The Farm

Te Pohue Farm

The farm is in the distance in the trees just behind the small beach. The point that sticks out furthest into the water used to be a quarantine area for immigrants coming into the harbour; the land is terraced showing where small structures used to stand. Many people were buried in the hillside and they have a small memorial bench there.

We wanted to save some money and try our hand at some sort of work-exchange during our stay in New Zealand. There are many websites that connect people looking for work to people who need work done (WOOFing, aka Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms, is a common example). We signed up with the free Help Exchange. After some searching, Claire found a farm that was looking for laborers with horse skills and building know-how. A perfect match! In exchange for our help on their farm along with help cooking the meals, they would give us a place to stay and feed us 3 meals a day.

We arrived in the afternoon and were given a quick tour. The farm was all hill... The main house was built in one of the only semi-flat areas on the property; at the bottom of a small valley where it met the ocean in a large, protected bay. There wasn't much building space even near the house and parking was very cramped. During our orientation, we talked about what skills we had to offer and what chores we would be doing.

The owners of the farm, Sam and Peter, had recently purchased the property and were attempting to run the place as a sheep ranch and bed and breakfast/farmstay. The main house was an older structure with some upgrades like a new kitchen. There were, however, some plumbing problems. On the first full day on the farm, Krispin's first task was to help rebuild the septic system (perhaps it wasn't such a good idea to communicate ALL of one's skills after all?); but, alas, the tank was overflowing so something had to be done. The septic system had been foolishly built in an area with thick vegetation and trees. Over time, the constant supply of water and nutrients had encouraged the subterranean destruction of the clay pipes to the point where no water flowed at all.

The pumper truck arrived and sucked out the tanks and revealed the very blocked pipes, which would have to be dug up and replaced. As it turns out, tree roots were not the only thing to be found underground; there were also large rocks. In fact, there were so many rocks that the ground seemed to be comprised of rocks and roots plus a little dirt filler. There was an excavator on the property but it was far too large so it had to be dug by hand.

Three days later the job was done; at least for a sore and tired Krispin. At a later date, the trees will need to be removed and an entirely new system installed, but for now everything was working. Meanwhile, Claire had been working in the vegetable garden, the house, and with the horses. Claire also learned how to run a chainsaw....

This one's for you Marleen!

Claire let Krispin use the chainsaw too.

The garden

We only had to work about five hours a day, five days a week. We probably worked more than we had to, but it was nice to be doing something. We found some time to work on the van, too. 

We were able to get the new contacts for the starter at an auto parts store.
Krispin installed them the easy way; by having Claire do it...

NZ$7 worth of parts, and K-MO was good to go!

The farm was a real working sheep farm and thus used dogs extensively to round up the sheep.

Well, Kate wasn't working very hard yet, but she will be soon. 

Apparently, this breed of dog is used for it's bark. She will learn to lie and wait for the command to start barking. At this point she has the barking part down; the waiting... not so much.

Harvesting walnuts!

Krispin on self-appointed quality control duty. 

The farm is right on the water and kayaks were available as a leisure activity.

An abandoned school house on part of their 750 acre property. There used to be two families who lived in this bay and were responsible for search and rescue efforts near the Lyttelton harbour area.

To get around the hilly farm, a network of roads have been cut in the hillsides. This machine is filling in holes and adding culverts. Krispin says he wants one...

Besides sheep and dogs, the farm also has foul and some beef cows.

Towards the second half of our stay on the farm, the main task was splitting firewood for the winter. There was a pile of dry-ish pine rounds with some other local hardwoods mixed in. The tools available were a splitting maul, a sledge hammer, and an old maul head that worked as a splitting wedge. Claire set 'em up and Krispin knocked 'em down. In three days, we split and stacked about two cords of wood. If the wood were not so full of knots, or we had a hydraulic splitter, we could have split the same amount of wood in an afternoon. But when the labor is "free" and hydraulic splitters have to be rented, we understand why it was done the way is was.

After the woodshed was filled, Sam and Peter must have been feeling sorry for us and invited us on a horseback ride down to the other end of the farm to "check on the cattle." Krispin had never ridden a horse; a cow once, but never a horse. The main "road" we followed wound its way up, down, over and under the ever present hills that make up the farm. The ride went over very steep terrain, overlooking a hill plunging straight down to the ocean; a rather challenging first ride for anyone!

Krispin on his FIRST EVER horse ride, with Jack!

