Cow farming unlike sheep farming is growing here in New Zealand. There are 16 sheep for every person in New Zealand but the numbers of cows are increasing because of the world demand for milk. There are the most shwep in the south of the south island with huge cow herds in the middle and northern part and smaller herds on the northern island. there are no real predators here so farmers can easily keep their calves and cows in pasture year round. No foxes, bearsm coyotes, cougars, bobcats. but lots of pests including hares, possums, weasels, cats and dogs. Each small farm may have 100-300 cows at a gross profit of $1,000/cow. And each farm has its own milking shed where the cows are milked 1x or 2x a day. Smaller milking farms are found on the North Island and families seem to make a pretty good living out of it. There is a "Meat Works" down the road. This is where newly born young bulls are sent off to be butchered along with females about age 7 that are not producing as well. Cows produce milk productively for about 7 years and then they are sent to be turned into petfood. Females who do not get pregnant by awrtificial insemination or by bulls are also sent to the Meat Works. This place is the largest employer in Te Aroha with I believe several 100 employed. Trucks regularly stop by to load the cows and huge milk trucks stop by once or twice a day as well. Very well organized system that is for sure.
I met a cow farmer on the west coast of the South Island who has 4 partners, over 25 staff and several herds of cattle numbering in the thousands. He is a very wealthy man, loves his life and says that most Kiwis hate milk farmers because they are destroying the environment. I asked him why the price of milk here in NZ was so high considering that it is produced so efficiently in everyone's backyard. Stunsaid that since they get more money on the international market, the general population hates them then why wouldn't they charge as much as they could.
The smaller farmers in Te Aroha certainly seem respected by the other professionals in the area and I have to say seem to have a wonderful network with each other through farming, social events, sports events and their chikdrens schools.
Wow, just returned from a wonderful long weekend up north with Darren's Aunt Carol and Uncle Bruce. His aunt and uncle are semi-retired so spent the entire long weekend showing us around their neck of the woods. They owned a convenience shop in the small beach resort of Oakura Bay working 5 am - 10 pm, 7 days a week. It was one of only two shops where they sold petrol and beer too so THE shop of this beach getaway. Big life change for them leaving their jobs in Tauranga and moving 5 hours north with their three children. We toured the area of beaches, mountains, farm lands covered in sheep, goats, and cows rolling green hills meticulously groomed with gorgeous ocean vistas EVERYWHERE.
We also visited Carol and Bruce's eldest son, Grant and his wife Kerri and their girls in their gorgeous new home in KeriKeri. Their home looks out into cow, deer and sheep filled fields. There are NO predators here in New Zealand. So there are bee hives galore everywhere. Goats, sheep and cows roam freely from paddock (grazing field) to paddock. Everyone makes farming look so easy here.
On Sunday Bruce took Darren out fishing on his boat named Miss Beer-having, ironically enough for a man who loves a cold beer one of his boating rules is no alcohol on board. Good rules and a really great man and wife team. Bruce and Darren caught two 37cm red snappers, two travellis, and a blue codfish. There was a monster that got away but they were not sure what it was perhaps a mako since that seemed to be the large catches that were happening that day. There was a youth fishing tournament this day as well and one kid caught a mako about 40 kgs. on a 3 kilo line.
While they were fishing I went on a day long diving trip to The Poor Knights, a marine reserve off the east coast of Northlands, north and west of the North Island. The Poor Knights are a series of small islands about 23 kms off shore and home to lots of interesting land and sea creatures. There were two boats of divers that went out. A boat full of novices and a boat full of technical divers. Amazingly enough I was on the second boat. There were about 15 of us and all in small groups. Some of the folks dived independently with incredible equipment including these jet propelled hand held underwater scooters. Three divers with 5 tanks each. They dived 60 meters for 90 minutes. They even visited some caves that few have visited. This was the first day in almost 6 months that we were able to visit The Pinnicles which are two islands part of The Poor Knights Islands but a few kms. to the south. Here we dived Tie Dye Archway which was amazing. We were surrounded by a school of about 40 giant sting rays. They were so close that you were looking directly into one of their eyes at times. This is the same critter that killed Steve Erwin so I was a bit nervous. At one point our guide said that I kicked one with my fin they were so close. As you look up from 20 meters toward the light in the sky through the arch there they were floating above us layered straight up to what to what looked like the tip of the archway. Just spectacular!
