Kaitaia is the biggest, northernmost city before entering Cape Reinga, the long skinny tip of the North Island. Soy and I are at a farm 12 kms outside of Kaitaia, so pretty secluded, but nothing we aren't used to :) The Wigley's own between 600-800 beef cattle (Aberdeen Angus) depending on the season, as well as a handful of sheep, horses, and too many cattle dogs. The three boys, Ben, Max, and Jake, are all very sharp for their age but also very rebellious, resulting in a lot of motherly yelling... all the time. In all honesty I'd rather spend two weeks with the boys than one week with the mom. Having had the task of taking care of the dogs for the weekend, I'm pretty proud that I can name them all and tell them apart: Trix, Pup, Spark, Dee, Fly, Queen, Puke, Zac, Moss, and Snip.
That was one of my tasks because the family actually went on vacation down towards Auckland from Friday to Monday for Waitangi weekend (celebration of the signing of the treaty between the Maoris and the Brits) to buy a new car, sell an old one, and go fishing. Having only arrived three days previously, we were a little surprised by this abandonment but I can't say it wasn't nice having a whole weekend to do what we wanted. Of course, we felt obligated to accomplish some tasks because this farm could use a lot of cleaning up, but we were able to go to the beach for half a day and take a tour bus up to the top of Cape Reinga to see the lighthouse and go sand-boarding down huge sand dunes. The whole west coast of New Zealand is very dangerous to swim in, with prevalent riptides. The bus drove down part of 90 mile beach (which is actually only 88km long), and through Te Pahi stream at full steam so that the quicksand couldn't take over. With all the salt, the bus frames only last about five years, at which point they lift the passenger cab off and place it on a new frame. Looking out from the lighthouse, you can see where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean, a green turquoise swirl with dark blue, believed by Maoris to be the point where their spirits leave to find their homeland of Hawaiki when they die.
At the farm, Sawyer and I have cooked, cleaned, harvested veggies, learned how to shift stock mobs to different paddocks, learned how to weigh cattle, and done lots of playing with the kids. Walking through the barns with lots of frayed balls of twine and dusty tools used for God knows what, the surroundings feel somewhat homey.
We leave Wednesday to be closer to the seasonal jobs in the south eastern part of the North Island. We might be picking those New Zealand apples you all buy at the grocery store ;)
Another post to come soon.
