04.08.2019 Rakaia Gorge and drive to the farm

We spent the weekend camping before starting work on the farm. Our van is incredibly cozy, and despite the -1 degrees at night, we didn't feel cold.

In winter, many campsites are unfortunately closed or only have limited opening hours. Our campsite was supposed to have showers, and it did, but they were closed. So we at least washed our hair, but with ice-cold water. With Jenny's long hair, brain freeze was inevitable :-D.

The past few nights have been stormy and rainy, and this morning we even had frost. Despite the cold weather, we walked the Rakaia Gorge Walkway. In total, we hiked 13 km, and our campsite, the Rakaia Gorge Campground, was only a few hundred meters away.

The walk was incredibly beautiful. The mountains and the beautiful combination of blue water and yellow flowers were a feast for the eyes.

In the afternoon, we drove to Mayfield, where the farm we are starting on is located. We said goodbye to Toni for now, as the farmer didn't need another person. We will meet up again for traveling. Melissa, who mainly takes care of the calves here, welcomed us. We are living in a house with Joe (from China) and Tidy (from the Philippines). Tidy is 41 years old, and we have no idea about Joe's age, but he has been on this farm for about 7 months. Today, we could only find out that there is another couple who started for the calving season a week ago and will also stay for 3 months.

The farm actually consists of 2 farms, the 'big farm' and the 'little farm'. James and Jackie are the owners, and we have already briefly met James. John, our boss, essentially works for the two of them. There are also 2 men whom we haven't met yet.

The big farm has 1400 cows, and the small farm currently has 500 cows. They milk twice a day, which we can't even imagine because on the farms we worked on, it took us 5 hours for 500 cows.

John, our boss, will come to us tomorrow, and then we will discuss everything. Melissa said we would start working on Tuesday. Honestly? If we have everything discussed tomorrow, we are also willing to start immediately. We want to work as much as possible until November, mid-November. Joe said that payment is made every 2 weeks, and we work about 55 hours per week, which is okay for us because that's how much we worked on the farms we were on.

Tomorrow, we will learn more, and we will keep you updated :)