Blair and Heidi have been talking of taking me up to ‘the farm’ since I’ve arrived, which is run by family friends. We decided that this would be a good weekend to go, and I had no idea what to expect. I’d be lying if I said that images of red roofed barns and something like Old MacDonald didn’t cross my mind.
Blair’s soccer season has started up and so we went to his first game. Regardless of the score- which shall remain a secret- the disposition was good as they headed for a local pub for traditional drinks. Although my drink was commented on when we got to the table as a little strong for that time in the afternoon, I couldn’t pass up a New Zealand staple of what they call RTD’s. RTD’s are pre-mixed, ‘ready to drink’ beverages. Jack and coke in the same bottle, people!
After, we headed up to the farm. We first stopped at Blair’s father’s house as we had driven to the soccer game separately and this was a place on the way out of town that we could drop off a car overnight. Blair’s father was away so we didn’t see him, but what I saw instead was an amazing view from the end of his drive! No wonder my grandparents from Hawaii said they considered moving here!
After consolidating cars, we were really off!
This was the puppy’s first long trip in the back of a truck and after a rough start:
he settled down. I did too, as it was a long windy two hour trip to the farm, and this time I was prepared with a common anti-nausa pill called “Sea Legs.” The bottle says “May cause drowsiness,” and I’ve decided that instead of any sort of anti-nausa medicine they’re just massive tranquilizers.
We left late in the afternoon so by the time we arrived to the farm it was dark. We stopped to let Rum out and could barely see the lights from Napier….
We arrived in time for ‘tea,’ and afterwards Blair took me out to experience possum hunting. Possums are a huge pest here but amazingly their fur is unbelievabley soft, and if you can catch enough (apparently around 20), you can get NZ $100/kilo! Ronnie (the farmer who runs the 1400 acre farm!) said a couple possums had been in messing up varying sheds across his property. So we took off to take a look.
We zoomed around tracks that Blair has been travelling on for the last twenty years. I could hear the river and feel temperature changes as our altitude increased, but other than that I was lost in the blackness. Blair was successful and I got my first experience of possum hunting! It feels a little weird to be smiling, but I did get handful of the soft fur to take back!
All in all a very eventful day- if only I knew what Sunday was going to hold!
