Dannevirke Farm

 As one of my friends has pointed out to me, it's like I'm able to find these little portals that lead back to Wisconsin in New Zealand.  I've seen several cool forests that really made me think of home, but the weekend of the 12th, had never made me feel more like I'd found a portal back to our Dairyland: I spent the weekend with my flatmates at Talya's family farm in Dannevirke.

Dannevirke is a small town about 2 hours north of Wellington, just south of Palmerston North.  Apparently it's the only city in New Zealand that was settled by "Vikings"or Scandinavians.  It's really a farming community, at least the part of town we were in was.  Talya's family had been farming there for about 3 generations. It's one of those family farms where they all live on one long road, so she could point out her grandparents' house, her Aunties, and even the house she was born in.  It was a cool walk through memory lane, and certainly helped us to get to know Tals better.  We got there later in the evening, but even so Talya's mum and dad had already started to put together an incredible spread for us.  We had grilled steak, BBQ chicken, corn on the cob, roasted potatoes and pumpkin, coleslaw, salad, garlic bread. After all that I felt like I was going to explode, but then they brought out this chocolate sponge cake for desert with peanut butter ice cream to go with.  I was in food coma heaven!

Even after all that, we still sat by her open fire place and had our evening cup of Milo and roasted some marshmallows.  Finally Talya rounded us all up for an interesting evening activity.  We donned some typical farm boots, some jackets and vests, and then climbed into the back of her dad's truckbed and went "spotting" as they called it.  Essentially what we did was drive through a bunch of paddocks and farm fields with these big spotlights and shined them on the fields looking for rabbits and possums.  If we'd done actual spotting, we would've had a riffle with us too and been shooting the rabbits as we saw them.  It was fun riding around in the dark on the back of a truck.  You had to hold on to the roof or sit in the back, so we took turns doing both.  We saw quite a few rabbits and even spotted a hedgehog (I know--a wild hedgehog?!) crossing the path behind the truck.  We didn't stay out that late though because we were going to get up early to milk cows and do some farm chores in the morning.  And when I say early I mean only getting up at like 6:45am, so not that bad.  The really cool thing about getting up that early was that it was before the sunrise so as we were going out to the milking station the sun was coming up over the hills in the distance, dying the clouds beautiful colors.

And on come the cows! So they go on either side of the milking deceives, then Talya and her brother Alex (who was working on the farm that weekend) took that metal pole that's kind of sitting there and they'd put it right up against the cows to keep them all facing the same direction and keep them from moving. After that Alex took us down the steps and it felt like you were in a kind of tunnel of cows; there were cows on either side. Then we had to hook the suction up to the udders, and pull them off.  It worked out so that once you had one side of cows were down you'd pull them off that row and stick them onto the other side of cows who hadn't been milked.  They warned us repeatedly, but it was still a little hectic to avoid the cows pooping as they were just standing there getting milked. We were there to do the last 2 rounds of milking, and then just clean up the milking shed.  Tals and Shannon did that while Maia, Kip, and I went with Talya's dad to move the cows' paddock.  Essentially we just had to take this string that was separating them from the greener grasses and move it over the length that Roger (Tals' dad) told us. It was kind of cool because the string, once attached to both end electric fences the string became electrified too.  Roger even showed us how to test a fence to see if the current was running through it.  You have to take a blade of grass and hold it on the fence, and the closer you move it to your finger then you should feel it buzzing. We tried it out and it worked pretty well, it was kind of crazy to realize that the current was working through the grass to me. (quick intercepted sentence - Talya Stephenson is AWESOME. as is new zealand.. you should all pop down here for a wee visit!) And yes that would be a kiwi infiltrating my blog, in a very kiwi tone of voice I might add (everything she said is true too!).

The crazy thing about finishing the milking and moving the paddock was that the sun was still rising!  I really love getting up early enough to see the sunrise: it's beautiful and then you feel like you have a lot more time in your day to do things.

