phelps farm blog

So it has been a while since I've written. That has a lot to do with the internet being out. Don't worry. I've been quite busy.
First off, this place is beautiful. WWOOFing here has really been worth it. After two distinct hosts and jobs, I'm glad that WWOOFing is part of my travel plans. I've been in NZ for just over a month and I've paid $140 NZD for room and board. That was just the week I spent in Auckland at City Groove. At that rate, I'll spend just $1680 NDZ on accommodation. That works out to about $950 USD. If I stayed at a hostel every night, and got a decent rate, I would bee looking at well over $7000 NZD. WOOT for WWOOFing!

Jobs I've done at the farm:

butchering a cow
picking purple potatoes
dishes
making dinner (curry- duh. thanks Luke!)
feeding ducks, chooks, turkeys and dogs
cleaning 100 ducks (breasts and legs. there were 4 of us working for 4 hours)
fixing and setting up new electric fences
weeding (all kinds)
moved wood with a tractor
and more

The cow was cool. Horrible and almost unbearable. But cool. At one point I went off to pee, and I'm sure that all the farmers thought I was throwing up. Nope. Not me. I got in there and skinned and collected fat and heaved and sawed. The only problem that I really had was how the animal was killed. Kim made a slight miscalculation and the first shot didn't kill the poor animal. Neither did the second one. Some serious throat cutting was in order. And that didn't really work either. The other two animals (not ours) were dead in seconds. Ours was just a fluke, and I don't blame Kim for it at all. Just a healthy strong animal wearing it's fucking Ape suit. That thing didn't give a fuck. However, it was delicious. So far we've eaten the sirloins, tail (tail stew), tongue, and more steak. Tonight's dinner is a brisket. We had duck wings. (Josephine and I just simultaneously thought of Darkwing Duck in our heads). The duck came from some friends of the Kim and Karen's that were not interested in cleaning or eating the spoils of duck hunting's opening weekend. Fools!

Every meal is 99% from the farm. At first this seemed pretty normal. Then today I realized what this really means. Sure, the food is far better than par, but the best thing is the amount of trash that isn't created. How many trash bags do you use every week? I've lived in places where one of those big black garbage bags didn't last two days. I'm not sure if, after a week and a bit, we've emptied the tiny cans at all. Food is put in a barrel for the neighbor's pigs, glass (mostly Tui bottles) is recycled. There is no plastic. Paper is kindling for the fire places. Bones go to the fire. Leftovers are put on a plate for tomorrow's lunch. I guess those are covered with cellophane.
And don't get me started on how cheap it is to eat like this. My lowest expense might be lodging, but food has made on a slightly larger dent in my wallet. I haven't paid for anything here, except the one time I've been in town and hungry.

I'm really missing my friends right now. I've set my laptop's background to cycle through my 10 gigs of pictures. That might have been a mistake. Every snapshot is a friend I can't hang out with tonight. I miss Sam a lot, as usual. I still don't think I'm ever gonna get over what happened. I can usually hear him talking about Calzone Golems. I wish Andrew was here. I know he'd be a great companion to explore this country with. I hope someone comes and visits me during Christmas. Today I'm not sure I can go a whole year without seeing some sign of my friends and family. Don't even get me started on Malcolm. Yesterday was different though. I was on an adventure.

Yesterday I went to the coast. You're never far from it here. After a few minutes in the car I was at Karen's school. She teaches 7-9 year olds. The school is almost Montessori, and all the kids looked pretty cool. The day before, they had a lesson about comparing and contrasting two different places, so it was perfect that I showed up. I sat down in the teacher chair and they fired off question after question. That Disney guy had it right, kids are mostly interested in animals. I told stories about snakes (of which there are none here) dinosaurs, bears, dear and every other kind of North American animal. They also wanted to know about weather and how big Texas really is. To them, NZ has three parts, The North Island, South Island and Stewart Island. And to them, the USA has 50 parts. They got a huge kick out of that. They also want to learn how to play basketball. I can't blame them. The local version of basketball is called "netball". Don't google it. Please don't. It is one of those things that needs no encouragement. It sucks so embarrassingly hard for NZ. Just pretend that they all love the NBA. Rugby, sure, I hope they continue to live and die for and by their rugby teams, but please, someone stop netball. Since we're out in the country, there are only 60 students and 3 classes. Who knows how big the region that covers is.

Hold on. I gotta go put another log on the fire. Today is rainy and cold as balls.

Ok. Where was I? Oh yeah. So after the school, I continued my fabulous day off adventure with some random driving about. Actually I wanted to see the seal colony in Herbertville. Herbertville is a tiny town. No industry or work. Pretty much everyone is either a shepherd or goes into a nearby town for work. There is a cool bar however. Bev holds it down at the happening-est joint in town. One of the coolest places I've ever seen. I've got to make sure I get back there when there are some regulars around. This place is exactly what a NZ bar should and is like. I actually stopped by to make sure my directions to the seals were solid, Bev said she'd make me a "toasty" (grilled cheese) when I got back. So onto the seals.

