12 weeks in....

So 12 weeks ago we arrived in New Zealand, 13 weeks since we left Devon and nearly 19 weeks since we left Cumbria.

New Zealand has not disappointed us so far, summer is on its way and the weather is slowly getting better. Here is what we've been doing for the last few months....

On the 29th June we said goodbye to all my family and friends, which was pretty horrible and plenty of tears were cried (mostly by me) but it had to be done. I don't think I have yet come to terms with the fact I won't be seeing my lovely family for a while. One thing I have learnt in the last 10 weeks is to keep telling yourself you'll see your family soon, and then eventually soon really will be soon instead of in a couple of years.


We then drove down to Devon which is where we would stay until Rich's visa turned up. After much (6 weeks) bribing, bartering and general persuasion with NZ immigration they decided Rich was allowed in to the country as he knew more about cows than they originally thought. So finally the flights were booked and the goodbyes to all of Rich's Devon family and friends began. Even though it was longer than expected we had an amazing 6 weeks holiday in Devon with all of Rich's friends. It was so nice for me to meet everyone and get to see all of Devon in the amazing summer we had, which meant a lot of time was spent on the beach actually sunbathing, which I think is a first for me in the UK!

The 10th of August rolled around and we set off on our long journey to the airport, spending 2 days with Rich's uni friends Owen and Claire and then on to Joe and Becky Delves' for a night before we ditched Rich's car in Joe's capable ebay selling hands. Joe kindly dropped us at the airport on Tuesday 13th August and then it was time to fly. So off we went via Dubai, Sydney, Christchurch and finally on Thursday we arrived at Invercargill airport where boss man Chris picked us up.

We stayed at Chris and Sue’s house for the first week while our house was being sorted out. The first couple of days were really difficult trying to get over jetlag as Rich was straight into work on the farm, I however spent most of the days sleeping. On Saturday morning I received the awful news that my Grandad had passed away just a day after we arrived. After speaking to all my family I made the heartbreaking decision not to go home for the funeral. Grandad had been glad to hear that we had finally arrived in NZ and I know the decision I made was what Grandad would have wanted. Gran told me on the phone “I will not be happy if you come all the way back” and not wanting to suffer the wrath of Gran I decided to stay in NZ. Thankfully I was able to write some words and they were read out in the service, so I was able to say bye to Grandad in my own way.

Southland. The View from the top of the farm

So after a week of staying with Chris and Sue we moved into our house. We are living on the sheep farm block just outside the village of Nightcaps, which is about 10km away from the main farm. We were now both working on the farm, Rich was milking and doing other jobs involving cows (I clearly know loads about farming) and I was helping out with calf rearing. I won't lie, having not done a manual job before, I struggled. Funnily enough being headbutted/stood on/covered in shit/kicked by calves stays cute for about a day until you realise just how many bruises you have. 700 calves later my shin bones are just about in one piece. 

After getting over the initial aches and pains and the horrific wake up time of 6am, I began to enjoy the job (well apart from when it rained which was most days).

Our first few days off together were spent looking around the area where we live, we then started going further afield. So on one of our days off we decided to go down to the most southerly point of New Zealand, Bluff. Not surprisingly it was bucketing down with rain but we still went to see what was there. It turns out, not a lot! Even less when it's pouring down with rain and foggy. But despite that we had a great day out, mainly down to the fish and chips we then ate to get out of the rain.

Devils Highway. On the road to QT

The next big trip was up to Canterbury to visit Rich's friend George. We decided to drive via Queenstown the night before and stayed there for the night. Very quickly we both said we would be going back for a few days at a later date. We stayed near Hinds in Canterbury and on the way home we drove down the East coast so we got to see as much as we could in a short time. Canterbury was lovely and sunny, as we drove over the border into Southland it began to rain....I'm beginning to think Southland is like Cumbria and possesses  it's own permanent rain cloud.

Canterbury

Let me in it's raining

Since that trip we have not been away anywhere new but have lots of plans to do so. More recently we decided to get a dog, after lots of talk about a puppy Rich decided it best we don't get a puppy as he doesn't want to run a gauntlet of assorted liquids on the kitchen floor at 4am or be kept up all night by it howling. So we found a lovely dog called Nelly who is a 5 year old labrador/spaniel cross. She has loads of energy and loves to run EVERYWHERE. We were best of friends until this morning when she woke me up with her continuous barking, so we are now having a stand off until she apologises.

Due to our severe lack of anything running related while we have been here both me and Rich decided we need to enter a race to have some motivation to go out and run. We then stupidly decided to enter Challenge Wanaka half ironman and we have no idea why. So in January we will be swimming 1.9km, cycling 90km and then running a half marathon, why? I have no idea. The race is on. Training has started very slowly but with my road bike being sent over in the next couple of weeks we are both looking forward to getting out and exploring Southland on bikes.

Walking the dog has its perks

Last week we had a couple of days off had a visit from Claire, who Rich is good friends with from uni. Claire was over in New Zealand working and she came down to Southland for a few days and stayed with us for a night. It was great to have a familiar face here. The next day Rich and I took the dog and ventured to Catlins which is a rainforest reserve on the South East coast. We saw sealions (most exciting part of the day for me) and walked to Mcleans waterfall which was amazing. Now that the weather is getting better we are hoping to do a lot more walking/running around Southland and Fjordland in the next few weeks.

McLean Falls

So that's about it for our first 12 weeks. We are both loving it here and enjoying the relaxed lifestyle (Me) and the work (Rich). Summer is on its way and everything is better when it's sunny. Now to decide what we are going to do next!

Sealions