Dolphins, dirtbikes and horseriding

Hi everyone!

Winter is coming closer, so the days are getting shorter, colder and a bit wetter. However, lots of things have happened and at the moment it's sheering time. About 6000 sheep have to be sheered in a few days, so lots and lots of work to do! The sheep get sheered by a special team (mostly tough Maori men), who start at 8 am and end at 5 pm. I have been looking two times and man... what hard work it is. The sheep are pretty big and not the most calm, so you need a good pair of muscles to do this work. Then there are two people who sweep away the wool (mostly Maori women) and put it into bags. Very cool to see!

As it's hunting season (from April till June), Harvey and Rachel have been hunting most Sundays and I have a quiet day at home with the boys. One Sunday there was a big competition called the Hunting Trials: just a fun day for young and old riders with multiple riding categories, such as the short jump, synchronic jumping (where two people are paired up and have to jump some jumps at the same time), who can jump the highest with a measuring tape and a terrier race. This last thing was pretty funny, all jack Russell terriers would chase a quad bike with a dead rabbit tied at the back of it. The dogs went mental!! Our dog Holly didn't win unfortunately, she run the wrong way the silly dog haha.

Over the weekend the two older boys Lochie and Forbes came by and they went goat shooting. After their hunt they came back with the heads (omg, it looked disgusting and it smelled) and made a bonfire out in the horse paddock. They put a big pot of boiling water on top of the fire and boiled the heads, until the skull and horns were clean. They're going to put it up in their bedroom, they were so proud of themselves ;) At the same night, we decided to sleep outside under the stars. We put some horse covers on the ground and grabbed a sleeping bag and some blankets and slept under the stars. And it was amazing!! The sky here is so clear, as we live so isolated there are no lights that spoil the sky, so here you can see everything. Even the stardust, satellites, shooting stars (we counted 20!) etc. I didn't sleep very well that night, but it was totally worth it. Waking up at 5 am and seeing the sunrise, it was pretty fun!

The girl who stayed here before me (Bekka from Denmark), came back for 5 days and it was very nice to have someone of my own age to have around. We got along very good and we did some nice hikes together. We also drove the quad bike home from the woolshed on top of the hill, loaded with all of the working dogs which was awesome! The dogs love sitting in the quad bike and they start barking like mad!! We felt like real cowgirls that moment :P

I also did some horse riding on the pony Socks, she is such a lovely pony and of course I have been practising my dirt bike riding. Riding that bike is my favourite <3
But to balance out all of that tomboy stuff, Rachel, Bekka and I had a girls night in with wine/biscuits with cheese/chocolate fudge brownie/banana cake with lemon icing & apple crumble. Such a healthy evening haha! And we watched a movie in our pyjama's in front of the fire, thus a very relaxing evening :) That night, apparently, there was a big earthquake, as everyone was woken up by the shaking of their beds. However, I was so out that I didn't feel a thing. That was a bummer! As earthquakes are quite common in New Zealand I will probably feel one in the next 2 months anyway.

One of the coolest things yet, is that there are some dolphins in our backyard! They are swimming along the coastline, and they are with hundreds!! We took out some binoculars and had a closer look at them: beautiful. I have to say that I'm still not used to live in such a beautiful and pretty environment. It still feels unrealistic, as if I'm dreaming. But I am not! Just living the good kiwi life :D

Lots of love xxxx