43. What's Going On.

Well I have eventually got round to writing the blog, and due to popular demand this one will be about farming and more specifically what is going on here.

The cows are looking pretty good, nice and fat and too lazy to run away when I went for a tea-time photographing session.

As is normal during a cows lactation, the milk yield is dropping and the somatic cell count has risen slightly. Nothing we can't handle though, although it would be good to get a few more kilos of fat and protein out of them. One of the reasons why the yield has dropped perhaps a bit more than usual, is the feed they are getting at the moment.

We are in the process of lengthening the grazing round (to benefit the start of next season), to do this we are keeping the cows a bit tighter on smaller breaks, and making up the difference with silage. Some of the silage has been a bit unpalatable which means the cows have not cleaned it up, and therefore are probably not getting their approx 18 kg of dry matter per day. This is showing in the bulk tank, but the silage is getting better so we should pick up in the next few days.

Some details on the grazing:
170 effective hectares (minus approx 10/15 ha that have been written off).
Stocking rate of about 3.3 head/ha.
28 paddocks in the rotation.
Current grazing round length: 30 days.
Shortest grazing round of the season: 22 days (back in Oct/Nov).

Here is a GPS map of the paddocks:

Paddocks 31 and 21 are not in the rotation and 27 is terrible, it has no irrigation and the cows do not like the grass in there.

On the whole, grass growth is good, the irrigation is on 24/7 and combined with the sun which has been ever present recently, is the perfect recipe for grass growth.

My time during the day (apart from the usual putting up reels and feeding out silage), has been taken up with urea spreading and thistle spraying. I consider myself a stockman, I don't really find pleasure in driving tractors up and down fields trying to maintain a straight line. That being said, here are a few pics from spreading urea:

This picture below is me (unsuccessfully) trying to capture the tiny urea pellets flying out of the spreader. You can however see a bunch of thistles that need spraying.

The application rate is 50 kg/ha for those of you interested in such things.

Thistle spraying is a permently ongoing task, it is a lot of work keeping on top of them. I keep on forgetting my camera everytime I go killing thistles, so you will have to look out for some pics in a future post. It mostly involves drive-by shooting of suspect weeds with a 500 litre tank of ammo towed behind the quad.

In other news, I took a few hours of work the other day to go to the North Otago A & P Show in Oamaru. I know the A stands for Agricultural and I think the P stands for Pastoral but I am not too sure. It was a good little country show, with a fair few beef animals being showed and some vintage tractors. (I am mainly including the old tractors for my brother to look at).

This is a decent looking Angus Bull that I wouldn't want stepping on my toes:

 There were also a few Highland Cattle, a personal favourite.

Including this pretty angry looking guy!

Apart from the cattle, there were a fair few sheep, my favourite of which was rocking an afro and looked like he played bass in a 70's funk band.

Here is the machinery side of things that I photographed, some of them are older than New Zealand I think!

Well after that online tractor run, it is time for me to go.

I will leave you with a pic of the worlds most un-photogenic cow:

42. Top Ten Road-trip Tips.

Well, I have been back at work for a little over a week now. It is good to be back in the routine and the cows seemed glad to see me. 

Nothing of note happened whilst I was away, except the bulls were taken away. This is a bit less work for us, so that's good news!

I thought I should write a little about my trip now I can look back at the whole thing, starting off with my top ten tips for driving around NZ. If you are planning a future road-trip, have a read.

10. Get a good map - You can't always rely on technology and it is good to mark where you have gone and are going. I only got lost once, and that was in the middle of a city so doesn't count.

9. Hydrate - Especially in the summer, also wee-stops are a good incentive to have a small stroll and a break from driving. 

8. Drive a Japanese car - It won't break down. The only reason I didn't drive an Aston Martin around the country was because of the famed reliability of Nissans.

7. Book your accommodation in advance - Just in case there is something like a massive rugby sevens festival on, which majorly affects your plans. 

6. Bring a lot of music - A shortage of music may mean that you will find yourself singing to yourself. Unless of course you are a good singer in which case, knock yourself out. Which ironically I nearly did trying to reach an extra high note. 

