On to Otago!

She says:

So back to the pig farm! After about 4 weeks training, we were trusted with running the farm for six weeks. Which for me was an easier job than it was for Ryan, as I was mainly looking after piglets and sows. Who wouldn’t enjoy seeing hundreds of baby piglets every day? However, sometimes I helped Ryan out and it certainly made me appreciate how much hard work there is to farming, especially after chasing 60 cows around for 2 hours, after the electric fence stopped working!! The baby bulls are escape artists!

During our last few weeks on the pig farm, we looked at where we would work/live next, and applied to several jobs. Unfortunately, we were told that they wanted people immediately, so despite us being “perfect”, (their words not ours!!) for the job, we were without a plan when it came to the end of our time at the pig farm. Luckily, we were offered a WWOOFING position with some friends we made at the pig farm, where I learned how to make Chinese dumplings, met some very friendly cows, horses and sheep and learned how to shoot an arrow ( Ryan can tell you more)!

Towards the end of WWOOFING, we finally found a job willing to take us in Clyde, Central Otago. We were going to work on a vineyard, pruning. The location was fantastic as it gave us a great base from which we could explore Southland and surrounding areas, whilst still working to support ourselves 🙂 But before working again, we decided to visit the adrenaline capital of the world, Queenstown, and do some Bungy Jumping!

Now originally, the thought was just to do the Bungy, however they had a deal on, so somehow we booked ourselves onto the thrill seeker pass, which included: the biggest bungy in NZ, the swing and the catapult, each ! I had never done anything like this before so was very nervous. We started off with the Bungy, and I was very happy to find that Ryan was going to go first ( Poor Ryan). Which meant for me that I could watch him and gain courage from him :). It was a surreal feeling completing the bungy, falling so fast towards the ground, but the hardest part was trying to not look like a flailing fish on the end of the line when they were bringing me back up to the platform.

Next up was the swing. There are multiple options for the Swing: Forwards, backwards, upside down, each person facing a different direction, etc. Now, when we first saw the swing, we both decided the best way would be forwards together. However, after to speaking to one of the staff whilst we were waiting, I changed my mind and Ryan suddenly found himself attached to the swing, both of us facing backwards, with no countdown!! Ryan was not impressed!

Finally, we had the catapult. I found this one the least exciting or fun as the harness they strap you into is uncomfortable, and the thrill of speeding forwards wasn’t as fun as speeding towards the ground for me. If I had to rank them I would say Bungy: 1, Swing: 2, and Catapult: 3.

We rounded our brief time in Queenstown off by doing one of the bar crawls, which I highly recommend for meeting people and getting ideas on where to visit for nightclubs. The free pizza was just a bonus 🙂

Until next time !

He Says:

So after Victoria’s birthday week that we discussed in the previous post, we made our way back to Hinds for our final stint at the pig farm! After a couple more weeks of making sure we knew what we were doing, the lovely host family we were with head off on their holidays to Germany, leaving us “in charge” of the house and animals for the next 6 weeks! While Victoria’s jobs mainly revolved around the sows and new born baby piglets themselves , I was more relied upon for other jobs around the farm, such as; milling new sow & piglet feed, feeding and moving the bulls, sorting out the electric fences, and other jobs that needed doing on a daily basis. I could not tell you how many times I ended up electrocuting myself, but it was rare that I went more than a few days without a shock or two!

Apart from the one time we had some escapee bulls due to a fence coming down, and the odd occasion where some piglets made a break for freedom by burrowing out of their pens, I’d like to think we were very successful at our farming stint! Although I know now that if I ever do decide on a career change and decide to work in agriculture, I’m sure as shit not going to work with bulls. They’re assholes.

Most exhausting was the weekly selling of the piglets. Around 140 piglets (minimum 20Kg, often a lot heavier) needed moving in a 3 hour window, which involved catching, and then lifting, every single one onto a trailer. And my god those guys could squirm. I like to think that by the 10 week mark of doing this I was starting to get used to it…. And then we left.

As Vicky has already said, afterwards we did a little bit of WWOOFING nearby, which was a very welcome change! We helped daily with the gardening, painting the house and fences, looking after the animals sometimes, and once or twice a week babysitting the 3 children. We would be hard pressed to say that we had to ‘work’ during our time there though (not through lack of effort on our part), but more that we genuinely enjoyed helping out such a lovely family in anyway we could, and its always a bonus being repaid with some AMAZING food! Something that you don’t get too often while travelling!

Yes, we also got a chance to do some archery while we were there, although I’m not sure what else Victoria expected me to say about that…

Finally though it was time for us to leave and head to our new job working at a vineyard over in Central Otago! I can’t reallyyyyyyyy be bothered to talk about that just now, but I will give a quick run down of the 3 day holiday in Queenstown we managed to fit in before then!

Super quick Queenstown trip 1 recap:

• We both did the Nevis Bungy (biggest in NZ at 134m)
• Together we did the Nevis canyon swing (biggest in the world), backwards!
• We then each did the Nevis catapult (again, biggest in the world)
• All of the above bullet points occurred within an hour window, and my heart felt like it was going to give out. Yay! Fun?
• We had food.
• We had a nap.
• Finally, we went out on the ‘Big Night Out’ pub crawl for a bit of a good old fashioned blow-out. We made some friends, got very drunk, and had a great time.

And that’s pretty much it! We’re still behind on a few blog posts, as we have to fill you guys in on Milford sound, Doubtful sound, Skiing, Dunedin, etc. However we’re still in the same job and location as at the end of this blog post, so we’re getting there. Slowly.

Bye.