We also saw Lord Howe coral fish not native to The Poor Knights but carried over as larvae with currents from Australia. Here these bright yellow and black striped reef fish live out their lives. They cannot breed because the waters are too cold for their eggs but it is amazing to see sub-tropical fish in a cold water dive with not one but 2 layers of 7mm neoprene on my body, yikes! We also enjoyed crayfish, gray, yellow and green moray eels, red snappers, kingfish, and pink and blue mao mao fish. At our second dive site we saw three species of nudi branches including clown, gem and white nudi braches. The white nudi branches have a little red skirt. They are like beautiful underwater slugs!
We then enjoyed a delicious dinner of fresh snapper Bruce and Darren caught and homemade chips (French fries), beer and our favorite Smith cider with passion fruit and oodles of laughter and grand conversation at Bruce and Carol's beautiful home in Whangarei.
Greetings or Kia Ora from glorious New Zealand with my hosts Darren, Jade(10) and Caleb (8). This winter I decided to journey to New Zealand for a few months. A destination that has been on my bucket list for almost twenty years but mostly because I had a good friend who lived here who promised to welcome me if ever I came. I have not seen Darren in 18 years since his month long stay with me in Boston. We were flat mates in London for a few years in the early 1990s. He has been a school teacher for 12 years and is currently a middle school teacher in the quaint dairy farming community of Te Aroha which is Maori for "the mountain we love" and he is also the loving father of two wonderful children.
Well my journey was long. New Zealand does not require a visa, however in hindsight I should have gotten a working visa which also would have cost me nothing for 3 months. Anyway ce la vais. After Christmas I travelled from Maine to Boston by car and from Boston to NYC by bus (Megabus.com rocks) and then NYC to LA and then LA to Aukland with American Airlines. I spent a few days visiting friends in Boston (Nathalie took me to Q, a hot pot restaurant in Chinatown that is TO DIE FOR) and in NYC visited with folks now friends we have hosted at Kendall Farm Cottages and my first Peace Corps roomie, Liz who is doing amazing things in Ghana through Columbia Teachers College and even visited TiGeorge's Haitian Cafe in Los Angeles. The flight from LA to Aukland was an arduous 13 hours. I did watch the movie, The Help which was quite a film. We crossed the dateline in the air. New Zealand is the first country in the world to see the beginning of a new day. New Zealand is 18 hours ahead of EST in good ol' Maine so it took me a few days and my body a week to adjust to the changes. I made sure to walk around the plane every few hours but when I arrived at Darren's house 15 hours after departing LA my ankles were swollen. Oh ah ah the excitement of now being in my 40s. Darren's Mom is going to give me some leggings to wear on my way home. Apparently many NZers wear these because for them to go anywhere requires hours in the air and these leggings really help.
It is now summer in New Zealand so the temperatures are 80F - 100F. Darren is off from work for the Christmas school holiday which we timed perfectly with my visit. Currently plums-red, yellow, purple, kiwis green and golden and avocados are in season. I hope to be here for the passion fruit which is one of my all time favorite tropical fruits. New Zealand is LUSH, LUSH, LUSH with mountains, beaches, farmland, small communities, geothermal activity, weird and wild critters and some of the best diving in the world!
New Zealand is made up of two islands which together are the lengthish of Maine to Florida. However you are only really ever 40 minutes from the ocean from anywhere on the islands which is amazing! The population is only 4.5 million for the entire country and last night I learned that Aukland has 1.4 million residents of the 4 million and 30% of that population is Asian. There are lots of immigrants from the South Pacific islands and more and more from EurAsia. The minimum wage here is $12.75/hour, a gallon of gas is $10.00. One-third of the world's milk production comes from New Zealand and the cost is approximately $3.00 for 1/2 gallon. Food prices have jumped 200% in the past 2 years. The bungy jump was invented here in Queenstown so I might have to go and check it out!
Maoris, the native people of this island nation have their own TV channel in their language, their own schools, retain ownership of much of their land however keep it open to the public to explore and appreciate and most names of towns, mountains, rivers are in Maori as are the plant names. Sadly on the first day of Parliment of the New Year the Maori Party was a no show. The Maoris have so many legends and stories about the earth, environment and people. Darren and his kids tell me folklore on a regular basis which is wonderful. Certainly teaching kids these stories while they grow and develop in school helps them appreciate each other's cultures. The culture and language is taught in all schools nationally. It is quite fascinating. The Maori people, men and women are generally extremely tall with large builds and lots of tattoos on their arms, upper bodies and faces as well. No wonder the All Blacks rugby team looks so powerful with their warrior stances and incredibly enormous builds. Yes oh yes The All Blacks won the Rugby World Cup. New Zealanders believe that American football is woosie with all of their protective equipment. Rugby has hard tackling as well and no gear. But I am still making Darren and his son Caleb watch the Super Bowl with me in February!