5. Take lots of photos - You will be surprised how much of what you did will be forgotten until you look through your photo albums. This actually might just be my exceptionally poor memory.

4. Wear sunscreen - I burn like a piece of toast, so I know to do this. My right (window-side) arm is so tanned it does not look like it belongs to the rest of my body. 

3. Tell people how far you have driven - They will be impressed. I drove 4171 km / 2592 miles in 15 days. Are you impressed?!

2. Make sure your seat is adjusted to the perfect position and then DO NOT MOVE IT! -If you move it you may find that you can't get it back to the comfiest position. This will drive you mad.

1. Always go to the Irish pub - It will have the best beer, wholesome food, a good chance of live music and the best looking barmaids. You can't go wrong with an Irish pub, and there is always one. I think I went to eight or nine different Irish establishments on my trip, at least three of them were called 'Molly Malone's'. 

My road-trip although billed as 'The Road to Hobbiton', was in hindsight, not really about that destination. To be perfectly honest my favourite parts of the trip were not the varied and interesting towns that I stayed in, nor were they the 'must-see' tourist attractions that I occasionally visited. 

My favourite moments of the trip were sitting in my car, cruising at 110 km/h, an empty road ahead of me and either side of the road, a phenomenal amount of the most beautiful and breathtaking natural scenery I have ever seen. 

Kiwis throughout the country are incredibly lucky to have on their doorstep, the kind of wild countryside that by itself warrants the 12000 mile journey just to see it. Coming from a country which is very quickly filling up, I am used to just small pockets of land untouched by high populations. The vistas here in NZ make for some excellent photo opportunities and even better memories. The secluded pristine beaches, the forested valleys with gushing rivers of crystal clear water, the rolling grassy hills with no power lines or radio masts (just the odd sheep), and the lakes, perfectly undisturbed apart from the occasional splash from a confident duck; these were my favourite parts of the trip.

Now though, I am going to try and save money for either paying off my student debts or a trip down to Milford Sounds, which I here is well worth it. Also there is plenty of work to be done on the farm. My Northern Irish co-worker and bungalow-mate James is leaving tomorrow to head across the ditch to Aus. The work-load will increase a little bit, nothing we can't handle though!

I have just looked on my camera to see what photo I can put up with this blog post, and all that I had were these:

An onion that I had left in the cupboard before my trip.

The cows having a good feed on some quite green looking pasture.

And this awesome sky from a few nights ago. I assure you that this photo has had no editing apart from a crop. The sky actually looked like it was on fire.

Right, that is all for now.

Before I go though I must offer my heartiest congratulations and raise my half drunk bottle of Speight's to my older sister Victoria and as of very recently, her fiancé Ben. When I return to the UK, one of the first things I will be doing is ushing the hell out of a family wedding! I am very excited!

41. The Road from Hobbiton - Days 14 & 15

Day 14.

The day in numbers:

311 km driven.

Whales seen: 0

Temperature height of 33°C

2 times nearly falling asleep at the wheel.

1 nap in a lay-by. 

Map of Day 14 and Day 15:

V - Kaikoura. W - Hanmer Springs. X - Christchurch. A - Oamaru. Y - Home!

I woke up early after an evening of practicing my French and drinking beaucoup de bière. 

I had to be up early to go on my rescheduled whale watching trip. Looking out of the window whilst munching my breakfast I wasn't optimistic of my chances of seeing any ocean wildlife. This was the view from the beach.

And so I still do not have the foggiest idea what seeing a whale is like. The worst bit of the trip being canceled is we still got to the stage of watching the safety video (how to jump into the sea with a life-jacket on), before we were told that 'the captain says no'. I queued up and got my refund then left Kaikoura. 

I would definitely like to return there before I leave the country, not just to see a whale, but also because it is one of my favourite places from the trip. The geography/geology of the place is stunning and I do want to go and see the seal colony when they are all at home.

I headed off towards Hanmer Springs, to be honest I am not sure why I wanted to go there, other than there is a village very close to where I grew up called Hanmer. The drive there, through the mountains of North Canterbury, was awesome. They are the top of the Southern Alps range that is referred to as the backbone of the South Island in every single tourist brochure. 

