We rode a horse

It’s hard to believe we’ve already been here a month! We’ve already met so many amazing people and experienced things I never thought we would. Example: Blake and I got to milk cows the other day. It wasn’t old fashioned milking by hand, but we got to put the suction cups on as the cows rotated through their three o’clock milking. It definitely wasn’t glamorous, as the cows are not shy about pooping on you while they are being milked, but now we can officially say we’ve milked a cow.

 

Milking a cow

 

To cap off our long week of work, Mike took us to see the regional rugby team, Taranaki, play Auckland on Friday night in New Plymouth. Rugby here has the same popularity as football does for us, so we were very excited to see their national sport in action. I still don’t completely get the scrums and think lifting other people up to catch the ball is strange, but it’s a really fast paced, tough sport that is a blast to watch. Taranaki won too!

At the rugby game

 

We worked a half day Monday and then took off in the afternoon for Egmont National Park again. Last time we went it was socked in with clouds and started snowing, but this time we were fortunate enough to have blue skies and hardly any clouds. We took a path up the mountain for about an hour and got some of the best view of both the mountain above us and the valley below. After trudging down the mountain, we decided to do a loop hike we had partially done the week before. To our surprise, there were several waterfalls we hadn’t even seen last time because it had been so cloudy. Yesterday after work we attempted another hike which can be summed up by “three hours of walking in deep mud with no views” We would like to forget about that one.

 

 

 

When I was seven, I went horseback riding with one of my friends, fell off the horse and landed in a pile of poop. Needless to say, I haven’t been since. The Starsmore kids have a break from school for the next two weeks, so the family decided to rent some horses for a few days. Blake and I were super hesitant to ride them, but we reluctantly got on and had a great time.  Check that off the bucket list. After the evening horse ride, we had a surprise early birthday celebration for Blake. They made a delicious red velvet cake, his favorite, topped with a rugby player. Then, they surprised both of us by giving us going away gifts. We each got the warmest, comfiest black wool shirts, wool socks, and Blake got a Taranaki rugby jersey I’m sure he will be wearing everywhere. Oh, and Sam picked out a plastic cow so will remember the farm. We absolutely loved staying with this family and it will be hard for us to leave later today. They cooked us tasty food, were incredibly nice and welcoming, and we always had a great time hanging out at their house for dinner each night (and making fun of each others accents). We also know more about a dairy now than I ever thought we would! Now we are off a little more south and central to a town called Palmerton North for the next two weeks for our first Workaway experience!

Horse riding!