Wow, it has been over two years since I have written on this blog. Lots has happened! I opened a shop called The Red Sleigh, a gallery, a gift store and a farmers' market under one roof! My dear kitty Squash never returned at this time last November so in December I adopted a gray tiger striped cat named Seamus. And just a few months ago I adopted a golden doodle named Bentley.
Today, Wednesday, November 23, 2011 he experienced his FIRST snowfall. At first he was afraid of it and did not want to go outside but after Seamus jumped out into it off he went and we played with apples he dug up and played tug-of-war with his favorite rope rug from Passamaquoddy Bay.
Although in the past years I have used this as my travel log I think I will make a New Year's resolution to use this to blog about Kendall Farm and Red Sleigh happenings because there is always something interesting and fun going on here. Planting of garlic, wine bottling, apple picking, new specials at the shop, parties, and more!
Happy snowy Wednesday and safe travels to everyone, Georgie, Bentley and Seamus
Wow so much to write and so little computer access.....
confusing my host father's work thinking he was an avacado farmer when he was a lawyer in fact he was a judge for 35 years prosecuting hard criminals and 1/2 my size
meeting Gabby, a Rotary exchange student who spent last year in CAMDEN MAINE and she loves the COLD and MAINE of course
visiting a mercado libre, a local public market with fish, meat, vegetables, fruit, spices, cheese, clothes and empanadas. I took a photo of a tray of cow eyeballs for sale that you cook for a soup........yikes!
visiting Hacienda Sainta Theresa, famous for its RUM. Oh my goodness! We had a tour of this grand estate and then they gave us enormous mugs of rum. I bought 3 bottles for home, an orange cognac, a white rum for mohitos and an amber rum for sippinig
National Park of Morrocoy in the boat with 13 others visiting small cayos (bays) and lots of beaches
eating ceviche (fish cured in lime with onions, cilantro and tomato) from a boat
eating raw oysters off the back of the boat all brought to you by young men in motor boats
snorkelling and seeing OODLES of fish and watching a small spotted moray eel make its way across the bottom of the coral reef for about 15 minutes
the motor boat AIRBORN literally completely OUT of the water engines, propellers and all on our way too and from the dock
seeing a caiman (alligator) in port
staying with Rotarians in La Victoria that have a sweeping view of their sweet city. Their daughter Claudia has the sex appeal of Drew Barrymore (as does her mama). The floors are all marble with grand entrances, a room with a bar and seating that feels like a night club and FUN are they ever Fun. Antonio is the retired VP from Fiat Venezuela
meeting their fellow Rotary friends, Belgians that moved to Venezuela 6 years ago because they preferred a life with more leisure. Their job is importing and exporting wild animals around the world.
Ok....................take care and one of these days I will add photos to all of this text. Ciao, Georgie
Hola! Well, Puerto Ordaz, thhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeee gateway to Angel Falls, the highest waterfall in the world, over 1 km high would have been a cool experience however our presentation was postponed for a day so we were not able to get away.
Our GSE team however did an excellent job with our presentation to probably 200 Rotarians from all over Venezuela. Our leader, Carmen, was not well so Gisia gave the introduction and bio information about Carmen. Joe a Rotarian from Puerta la Cruz introduced all of us and told a lost in translation story about me trying to learn the word for this great seafood/pasta dish called fedegua but she thought I meant fosferera which is seafood and an aphrodisiac. Anyway the audience got a real kick out of it.
We took a tour of Parque La Llovizna, on the Rio Caroni and saw the spectacular llovisna cascada (waterfall). Lots of mist and spray and people enjoying the park and views. I believe there are 7 lakes and dams that were build over 30 years ago that produce electricity for ALL yes ALL of Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, parts of Brazil and Columbia. We toured the Macagua dam and an "eco" museum the government created to show the number of species they saved during the dredging and enormous flooding of this region to create these series of dams. I cried through the film. What they do not show is the resettling of the people and all the animals that drowned when all of this took place and the enormous devestation of the environment but...we all need ELECTRICITY.
I visited a dam project in Belize with biologists who were studying the impact the creation of the dam would have on all the species there. Very very very very sad stuff.
Anyway, the waterfalls and the dams of this region of Venezuela are IMMENSE absolutely enormous projects. Many waterfalls including the famous Angel Falls are natural and spectacular sites to see.
The conference was held at Hotel Intercontinental Guyana built in the 1970s it is quite grand with a lovely gym and pool that overlook two waterfalls. We ate well at the hotel and at the country clubs hosted by the Rotarians of Puerto Ordaz. The final evening of the conference was an enormous buffet with Lau lau fish, a local catfish, lots of salads and fancy tortes. Dinner started at 9pm. Music started at 10pm with a calapsyo band and this incredible dancer.