It gets very hot, very windy and very dry there, which makes most of it unsuitable for dairying. As soon as it got flat though, irrigation and milking sheds appeared. 

Getting close to Hanmer Springs, I was for the first time in the whole trip feeling knackered. The combination of a hot car and my unnecessary early morning, and two weeks of being on the road was taking its toll. I pulled into a lay-by, parked under a tree, put the seat as far back as it could go and went to sleep. I woke up about an hour and a half later feeling like a new man and pushed on to Hanmer Springs. 

The town seemed to be a holiday destination for New Zealanders, with its natural hot spas and lots of resort type places. It was the well worn crazy golf that really gave the game away. They had definitely got the weather for it anyway. I have just googled the weather report for when I was there and it says that it was 29°C but 'feels like 33°C'. It did.

I left Hanmer Springs, feeling like the place wasn't really worth including in my roadtrip and headed South. As the land shape flattened and the hills became the Canturbury plains, the almost solid block of dairy farms that stretches all the way down to my home began.

I tried to take quite a few drive-by photographs of cows with mixed results. And by mixed I mean poor. Here is one though, showing the pivot irrigation that makes dairy farming possible. 

Once I got to Christchurch, probably losing a few pounds in the heat, I had another surprising city drive with no wrong lanes or missed turns. I quickly and easily found what turned out to be the best hostel of the whole trip, with its easy access car park, room with a balcony and the thickest mattress of them all.

I picked up a map and went for a walk around the city. It is a very sad place, the map had a huge area in the middle shaded red. This was the no access area, the result of the major earthquake in February 2011. 185 people lost their lives, that and the quietness of the almost abandoned streets brings a feeling of mournfulness and poignancy to the city. Built by the English, with English cities in mind, the once world renowned architecture took a real hammering. The main one to hit the headlines was the collapse of the spire of the cathedral, which is one of the many city centre buildings being demolished.

Despite the distress evident through the city, there is also a sense of optimism for the future and the Kiwi version of a stiff upper lip. Popular images illustrating that are often of the Restart shopping centre, made of shipping containers and painted in loud, clashing bright colours. 

Back at the hostel, I cooked my final hostel meal, spaghetti bolognese. It turned out to be a bit of a farce, I had accidentally bought lamb mince instead of beef. This made the sauce far too rich and a too fatty. When I went to sit down at one of the tables to eat it, I put the plate down and the whole lot, the spag and the bol slid off the plate and onto the not-too-clean surface. Observing the popular 5 second rule, used extensively at university, I spooned it straight back onto the plate and ate it whilst watching England dominate the Welly sevens. 

Day 15 - The Final Day.

The day in numbers:

268 km driven.

5 British heroes learnt about.

Speed limits broken: 0...
Homes arrived at: 1

Straight after breakfast, the last one for which I would need to buy a stupid little 300 mm bottle of milk, I headed to the nearby Canterbury museum. 

At the museum was a big exhibit about Captain Robert Falcon Scott's last Antarctic expedition.

For those of you that don't know, it didn't go well for Scott and four of his crew. The Terra Nova set sail in 1910, from a port very close to Christchurch, and it was in the city that the Antarctic explorations were prepared for. The main objective was to be the first to reach the South Pole, there were many other scientific aims too. Unfortunately the plucky Brits were beaten to the Pole by the Norwegion, Amundsen.

It was the return journey that went down in history, with all five members perishing in the planet's most inhospitable land. The team was severely malnourished, exhausted and all were suffering from serious frostbite and other injuries. Edgar Evans died first when he collapsed, possibly due to injuries sustained in a fall. The famous quote 'I am just going outside and I may be some time' was recorded by Scott in his diary as the last words of Captain Lawrence Oates who in a condition that was slowing the party down sacrificed himself to increase the chances of the others' survival. The remaining three, Edward Wilson, Henry Robertson Bowers and Scott himself all succumbed to their failing health and the conditions in their tent twelve days later, just eleven miles from a probably life-saving food depot. 

