Hello everyone!

It’s winter now, so, I though while I am sitting in front of the warm fireplace, I could write something about the last couple of weeks. This will be the last report from New Zealand as well, although may be not the last one on this homepage.
I’ll start where the last article ended: The weekend, when Claire had come to Hamilton. It was great to see her again. On the following Tuesday, we drove to Rotorua to do Zorb balling. You might have heard about it. You sit in a big ball and roll down a hill. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed because you don’t fall over and bounce around in that ball. It’s more like a hydroslide. They put some water inside to make it slippery. While you sit in there, you slide and the ball rolls downhill. Ok, it’s better than a slide but not as good as I had expected.
On my way home, which was supposed to be about a 90 min drive, the car broke down. The good thing was, it happened in one of the two villages that are on the way and I didn’t get hurt. The bad thing was, it was 11pm and because it was the drive shaft that broke, I couldn’t fix it there. As I said, it was the driveshaft, the stick, that goes from the engine to the rear axle (rear wheel drive car). Usually, if something like that happens, the driveshaft shoots through the driver’s seat, straight into the driver’s leg and/or his back. That’s why I was happy not to get hurt.
Anyway, Kent had to pick me up (it still was one hour from home). At 1.30am I was in bed. I was so happy that it didn’t break down in the middle of nowhere. Btw. there is a lot of nowhere without phone reception and almost no traffic at night around here, although it’s definitely “crowded” here compared to the South Island ;).
Nothing very interesting happened the following weeks. The cows are dried off, which means no milking, yay! We did and still do a lot of maintenance on the farm like cleaning troughs and putting sand around them. There are about 100 hundred here. Fixing fences, cleaning the milking shed, preparing everything for the next season.
On June 4th was Queen’s birthday and we went to an outdoor swimming pool. Most pools in NZ are thermal, by the way. The air was freezing cold but the water was hot as. And they had two big waterslides. On of them the longest in NZ with 450ft. The other one was a very steep and fast slide. The aim was to slide as far as possible over the water when you entered the pool. Some people did up to six or seven meters. It was so much fun. You can call me a child if you want but most of the people there were about my age! Why should you stop having fun as a grown up??
Last week, there was the biggest agricultural event of the Southern Hemisphere in Hamilton, the Fielddays! THE annual highlight for every farmer. A big trade show where you can buy farm machinery, clothing, just everything you need on the farm. Three days, more than 100,000 visitors and about $300million changing hands. On our way there, we had to wait in a traffic jam. The second traffic jam, I have ever been in in NZ. The first one was in Auckland during rush hour, which is expectable.
Isn’t it hilarious, a traffic jam caused by a farming event? That’s what is important in New Zealand. The rural life rules! It was a fantastic event. Tractor drag races, fencing and chain saw competitions, big machines. Great new tractors with the latest technology. Well, it looks like I have become a farmer, too. At least a bit ;).
And now, something really exciting: The first surviving calf was born on Friday. He was 2 weeks too early but luckily fully developed. His name is Nemo, like the fish. (It's not Nemo on the picture, that one is the second calf, just a few hours old.) He is just a bit bigger. I had to carry him and you won’t believe how heavy a baby can be. Unfortunately, one cow lost her twins the same days, as well. They were still very small and didn’t even have any hair. It’s sad that cows slip but you can’t expect only healthy calves from 600 cows.
Well, it looks like the calving season has begun. The relaxed time is going to be over soon. We will have to start milking, feeding out more extra food, feeding all the little calves.
Although I wrote we, I can’t really include myself because my time here will be over in two weeks. I gonna have to leave the rural life, working outside all day, yep, the mainly stress free life behind. Ok, the physically hard work and boring parts, too. I still enjoyed most of the time, though.
This weekend, I’ll have the Final Camp with the other exchangees. A third of the exchangees has left the program early and it’s not a surprise. I don’t want to write about the details here but the New Zealand ICYE committee was often part of the reasons. All of us were at least a bit disappointed with the committee’s work.
Anyway, I reckon the year was worth it, I just hope, it won’t be to difficult to get back to “my old life” in Germany.
But before I go back to Germany, I’ll go on holidays to Oz for one week. Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, here I come! No Outback this time, otherwise there wouldn’t be a reason to go back there again ;p (Except for the people, although their accent isn’t the right one. What d’ ya reckon, Claire?)
While most of you are probably wearing shorts, t-shirts and jandals, or even togs, the winter is kind of here, as I wrote in the beginning. But it doesn’t get very cold. We have some frost during the night and there is snow on the mountains. It’s so nice to have winter again. I haven’t had it for a long, long time. While it is stormy and rainy outside, it is supposed to be warm inside. Ok, most of the houses in New Zealand don’t have central heating or any good insulation but it is warm right in front of the fireplace. And that’s exactly where I am at the moment. Have a nice time, whoever reads this and don’t hesitate to write me, I am always excited about e-mails or letters.

Ka kite