I took a dirt road down a bit, turned into a gate, down another bit, and then walked a few miles down the beach. The walk was cool. I'm still not used to the noise of the waves. There were lots of cool little birds and crabs and stuff. I saw a few foot prints and a 4x4 track, but other than that, I didn't see anyone. After a bit the beach got rockier and I knew I was close to seals. After a small hike over a grassy sand dune, and before I knew it- I was in the middle of a dozens of sleeping seals. Then the horrid smell hit me. Uh- those things stink! They were cool, and fairly oblivious to me. When they finally saw me they would stick their heads up and waddle off. More than once I felt bad for being too close. It was cool to see them slide into the ocean. I have lots of pictures I should insert here. In fact, I think I saw a Kiwi bird!!!! It is the only bird I got pictures of. Someone check and see if that is really a Kiwi.

After that I headed back to the bar where Bev was waiting for me. I didn't have the sandwich, not being hungry, but I had a beer and we talked about local NZ pubs and what it is like to live in a tiny place. She was really cool. Again, I have to go back when there are more people around. Max- this sounds like where we'll go when you come to visit.

After that, I headed out to do a bit of driving. I didn't really know where I was going, but I knew that the area I was in didn't have many places to go, so I figured I'd be fine. I was totally right. I ended up in a cool town that was just like Herbertville. It had a big hotel where a busload of business looking people were loading up. I guess they had driven down from a big city to see how the little people live. It made me glad to have my own car. So I walked into this hotel/bar/diner/ whatever and ordered a B.L.A.T. sandwich (bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato. delish). While I was waiting, this hardcase local Maori guy told me that I was being a "wank" for sitting by myself and that I had no choice but to come sit with the locals and have a beer. Well, you know me, not one to turn down a toothless Maori guy. So I went and sat with a really diverse group of locals as they told bullshit stories and drank copious amounts of beer for 3 o'clock on a Tuseday. (I only had one, and they didn't push me to have more when I said I was driving. I was surprised.) There were some guys who obviously worked on the roads (when they work I don't know), a married couple that obviously didn't have a job, and a guy who was just down on the coast for his holiday, doing some fishing. They were all pretty badass and really New Zealand. I couldn't understand a thing to two toothless guys were saying. But they were friendly and genuine, so I liked them. After lunch, I drove around some more, but no where as cool as the two towns I stopped in. In fact, there aren't any other towns in the region. It was a perfect day off.

I got to talk to my dad on his birthday! It was good to hear from him and it sounds like his new house is really cool. I talked to him via Skype. If you have Skype you should be able to find me with my email address or my username which is "donlazy". It costs me 2 cents a minute to talk to most everyone in the world, so make sure I have your number and maybe I'll hit you up. Still no cell phone, which I'm pretty happy about. It is such a fucking rip off over here.

Next thing to talk about is my current desire to get a good video camera. Birthday present anyone? Having worked with a few different cameras in my day, I have some really strict requirements for buying a camera. There are so many that only export into file formats that can't be edited with the software that I have. Total crap. Has to have a built in hard drive that can hold a few hours of video. I doubt that I'll find one in my price range. Maybe when I goto Asia. Or Maybe I'll catch a sale somewhere. We'll see.

I think it would just be soo cool to have a legit travel podcast. I know how to do it, and I have the software and the time, I just don't have the camera. I have a few ideas for themes and topics. Expect more on all this soon. If you search iTunes for travel video podcasts there are maybe 3 cool ones. After that they are just drivel. Or cool ideas that are not updated. So I think I can succeed where others have failed.

I am getting ready to leave the Phelps' household. I really want to get out into the bush soon. The weather isn't so great, but I should try to go hiking before it gets worse. I'm pretty far south in the North Island, so I think I'll head down to Wellington for a few days, then cross over ($150!!!) to the South Island and check out Nelson. The best tramping is down there. Also the harshest weather. Hell yeah!

There are lots of opportunities here. I think that I should look for a job. I mean, it is great that I'm not spending money at the moment, but I should try and make some when there isn't much going on in the world of being outside. Dru told me that the most boring times he was here was about now, just being shut in, keeping dry. Maybe now is a good time to get a job at a pub, or a golf course, or anything like that. I only want enough money to break even. So that's only a few hundred bucks a week. I guess I could keep WWOOFing, but I think I'd like to be alone right now. Not have to worry about work at all. But that probably isn't realistic. But then again, reality can suck it.

As I post this, I have 329 days left on my visa. That is a lot.