Living it up at Cockatrice Farm

Hi all! Sorry for the long lag...I haven't had internet access since I got to the farm. I've been so busy and we don't get internet everyday. We're kinda restricted now since the guys dowloaded some movies and our hosts got a huge bill in the mail! That was before I arrived. I am trying to write on a french keyboard (Pat, one of the french wwoofers is nice enough to let me use his laptop). This keyboard has the letter keys in the wrong spots! So this is very difficult for me to write. Please bear with me. Let's start from Tues when I left for the farm from Sydney....

On Tues Dec 9, I took the suburban train from Sydney to Goulburn; a town ~3 hrs south of Sydney. (Before leaving Sydney, I had a meat pie with peas, mash and gravy on it. It's lean beef pie with green peas, mashed potatoes and gravy piled onto the pie). As for the train ride....luckily, I met a nice elderly lady named Nettie from Holland who now lives in Oz. She told me to sit in the front car of the train because at one of the stops, they detach half the train and only the first half continues on whereas, the second half stays. I would've been stranded if she didn't tell me! The conductor does announce this but you really can't hear anything over the intercom. When I got to Goulburn station, Rhys (one of the wwoof hosts) was there to pick me up. We stopped to pick up pizza since Tuesdays are pizza nights. Back at the farm (about 15 min from town), I met Allison (Rhys significant other) and the 2 french wwoofers Pat and Nicky. Allison was so happy to have another female in the house and she taught me to sew some stuff as practice. I'll be making banners later on.

Wed Dec 10, Nicky showed me around the property and how to feed the animals. There are chickens (a rooster who makes noise at 5 am each morning, silkies who are strange looking, and regular ones), ducks with ducklings, geese (one of them was decapitated by a fox 2 days before), other weird looking geese (one named Nicky who tries to go in the house....Nicky the french guy bought that one), a baby horse named Rev and a female coming soon. There's also Cara, the ultra friendly black Lab who follows us around. She loves getting dirty and she reeks. My first task was painting the white in the flowers on a fence that will be used for medieval festivals. The fence is purple with white flowers. I will be putting 4 layers of paint over the next few days.

Thurs Dec 11, I fed animals, painted more and removed some weeds called Tussex: they are yellow hairy looking grass. Pat and I went out to remove these with a tool that looks like a hoe on one end and a spike on the other. We had to hack into the ground and remove the Tussex from the roots. It's hard work! We only have to weed 1 hr per day. We work 4 hrs per day in 2 shifts. We take a break from 12 to 3pm so that we're out of the sun. So great Rhys and Allison care about our well-being!

Fri Dec 12, I woke up early around 7am because Rhys and Allison wanted to bring me to Canberra, the country's capital. They work there so they dropped me off on their way to work. I got some breakfast at a cafe called Coffee@Helen's....I ordered a mocha and the BEST french toast with maple syrup I ever had! The french toast wasn't overfried and I could taste the egg in it. Yum! I then took a hop-on hop-off tour bus around Canberra since the streets are so loopy and confusing. It was a rainy day so I didn' t see too much. I visited the War Memorial, Parliament, and the National Museum. I learned in Parliament that all EXIT signs must be green...it's illegal otherwise. However, they did pass a special law so that the Senate can have red EXIT signs. The public can also sit in on a Parliamentary debate to hear the colourful things that the politicians sling at each other. After work, Rhys and Allison took me to a glass blowing place but unfortunately, it was quiet that day so I didn't see much going on. We also went for some yummy chocolates in Canberra before heading back home.

Sat Dec 13, Rhys and Allison went to Sydney to visit Allison's family so us wwoofers were left alone at the farm. I did another coat of paint on the white flowers and then the guys and I watched some DVDs. We saw I am Legend, he Will Smith movie.

Sun Dec 14, I painted the fence in the horse paddock a blue colour (it was rusted red). It was so windy that paint blew all over me. It was tough getting that off until Rhys came home with some turpentine for us. Great...now I have tiny blue spots on my brand new windbreaker. It's been windy and cold here lately.

Mon Dec 15, this morning I awoke to see that the chickens had escaped! Nicky helped me round them up. Later on, I found a straggler chicken and I caught it to put it back in its coop. My first caught chicken!!!! The guys went to work today so I continued painting the fence blue in the horse paddock. Just now, Rhys' new horse came and I showed the man where to put the horse. She's in the field next to the baby boy horse so that they can get to know each other through the fence. This one is one of those worker horses with the big hooves (Clydesdales?). Cara the dog is next to me snoozing....she snores a bit, it's so cute.

Oh by the way, Cockatrice Farm.....a cockatrice is a beast with the head of a chicken and the body of a dragon. I don't know if it's a medieval mythical animal or it was made up by Rys and Allison.

NZ on Horseback

Early this morning, I went horseback riding. The place to pay for it was at "Old McDonald's Farm" -- it is actually owned by a Mr. McDonald! Since I am not an experienced rider, I was given an old horse named Romper. Romper likes to eat a lot and she tends to do that to annoy novice riders. We went through the forest, a Kiwi fruit orchard, the beach, and crossed creeks. The other 3 riders in the group were more experienced, so they were able to make their horses run through the orchard and around the beach. I was perfectly content staying put with Romper and watching the others.

On the way to Greymouth, we decided to camp overnight on the side of the road next to the ocean. On one side of the road was forest on a cliff going up and the other side was a resting area next to the water. The view was spectacular with the sun setting over the crashing waves. The waves were incredibly powerful and never ending. Furthermore, it was extremely windy and cold! This made cooking very hard since the wind always blew out our fire on the stove. The bedding from the tent was flying out and we actually lost one pillow! The four of us went searching in the darkness with 2 flashlights and eventually, it was found. Sleeping was chilly and windy. The howling winds kept us up because we feared being blown onto the road.

Abel Tasman National Park

We departed Nelson for our next destination: Abel Tasman National Park. On our way there, we saw a Kiwi fruit orchard. The Kiwi fruits here are HUGE!

At the Abel Tasman, we took a water taxi from Marahau to Anchorage so that we can tramp (hike) our way back. The boat ride was fun and it reminded me of western Canada. Along the way, we saw Split Apple Rock -- which looks like...yep, a split apple. The hike back took about 4 hours and the beginning of it was especially hard due to the inclines and burning sun. Later on, the trail became much more bearable due to the shade provided by the various foliage.

Tonight, we are camping our van next to some horses. I will be going horseback riding tomorrow with one of the girls.

I noticed some interesting blue birds with red beaks hanging around near the horses. They are the pukeko bird (aka. Purple Swamp Hen). They are about the size of chickens and they have long gangly legs.