The exhibit was a very interesting insight into the remarkable story. Scott was a prolific writer and kept a daily diary throughout his travels. This is one of my favourite quotes of his that was displayed:

And here is the flag that was raised at the South Pole:

There was plenty of other interesting things to look at at the museum, including an exhibit of later general Antarctic exploration. This machine I thought might go down well with the tractor fans among my readers:

And here is a skeleton of an elephant seal, in the traditional seal position:

I am a big fan of museums, perhaps an uncommon thing for someone of my generation. I left the Canterbury Museum when I got hungry after a good few hours of wondering around.

Back in my car I set off South down the coast on my final stretch of the trip. The road between Christchurch and Oamaru, is not a spectacular one. It is flat, straight and runs past thousands of paddocks in various states of dehydration. I put my foot down and bombed it home, obviously staying below the irritation speed of 100 kph. This is about 62 mph and applies to motorways, dual carriageways and main roads with virtually no traffic on them. 

 I will use this video to end my reports of my roadtrip, round as much of New Zealand as I could possibly fit in a fortnight. 

40. The Road from Hobbiton - Days 12 & 13

The last four days of my trip will be squeezed together into two blog posts. Not because I am now home and I need to catch up, but because a lack of significant events (some out of my control) occurred towards the end of my trip. I will, as always endeavour to report my travelings in suitable detail.

Day 12.

The day in numbers:

58 km driven.

Hours suffered from countryman-in-the-city-claustrophobia: 6

2 legs feeling achy from walking around on hard floors. 

Dead colossal squids seen: 1 

Map of Day 12:

I - Wellington. W - Paraparaumu

Waking up early in Wellington, I had to do the kind of annoying thing you only have to do in the city, and move my car before 9:00 am. Once up I had plenty of time to see more of the sights of New Zealand's capital, which this time was as windy as it was supposed to be. People walking to work looked like mime artists with scarves etc flying out horizontally behind them. 

Wellington plays host to the New Zealand leg of the rugby sevens world series on the 1st and 2nd of February. It is a party in the city like no other in this rugby mad country, and that is why I couldn't find book a bed for the following night (my whole schedule was changed because of this).

The streets were filling up with supporters from all corners of the rugby universe, mostly Samoans and Tongans though. I walked around looking for something to do and came across the huge museum that is Te Papa - The National Museum of NZ. Particularly pleased with the free entry, I went inside to check it out and was there all morning.

There was exhibits on many subjects including the geology behind the earthquakes and volcanoes of NZ, the flora and fauna of the country and Maori history. Below are a few pictures of some of my favourite bits.

 

 These trolls were not turned to stone like in The Hobbit, but turned into silicone and carbon fibre (made in the Weta Cave workshop I visited last time I was in Welly).

This ammonite fossil is one of the biggest in the world, I can't remember the exact measurement but it was a good three feet across. Considering that it was once a water snail/squid hybrid type creature, that is pretty big. 

 Speaking of water-bound giants, Te Papa museum is home to the only intact body of a Colossal Squid in the world. The way it was positioned meant I couldn't get a good angle of all of it so here is another picture showing a bit of tentacle:

These are the creature that fight Sperm whales and probably gave rise to the myths and legends of sea monsters like the Kraken. It was certainly an impressive beast. The accompanying video was all about how they managed to get it from the Antarctic water to Wellington. The general gist of it was you needed a peg on your nose all the time, if it wasn't the smell of rotting squid, it was the smell of formaldehyde that it is preserved in. Interestingly formaldehyde is pretty much the same as formalin used in livestock foot-baths. Useful knowledge for my plans for creating my own natural history museum (I have already bleached and displayed the intact skull of a polecat).

 This is a bull made out of corned beef tins. This is the kind of art I appreciate, I would have it in my house. It was only a little bit smaller than life size.

This is a very impressively carved wooden Maori meeting house or Wharenui. You had to take your shoes off to go inside, I am not sure whether that was to keep it clean / reduce damage or because it is seen as a sacred place.  

After a bite of lunch I wandered about wondering what else to do. Seeing as Wellington is fast becoming the second movie city of the world, I went to the cinema. I feel guilty about this and probably should have done something more cultural that I could only do in that particular city. I saw Gangster Squad, which I can highly recommend if you like 50's suits, Emma Stone and Tommy guns. 