From almost as soon as we set off, Krispin's horse Charlie was having a hard time keeping up with the lead horse. To make up for his slower walking speed, Charlie would break into a trot to catch up. Krispin, still having little idea what he was doing, managed not to fall off, but mostly gave up trying to control the beast and just trusted in the horse not to go over the edge. Halfway through the ride, Claire and Krispin switched steeds so that Krispin would ride Jack on the return trip. Jack was the opposite of Charlie; a little lazy and much less keen on moving quickly.

At the far end of the farm, we came to a place where the road could not, and did not, go. We spotted the cows down in a gully. From here we would have to dismount and lead the horses down a very steep hillside. It turned out to be quite tricky; there were no rock outcroppings and it was covered in dry (and VERY slippery) grass and thistle. The horses seemed to handle themselves just fine; we, on the other hand, were sliding all over the place! Apparently four legs really are better than two. Claire had on a pair of boots that we had picked up at the thrift store and had exactly zero tread; so she did a lot of "controlled sliding" and hoping that the horse she was leading also staying in control of itself. With the help of the horses, and holding on to a fence, we made it down without incident. Jack's saddle had loosened up a bit during this escapade however; so he threw a few bucks on the way back (while Krispin was riding him) before we realized what was going on. But Krispin proved to be quite the cowboy and made it through unscathed.

Fortunately, Claire was keeping an eye on Krispin the whole way and he didn't even fall off.  Climbing all those hills was tough work for Charlie and Jack, who worked up quite a sweat!

Although we were grateful for the opportunity to work on the farm and had enjoyed the time with our hosts, we were also getting very anxious to take our new van on the road and start exploring and camping! So after about a week, we left the farm and drove further south on the South Island with K-MO.

Time to take a turn in this fine, fern, fuel-injected automobile.    

Onward to New Zealand

Question: What happens when Krispin is on a long flight with a dead laptop and no book?
Answer: Bad puns spill fourth...

Example: What do you get when a Tongan man starts a family with a Fijian woman?
Answer: Cross-Polynesian

(Zean, that one's for you...)

We arrived at Christchurch International Airport after a two-leg flight from Honolulu. The first leg of our trip was on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Krispin had never flown on this aircraft but wanted to very badly. By contrast, Claire didn't know if she had ever flown on a Dreamliner but also didn't care so much as long as it didn't fall out of the sky and landed at the correct destination. In this case, Sydney, Australia.

The Dreamliner lived up to Krispin's expectations! The aircraft had a large, well-lit interior and was very quiet during flight. So quiet, in fact, that the screaming babies seemed unusually loud...

Unfortunately, this fine craft was in the hands of the shrewdly-run airline, Jet Star; the budget wing of Qantas (no pun intended this time). On this twelve-hour flight, nothing is provided for free...not even water! To be fair there are some water dispensers by the emergency exits; but, if you are cold/hungry/thirsty/bored you have to pay. Fortunately for us, we got forewarning of these wacko airline policies. One of the co-habitants of the hostel on the north shore of Oahu was an Australian who had just arrived via this same airplane and airline.

With Claire firmly in command of the pre-flight preparations, we stocked up on snacks and water for the long trip; trail mix, crackers, fruit and plenty of water. Our last host in Honolulu also supplied us with hard boiled eggs, "cuties," and granola bars. Still, by the time we landed in Sydney, we were just about out of everything. We did still have some apples though...stay tuned for more on them - yes the apples...

Jet Star did have one pleasant surprise for us; getting us free Australian visas! It was our understanding that because we were not staying in Australia (just transiting), that we didn't need visas. The airline was unsure and so just issued us each a three-month multiple entry visa for FREE! Normally, they charge twenty-five dollars each. As it turns out, we didn't need the visas, but they were very handy to have if we decided to return to Australia after NZ.

It was hard to give too much praise to Jet Star however, after they charged us ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY dollars to check one 25kg bag to New Zealand! We learned that lesson the hard way; never again will we jump at the chance to book a super cheap flight without first checking the baggage limits.

The second leg of our journey, from Sydney to Christchurch, was on an Airbus; and therefore unremarkable.
How does the saying go? Get me a Boeing or I ain't going... Something like that.

We landed quite late, about one in the morning. The immigration officers asked a question or two and stamped our passports, YAY, we were in New Zealand!!!

Not so fast... Remember those apples? Customs and the agricultural checkpoint were up next. They were much more particular and strict than immigration. On our landing card, we marked that we had fresh fruit. We went to the line for inspection and along the way passed signs that said we could be fined four hundred dollars for bringing a variety of food items into the country. We chose to declare (and subsequently forfeit) our three apples and skip the fine.

