the best thing about working long hours is that I now enjoy the beach living and travelling again!

Eagerly waiting to be fed

Check out MORE PICTURES here! A few words in Finnish round it all up:

Ruokaillut olivat luonnollisesti yhteisiä ja osoittautui hyvinkin pian, ettei mistään kulinaarisista nautinnoista voinut puhua. Paahtoleivät kuuluivat aamupalan lisäksi lounaaksi erinäisin variaatioin (esim. purkki papuja kolmen paahtoleivän päälle lätkäistynä). Sinänsä erinäisiin makeisiin jälkiruokiin oli panostettu teen (=päivällisen) yhteydessä. Myös teen juonti yllätti: saattoi hyvin olla päiviä etten nähnyt heidän juovan muuta kuin teetä.

No mutta hyvänä vastapainona olemmekin sitten JBB kanssa laittaneet sitäkin herkullisempia ruokia!