Then there was a dance competition for the women and the men. Luc, one of our team members, competed in the men's competition and won by a huge majority because he ripped off his blazer AND his tie and threw them into the audience. I also was forced, yes pushed onto the stage to dance with Luc. Pretty funny actually and we won prizes of a key chain and Luc received a CD of Venezuelan music. The band was still playing after 4am......when we all went to bed becuase we had to be up and in the bus back to Caracas at 730am!
Hola! Wow yesterday was a fantastic day. They took us by boat into Parque Nacional Machimo a series of islands off the north coast of Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea. The Rotarians including Monica, Gisella, Jose Gregori, Fina took us to the wee fishing/touristy town of Machimo where we caught a small motor boat to a beach called Las Maritas where we swam, snorkeled, drank beer, and ate FISH lots and lots of delicious fish. We had plates of catalana (white fish), pargo (white snapper), and calamar (calamari). Fresh fresh fresh and then fried with a cole slaw with cilantro which was delicious and tostones (fried plaintain). Wow. As an appetizer Josee, Jose and I had 2 dozen raw oysters, $3.00/dozen. YUM!
Jose first took Josee and me out snorkeling for an hour. I got too much sun eventhough I was lathered in sunscreen. Another tough balance for me. I love to snorkel and scuba dive but I always need to wear sunscreen to protect my skin but of course the sunscreen is harmful to the water and the fish. Jose showed us two spotted moray eels and a puffer fish. The coral is all half dead but the water was still teaming with fish. Huge schools of minnows and I saw a 2 foot barracuda as well. So though I did not get to go scuba diving I got a good fix of enjoying the marine flora and fauna and critters. Jose also took a mesh bag and picked up oysters and conch to take home. (Keep in mind we are in a national park...........yay......) Sadly he was stepping on the precious coral as we made our way snorkeling along the beach. I gently asked in my poor spanish if he would not do that. Jose is a doctor and for years has been the administrator at a local hospital and has done well to manage it. However...the current government has put him on a long vacation and will probably bring him back with a desk job. Definitely more to this story but not the place for it.
We had a wonderful lunch and enjoyed the beach with LOTS of Venezuelans sunning and eating and playing with their plastic floaty toys and zooming around on a raft pulled by a boat. Not exactly what I expected at a beach in a national park but this is the trend for folks here. We headed back about 2pm and stopped to check out the little handmade dolls in all sizes and wooden boats for sale. I bought a few small ones that can be decorations or Christmas tree ornaments. All hand made for a few dollars each. We then made our way back to our host families.
On the way back Fina treated me to an aphrodisiac (sp?) rompa colchon (mattress breaker) or rompa lycra (panty ripper) for 20B (divide everything by 5 and it will be $4.00US). I know I know Dani ...too many prices... so just a few. Since the Rotarians pay for everything I hardly know what things cost so when I do know I will gently insert that. The rompa colchon is famous in this area, a mixture of fresh raw and cooked seafood including shrimp, conch, oysters, octopus, squid, salsa, a vinegar mix with spices, worchestire sauce, and lots of lime. Wow! What a punch. It is like a delicious shot of ceviche made to your liking.
So by the time I got home, showered and readied for our next engagement I had a headache and stayed home for the night. Too much sun and seafood............Yikes! My colleagues enjoyed an evening of wine, octopus salad, homemade Italian pasta, homemade tiramisu and LIVE Venezuelan music and opera by the host. Damn!
Today we headed into the mountains to La Guanota in Parque Nacional Caripe to visit a vacation home of one of the Rotarians. We visited Hacienda Las Acacias, a coffee factory where they collect the coffee beans from local farmers and wash, dry, sort the coffee and then sell it to others to roast. I believe that 275 kilos turns into only 36 kilos by the end of the processing which takes place in our fall months. The coffee takes 7 months to grow, 1 month to pick and 4 months to process. Unfortunately it was Sunday (Domingo) so we were not able to find a store open to buy any of this delicious coffee but we did get to have a cup. Monica is going to try to bring us some.
Then we enjoyed a HUGE paella made with tuna, peppers, onions, cumin, salt, rice, olive oil, garbanzo beans that Gisella made and a key lime pie and apple cake for dessert. We all needed a nap but instead went for a walk down to the river to watch a bunch of boys flip into the water and see the GORGEOUS fields of celery, lettuces, and leeks. Really amazing!
I havent figured out how to upload my photos yet but when I do I will certainly add them to this blog. Take care everyone. Besos mi amors, Georgie