We had arranged to stay at a guesthouse very near to the airport, on the outskirts of Christchurch. We planned to stay two nights so we could get our bearings and rest after eighteen hours on the go. This place was perfect; the host picked us up at 1:30am, and it was quiet, clean, and included breakfast. Thumbs up to M & Y Guesthouse!

Krispin upon arrival in Christchurch!

While Christchurch was once dotted with old brick and rock buildings, an earthquake "storm" leveled much of the city in 2010-11. We would have liked to see some of these old buildings, but we were about five years too late. The botanical garden has survived just fine though. We spent a day walking around trees from all over the world, including Coastal Redwoods from California.

A statue at the old city center that suffered much damage; now a place to get some good eats from mobile food trucks.

After a few days of exploring Christchurch gardens, earthquake damage, and restoration efforts, our next planned stop was a sheep farm to the south of Christchurch to do a week of work exchange. To get to the farm, we would stay a night in Lyttelton, a small village located on a shipping port south of the city, and take a passenger ferry across to Diamond Harbor the next day.

On our last day in the city, we had a few errands to do; buy a sim card for our phone and pick up some cheap work clothes. We got off the bus and started walking the six blocks to a thrift store (or as they call them, "Op Shop") that Claire had found online. Just as we were approaching the store, we passed a Backpackers Car Market. Our original plan for New Zealand was to go to the farm and while staying there, search for a van to travel and camp in. But, all of sudden, here we were standing in the middle of a bunch of campervans, and fate stepped in. The first van we saw was an older Toyota Hiace with an awesome fern/camouflage paint job. We were standing next to the van, reading the "for sale" sign in the window, when a girl walked up and asked us if we would like to see her van. We were a bit caught off-guard, as we weren't planning to even looking at vans for another week or so.

We had a quick look at the van and said we might come back and have a closer look after buying the work clothes. While shopping, we decided we might as well have a look at all the vans at the market. When we returned to the car market, the van with the paint job was being test driven by two other backpackers so we viewed some of the other vans there. Most of the vans looked like they had been sitting for a long time. Some had parts sitting in the front seat or a high price tag. Krispin test drove a number of vans, but nothing jumped out at us as THE ONE. We were still waiting for the fern van to come back from the test drive.

After about twenty minutes, the people that had gone for the test drive came back... but in a different car!! Apparently, the van had broken down about three blocks away. That's a good time to walk away, right?! We tried to keep our distance from this problem but the more they described the problem the more Krispin thought it would be a quick fix, and the poor girls who were selling it were leaving on a flight the next day... So, everyone began to walk to the van to have a look: the two girls that owned the van, the two girls that had test driven the van, Claire and Krispin.

The van would not start. When the key was turned the starter would make a clicking noise. but the engine would not turn over. Krispin had seen this problem before and knew that the starter solenoid contacts were worn out. On Krispin's last trip to New Zealand, he had a van with exactly the same problem. The van had a tool kit, so Krispin removed the starter and confirmed his suspicion.

During this, the girls mostly sat in the middle of the road, complimented Krispin's handiness, and offered him mostly useless help - "Here, need a wrench? Oh, not that kind?...." After two failed attempts to shim the contacts into a working position, we push-started the van and drove it back to the car market.

To better understand the situation, more back story on the current van owners needs to be understood. This van was owned by two German girls that were planning to fly to Australia the next morning. They had tried, unsuccessfully, to sell the van online and were now in their second day of trying to sell it in-person at this car market. They had paid NZ$95 so they could wait around in the hope that a buyer would show up and like their van over all the others. There were lots of vans and very few buyers... At this point, if we didn't buy the van, the german girls had one option; pay the owners of the car market $450 more to store the van until it sold. If, and when, the van sold, they would get their money. The German girls would also have to pay a mechanic to fix the starter.

We liked this van. Eye-catching, with a great interior set-up, and something just "felt right."

So, feeling like we were half-nuts; we started negotiation. The original asking price was $4200 NZ. We knew they would have to pay $450 to the car market and about $250 to fix the starter, so we offered $3200. After some haggling, the four of us settled on $3400 and we did the paperwork and paid by PayPal at 5:15pm, just after the car market closed.

We gave the girls a ride to the place they were staying for the night, let them bid their sentimental goodbye with K-MO (the van), and took a picture.

And just like that.... we bought a van!!!

Meet K-MO!

Now what???

Well, no more need to take the bus; so we drove to our accommodation in Lyttelton! Krispin did an excellent job driving (left-side) on the fly.

Lyttelton Harbor

After the Kalalau hike, Claire decided that she didn't like her hiking boots and Krispin was on the lookout for a free replacement pair. Krispin found some but Claire was skeptical.

Next adventure, the sheep farm!