Life in a New Land

So I have become quite behind in this little blogging project that I have started so I'm going to catch up with everything that has happened in the last two weeks. Since I am unemployed at the moment, I have all day.

The morning after we arrived, Roberta and I got up and grabbed a bus to check out Massey University where she has a 4 week locum position with Farm Services. Her goal was to be as much like Fritz Schumann as she possibly could. I think she was a little freaked out to be teaching final year vet students but she has come to really enjoy it now. Since it was Friday, she didn't have to come back til Monday leaving us some time to get our lives a little organised.

On Saturday, after two nights sleeping in the bed and breakfast, we realised that it wasn't really some place that we wanted to stay for any length of time. We went and checked out a place that Roberta had found on the internet a few weeks before we came. It turned out to be more of what we were looking for. When we informed the elderly man that we were moving to a different place he didn't really take it that well. "This always happens. People get here and then decide to move." Well I'm not a detective but maybe that's telling you something. He then told us we had to pay for an extra night since it was around noon to which Roberta replied, "Well maybe you can think of not doing that." "Why not?!," he asks. "Just as a nice thing to do." This was certainly a different approach than I was thinking of taking. Looking a little shocked he said, "Well maybe I won't. I hope you negotiated a good salary at your job because you are good at it!" and then he walked away. Note to self just be nice to people that are being difficult, it will catch them off guard. We moved to the new place which was conveniently just down the street. For only a little extra money this place is much nicer and it includes all meals! They actually cook for us and make Roberta's lunch for her. Most of our roommates are students in programs that require a lot of studying like aviation, vet, and there is also a human pathologist finishing her final exam after 13 years of school. They are all great people and easy to get along with.

On Sunday we decided to explore some of the area. We took a walk through Palmerston North and down by the Manawatu River.

 

 

 

On Monday, Roberta left early in the morning for her first day of work. I went there in the afternoon to see how things were going. She said good and took me to see her first ever patient being Dr. Templeton. As I looked over the small pen we both started to laugh at what was on the other side. Her name was Suzy and she was a squealing little pot-bellied pig! She was perfectly healthy just needing a ring in her nose. I'm still mad I didn't have my camera with me.

 

Ill let Roberta blog about what has happened at work. She has been mainly dealing with dairy cows and has been enjoying it this far. While she was at work, I was busy looking on the internet for our next jobs and for a vehicle. I had a interview on the Thursday but it wasn't what I was looking for so I turned down the offer.

 

On Saturday (August 25th) we got a call from Mike and Pip. Mike had been to Canada back in the day and had stayed with Byron (Roberta's dad) on the farm. Jocelyn (Roberta's sister) had also stayed with them for a few months when she was here a couple years ago. They were in Palmerston and invited us out to their farm for the weekend. Their farm is located east of Masterton not far from the east coast. On the way there we stopped at the Pukaha National Wildlife center. They have a lot of the indigenous birds of New Zealand along with many reptiles. It was a cool walk through the forest.

 

 

 

 

Roberta was quite excited to see her first silver fern.

 

 



 

The next picture is of a kiwi bird. They are nocturnal (only out at night) so they are housed in a dark building so people can observe them while they aren't sleeping.

For the size of the bird their eggs are huge!

 

After this we carried on to there farm that consists of around 80 cows and 1300 ewes. They have all kinds of fruit trees in their yard much to the delight of Roberta. She looked like the cookie monster eating grapefruit and oranges one after the other.

 

 

That night we watched the All Blacks (the national rugby team) dominate the Wallabies (Australian team). Mike helped me out with the rules. Rugby is to New Zealand as hockey is to Canada. They are nuts about it.

 

The next morning Mike took us out on the quad to feed the cows and check on all the sheep. It was quite a scenic cruise through the paddocks. The sheep are just starting to lamb so there are a few cute little furballs running around which Roberta was loving. We even helped Mike out with some vet work as one of his ewes had a prolapse.

Pictures never seem to do any justice. The views were amazing.

After this they took us out to Castle Point which was right on the coast. It was another place with great views.

 

 

Well I think that is long enough for this post. Im gonna go have some lunch and catch up on the rest of the things that have happened after. Over and out.