Because of the Sevens (England won the tourney by the way), I had to stay out of town. My hostel for the night was just up the coast at Paraparaumu. I timed my exit from the city perfectly to coincide with Friday night rush hour. 

The hostel had a much too small kitchen, but otherwise wasn't too bad. On the TV that night was a NZ classic, Murray Ball's film A Dog's Tail Tale (the actual title has that crossed out pun). It is brilliant and I urge you all to watch it some time. 

I had to check in for my ferry back to the South Island at 7:25 am so I went to bed earlyish with local advice to leave at 6 o' clock in the morning. 

Day 13.

The day in numbers:

217 km driven.

1 world class idiot.

1 huge sigh of relief. 

Whales watched: 0

Day 13's map:

W - Paraparaumu. I - Wellington. H - Picton. X - Kaikoura.

I got up to my alarm with plenty of time to eat some breakfast and make sure I didn't leave anything behind. 

Eating my cornflakes somehow took longer than planned so I was maybe in a bit of a rush driving from the lawn where my car was parked. 

I did have a ferry to catch, and was still perhaps a bit blurry eyed from sleep. That however, is no excuse for my stupidity that followed. Looking back it is quite amusing. I can assure you that at the time it was in no way funny and I was starting to think about having a small panic. I have portrayed the scenes by means of a Microsoft Paint cartoon. The last one seemed to go down pretty well. 

Yes, I was very early for my ferry in the end. But if I had been one minute too late, the arseing around with a rope would have been a very annoying reason to miss the boat. 

It was a nice morning looking out over the water while I waited to embark. 

To the left of the cranes on the left of the ferry, you can just see the Westpac Stadium, where the rugby would be played later on that day.

That was my North Island experience. I prefer the South, it is less busy and has better scenery and better beer. There were many interesting things to see in the North though. I will summarise properly at the end of the roadtrip's blogs. 

Back on the proper island, my destination was Kaikoura and with a whale watch trip booked I was very excited to get there.

The drive first took me through the Marlborough region where there was lots of brown grass and lots of vineyards. 

 

And as you can see in that photo, there were no clouds. The back up air-con was deployed. 

The drive down the coast was breathtaking, the sea was a brilliant turquoise. I saw a few seals lounging about on the rocks too. There were a few corners and more than few police cars so there are no photos. 

At Kaikoura I splashed out on a 'warm lamb and kumara salad' (kumara is kiwi sweet potato). It was very nice and the perfect precursor to the highlight of my return journey - the whale watch. 

That didn't go quite to plan. The trip was canceled 'due to fog', I couldn't see any fog and it was a huge disappointment. I rescheduled for first thing the following morning and went for a drive up to the look-out (I was not going to be caught out by walking this time). The view of the town and the bay with the mountains behind was spectacular, but I would have rather viewed a whale. 

I also went down to the end of the Kaikoura peninsular where there is a resident seal colony on the rocks. There was a distinct lack of seals, except for one dead one. Someone had put a driftwood cross by his body, it felt a bit wrong taking a photo, but I didn't have much for the day. 

The area when the tide was out was actually a very interesting place. Lots of nooks and crannies where all manner of sea creatures could hide. At one point I got attacked by what I have just identified from my bird book as a Red-billed Gull. I think that it had a nest nearby.

There was a lot of huge seaweed about too, creating underwater forests which with the crystal clear water made some cool pictures. 

That night at the hostel I cooked some of my Dad's speciality, smoked salmon tagliatelle, to cheer me up. It was very good, but I was still a bit pissed off with the local marine mammals.

The story continues...

(Recipe for Lawder's Smoked Salmon Tagliatelle:

- Get some fresh tagliatelle on the boil, use salt or olive oil stop it sticking together.

- Gently heat some creme freche / sour cream to make it runny, add some chopped up smoke salmon.

- When pasta is cooked and the sauce has a saucy consistancy, mix them both together with a good squeeze of lemon juice and lots of cracked black pepper.

