Eldonita: 26.03.2017
Miller's gathered all their relatives & friends to gather as many goats as possible from the 'native Bush'. Josh, Catherine's cousin, carried the goats on a cart. In the end, we raised 180 goats, which we then sold. 🐏🐐🐏🐐🚛💵
Goat meat is especially popular among the Indians. After the Goat Week, we dedicated ourselves to the sheep - weighing, cleaning their enclosure, nursing the sick ones, and administering vitamins.
Because we felt so comfortable at the Millers', they treated us twice to Swabian cuisine:
1. Meat dumplings with mashed potatoes and vegetables with gravy
2. Ham noodles and mixed salad (gone in a flash!)
During the game of Monopoly, Ailsa and Cath came up with such crazy phrases that it almost drove us crazy. 🙇🏼♀️🙇🏽♀️Maybe that's why we were always the losers 😄
On Sunday, we borrowed David's car for two days to do the Alpin Crossing hike. Rain or shine, we set off at 8:45 AM. The climb was so brutal, Conny almost couldn't handle it and she didn't get enough air - the wind was so extreme, you can't even imagine! 🌬💨🌪Steffi would have preferred to crawl on all fours - it was the first time in her life she was afraid the wind would blow her away. The effort was definitely worth it, but the view was simply phenomenal (Red Crater (Mt Doom from The Lord of the Rings), Emerald Lakes, Blue Lake). 😍 Around noon, we had covered the short 20 kilometers and realized how small the world actually is: There was actually someone from our hometown!
After about two weeks, we said goodbye to the farm and continued by bus to Hamilton, where we spent a nice evening with a walk through the Hamilton Gardens, dinner at the market, and a nightcap in a pub with live music.
After a short night, we continued to Taupo in the South Island. During a Saturday afternoon shopping spree, we threw money around like it was Monopoly money... 💸
We ended the evening with burgers & wedges, enjoying the view of the lake. #treatingourselves
This morning, we wanted to go to the Huka Falls, but we only made it to the Hot Water Streams, where we splashed around a bit and mentally and emotionally prepared ourselves for rafting. We spent 2 hours on the Tongariro River, tackling 50 rapids! It was a really fun afternoon. 😊 We'll post pictures of the rafting tomorrow 😉.