Sheep farming and down to the South Island - Abel Tasman

Our final day at Rohnan’s farm near Wellington was spent tackling sheep, flipping them on their backs and dragging them over to Rohnan so he could shave the wool around their bums. Erica and I (Tim) did this for 2 hours while we worked on about 100 sheep. (Jenn was painting the house on this morning). The reason sheep farmers do this is to prevent their animals from getting a condition called ‘fly strike’ (Google it. It’s disgusting). Covered in sheep poo and feeling like I had just done two hours at the gym curling 100 pound dumbbells, we went in for our daily 10 o’clock tea time. That was a true kiwi experience, but one that neither Erica or I want to do again. Sheep farming is definitely off the list of future potential careers. 

After leaving the farm we caught the 3 hour ferry ride from the north to the South Island. We had plans to start another WWOOFing assignment near Nelson on the South Island. When we got there the host told us that he no longer had enough work for 3 people. We moved on heading further north to the very tip of the South Island, to a place called Farewell Spit. You may have heard of it on the news recently because there were two mass strandings of pilot whales at Farewell Spit. By the time we got there with our hitching friend, an English man named Steve, a few days after the strandings, all the whales had either been dead and buried in the sand dunes or re-floated back to sea. We spent the next couple nights with a really cool couchsurfer near Takaka. We took this time to do some internet trip planning and figure out what we were going to do next. We booked a couple tent sites on the famous Abel Tasman trek, which starts near Takaka. Our couchsurfer let us keep our extra non-hiking related items at his place while we set out to do the 3-day, 2-night, 60 kilometer hike through the Abel Tasman National Park. The hike was full of golden sand beaches and cold, clear Tasman Sea waters. Probably the best hike we’ve done so far. The trail infrastructure here is incredible. The entire length of the trail was about 2 meters wide. We later learned that they used helicopters to carry in the tons of gravel used for the trail construction. There were even flush toliets at the campsites! 

Sheep wrestling.

The beach near our couchsurfers place. (Pohara, South Island)

Three happy campers starting the Abel Tasman trek!

Typical beach along the Abel Tasman trek. Pretty sweet!

The trail winded its way along the coastal mountains, dropping down into a dozen different beaches.

Wellington, New Zealand

“What’s your cats name?” I asked.

“What?!” Cecil shouts back.

“What’s your cats name?” Increasing my volume and slowing down this time.

“Oh, I can’t remember…” he says.

Our first couple nights in Wellington were full of conversations like these with our 75-year-old Couchsurfing host, Cecil. He’s a really friendly kiwi, very hard of hearing with heavily accented, and mumbled speech, and a tender heart. It remains a mystery to all of us, including Cecil, how he ended up on Couchsurfing.com. Jenn asked him and he said he could remember how he found out about the website. He’s been a member for 10 years! He acted as our Wellington tour guide driving us around town, giving little history tid bits along the way. Then, took us for a 1.5 hour country drive the following morning. We had a lovely few nights in Wellington. My sister, Erica, met us here. She has been on the north island of New Zealand now for two months, WWOOFing all over. She’s worked at a blueberry farm, wine vineyard and a few more, too. 

We have started our first WWOOFing stint together at a huge 200 acre property about 1 hour from Wellington with our host, Rohnan. We have spent the last few days doing a variety of work including weeding, building a fence and painting the house.

Cecil's cat. He remember the cat's name the following day. It's Jade (I assume for its green eyes)

We made it!

Teamwork while picking wild blackberries from thorn bushes.

Erica making wild blackberry muffins

Berries that we later used for muffins and a pie.

Costa Rica with the fam

Our time with my parents in Costa Rica was full of nature hikes, cooking meals in an open-air kitchen, drinking wine around the dinner table each night and writing poetry. We stayed at a VRBO home called “La Granja” (The Farm). It is a small organic farm with a few dwellings that get rented out to tourists. The owners live in the nearby town of Guacimal at a Sustainability Demonstration Center. They do a lot of work toward bettering their community; they’ve started a farmers market, organized the locals against large corporations that are ruining their land, and teach traditional dance to kids (and guests like us). They are an inspiring family that demonstrates how you can live an authentic life according to your values. Their 14 year old son, Stuart, was our tour guide for the week. He is an awesome, super intelligent kid, that speaks perfect Spanish and English and is not afraid of 5 foot long boa snakes and giant tarantulas at night. (He gave us a night tour of all the creepy crawly insects and animals around the farm). 

It was a great week and a half with my parents. And it was their first time traveling abroad together since they went to Africa right after they got married in 1982! They did an awesome job.

And here's a little sampling of the poetry that was written in Costa Rica (by Jenn). We experimented with different styles each night, Haikus and Cinquains were the most popular, but on the final night we tried the Acrostic* style of poetry. 

Please take me back to 
Unlimited
Red wine
And
Venomous snakes
In trees and on fences.
Don't hit those people**
Amen.


*Pura Vida is a common phrase and basically the motto of Costa Rica. It means Pure Life and it is said as a response to just about anything. "How are you? - Pura Vida" "How was the hike? - Pura Vida" "How was lunch? - Pura Vida."
** Inside joke here. There was a lot of back seat driving going on during the trip. We rented a car and I (Tim) drove the entire time along rough gravel roads perilously perched on the sides of mountains. Needless to say, there was a nervous mother in the back seat.

Mom and dad on the trail in the Monteverde Cloud Forest

Salsa dance class at the Sustainability Demonstration Center

Guard dogs taking a break at La Granja

We went star gazing down at the river near the farm one night. This was our view!

Our friends and old roommates from Bozeman, Colin and Jenna, were in the same area near Guacimal while on their own separate Costa Rica vacation! Yet another random international meetup with old friends!

The jungle. 

One of many swims in the river. Very strong, refreshing current.

Rio Guacimal

Horseback riding around the farm property

Jenn tries to stay calm while climbing down a Strangler Fig tree.  A Strangler Fig grows from top down. It starts  growing in the canopy of the forest, then grows as vines down a tree. Once it gets to the ground it develops its own root system and strangles its host. When the host tree dies and rots away a tubular system of climbing rungs remains!