- Pile on plate and wolf down. )

39. The Road from Hobbiton - Day 11

Day 11.

The day in numbers:

341 km driven.

10°C too hot.
All 4 windows wide open.

4 litres of water drunk.

Number of times lost in the city: 0!

Map of Day 11:

T - Napier. U - Masterton. V - Wellington

With a long drive to Wellington ahead of me, I didn't have much time in Napier to see the town. I did go to the National Aquarium of New Zealand though. I love zoos and aquariums. In my experience no country does them as well as the UK, this one didn't buck the trend, but it was OK.

Here are a few of the characters who were splashing about. It is very difficult to take a picture through the wall of a tank. There are all sorts of reflection issues.

 The sea turtle wasn't impressed with me taking his picture. He went and put his head behind a rock straight after this.

 This is a Little Penguin, there seems to be more species of penguin than I realised. Every time I see a sign for wild penguin colonies or for an animal park exhibit, it is always a new type.

 This tortoise was nodding his head up and down like a teenager with an iPod on a bus. His scowl is also reminiscent of that, I expect when he goes out, he walks around with his shell hanging halfway down his arse.

This a lizard of some sort. I can't remember what type of lizard it is, but like the rest of the residents of the aquarium he has a face like thunder. That Jurassic Park stare is quite something, he didn't move for the five minutes I was there trying to get an in-focus photo. He could have been fake to be honest.

 They had a tunnel under a big fish tank that contained lots of boring fish, then a few stingrays and the odd small shark. On one side of the tunnel floor was a moving horizontal escalator like a baggage carousel in an airport. No-one seemed to notice it, and I saw two old ladies nearly hit the deck. They were too busy looking at the fish to watch their step. 

 These are piranhas. What I would really love to see is a demonstration where they tie a big ham onto a rope and lower it into the water for a few seconds. Then pull out just a bone. I think these are the kind of things that would make aquariums a bit more lively. These fish also look like they have been decorated by an eight year old girl, who has pritt sticked a load of glitter onto them, but quite a lot has already fallen of.

And here is the world's grumpiest fish. I don't know if he had just lost his job, or been dumped by his girlfriend, but that face!

After the aquarium, I hit the road. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and I had a feeling that it was going to just keep on getting hotter. I was right. It got so hot.

The air conditioning in the Avenir is powerful (and noisy), but next to useless. On its coldest setting, the air coming in is still warm. So I put the back-up air-con on. To turn it on, I put all heavy objects on top of light ones in the car, then I open all four windows as wide as possible. The power can be controlled by accelerating to get more air and vice versa. It gets a bit loud and I have to turn the music up to 38 (it is usually at 25) to hear it, but it is necessary to avoid my spontaneous combustion. The main issue however, is when I park the car it takes ten minutes to shut them all and make the car thief proof.

The drive South went through loads of small towns, including a random one straight out of Denmark called Dannevirke. Like every town in NZ, keen to differentiate itself from anywhere else and make itself stand out, the place seemed to be home to some actual vikings. I would say that it is an example of some very obvious settlement history.

I stopped off at the very exciting sounding Greytown. Uninspiring as its name is, Greytown is home to the best pie I have ever eaten, not just in NZ, but ever. I bought from a place called Main Street Deli, it was a Wild Pig Pie, they also had venison, beef, lamb too, but I went for the boar. I had ate it cold, in my car, but it was still amazing. It had the perfect ratio of meat to vegetables, both of which were flavoured to perfection. The pastry was the perfect thickness and was neither too dry nor soggy.

Here is a picture of the unassuming but delicious article:

I can not give this pie enough praise.

Once I got to Wellington, something amazing happened. I drove through the city and to the hostel without making a single wrong turn or getting lost at all. This is unheard of with me driving in a city, and I don't think will ever happen again.

I went for another walk around the city, and I still don't like them.

Here is a picture of the Embassy Theatre, where the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings premiere's were held. They closed the main city centre street and had the big red carpet thing going on. Inside it is a very old-school Hollywood looking place with a marble floor, sweeping stairs and a very expensive looking bar.

Righto, I am going to head off now. Days 12 and onward will appear shortly.