Shihad

Homegrown rock music

Bic Runga

Bic Runga might not be a name you recognize, but this song is quite famous. I definitely heard it before coming to New Zealand. She is half Chinese half Maori. It's a cute pop song.

Street Art

Over the past year here, I've come across some pretty good street art, or graffiti, as some of you call it. Here are some of my favorites!

Wellington
Wellington

Dunedin
Dunedin
Dunedin

Dunedin

Dunedin

The Mutton Birds

In addition to having had Muttonbird, Tim told me about the band The Mutton Birds! Enjoy!

Marama Farm - Scanning

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Marama Farm - Introductions to sheep farming

Mother and babe

To show you a little how a working farm functions, check out the videos! It was a cool learning experience, a little practice before the big scanning day.

Below: Introductions to Marama Farm

Early morning sky

Below: Part 2 of introductions

Below: Shepherding them through

Below: Going in circles

Below: Getting through...finally!

Below: Red Tussock

Marama Farm - Day 1 (taking down an electric fence)

Before I tell you too much about Marama Farm (which will come in a later entry) I just wanted to show you what I did on my first day on a sheep and cattle farm.

We took down an electric fence. Happy, happy, joy, joy it was bloody cold (but a cool experience nonetheless)! And at the top of those hills, there is no mercy from the wind. No trees to protect you, just lots and lots of open space.

I wanted to experience what a working farm was like. I got to go to Marama Farm, an organic farm, and I got to stay there as a Wwoofer (Willing Workers on Organic Farms), an organization that started in New Zealand and is now world-wide. This system permits anyone to go on a farm and in exchange for between 4 and 6 hours work per day, you get free housing and board. I think it's a pretty good deal and you learn a lot!

Below: bootless foot

End result (this after both gumboots got stuck in the mud, my socks were worthless and sogging and cumbersome and Sonya and I had to pull a small trailer out of the very sticky mud. There was no option but to do it barefoot. After my muddy day pulling down a fence. I could have been rolling in the mud!

And because of my incredible intelligence in putting my feet in the cold and wet ground, I ended up with the joy of joys of living: chillblains. Brace yourself!


Definition of Chillblains taken from Wikipedia:

Chilblains (also known as pernio and perniosis^[1]:25) is a medical condition that is often confused with frostbite and trench foot. Chilblains are acral ulcers (that is, ulcers affecting the extremities) that occur when a predisposed individual is exposed to cold and humidity. The cold exposure damages capillary beds in the skin, which in turn can cause redness, itching, blisters, and inflammation.

It's healing now. Most of the redness is gone and the pain and itching is also gone. Always on a new and unexpected adventure! Tune in for more adventures on the farm!