After milking we took another ride in the truck to some other paddocks, moved those around, and then went for a little ride.  This time Talya and Maia sat on the front of the truck as Roger drove us around the paddocks. I was jealous of them until he drove full speed through a stream and Maia and Tals got wet. Seemed like something my dad would do, and we were all laughing about it in the end.  After that they decided it'd be a good idea to hop back in the truckbed with the rest of us.  With the sun fully up now we had some fun letting our hair down and watching it blow all over the show.

It was pretty hysterical, especially Maia's hair (she's on the left).  Her hair looked just like those little trolls I used to collect as a kid, all piled up in a kind of pyramid or tornado on top of her head.  We were moving along pretty quick along the road so it was hard to keep everything under wraps and keep your eyes open. Those three sat and Kip and I stood holding on to the truck. It was a fun ride, and still early in the day--it felt like we'd already done a whole bunch so far too.

The day was just getting started though, because after breakfast we played a couple games and then got to do a little target practice (won't put those pictures up since I've been asked not to, but upon request I may show them to you when I get back--they're freaking epic).  After shooting we just kind of lounged about, played on the trampaline and rode around on their 4-wheeler.  There's Maia and Shannon looking like badasses.  None of us had ever shot before, so I was pretty surprised with the quality of our aim.  I have to say that I was pretty good (see evidence below). After our adventures outside we moved inside for another amazing round of food for lunch and to play some silly party games.  We played pass the parcel, which was just that we had a box with layers of wrapping and some lollies hidden between the layers, and whenever the music stopped you got to unwrap a layer until whoever unwrapped the final layer got to keep the prize.  Then it went on to limbo, classic game!  Shann and Tals ended up in a dead heat at the end, going ridiculously low.  I was surprised that I didn't get lower, I'll just blame it on the jeans I was wearing totally not my fault I couldn't go lower!!

After that one we play musical cushions, and boy did we get competitive.  It was pretty sun though, because we had Beyonce on as the music because so we were all dancing to the music until BAM the music would end and we'd all dive for the cushion, always seeming to go for the same one.  It was pretty classic for our flat to turn the game into a dance party, especially with Beyonce.

After that it was all about the scavenger hunt. Tal's mum put together some clues that took us all over their backyard and properties.  It was really tough, especially since we weren't familiar with their house.

It was really cute and made me think of how mum always does that for us for one Christmas or birthday present. This year was when she got Emily and me tickets to see the Blue Man Group.

After that we had a bit of a nap because we'd been up late the night before, spotting, and then up early to milk cows.  The life of a farmer is pretty intense, I'm not sure if I could handle the hours years on end.  For one weekend it was pretty good, but for days and days....not so sure.  We were all in love with the time we spent with Talya's family though.  Their house is incredible, with spectacular views of the surrounding hills, and her family is so lovely!  It made me just a smidge homesick myself.  Especially when they surprised me with a cake!  I had jokingly mentioned to Talya when she said that we were going up the weekend of the 12th that it was my half birthday.  Talya said that we should have a birthday party since I couldn't be there for my actual birthday in November (wish I could!!).

I thought she was kidding and said yah, and Talya went all out talking about games we could play and that I should experience a "traditional Kiwi birthday party." I was astonished when they brought out a cake with candles and sang "Happy Birthday" to me!  I can honestly say I have the best flatmates IN THE WORLD!  Seriously, just look at that cake =D

 


I was sad to be leaving Dannevirke, especially the incredible family and their beautiful home.  Seriously, I don't think the rest of the world can compete with New Zealand for landscape.  I mean come on--this is their backyard!  We have some cool landscape in Wisconsin, but the cows definitely don't get a view like this everyday!

There was one stop that we had to make before we left, and that was for Shannon. We drove through this little town that bore her name and couldn't pass up the opportunity to stop and take a photo.  Just typical us and the weird things we find funny.  I'm going to miss these girls more than anything I've seen or done when I leave though!