Woke up around 6 am, after washing & dressing, all of us headed to kitchen for breakfast. Roger was preparing sandwiches for Ben, while we helped ourselves. There are lots of foods to choose from, ranging from bread & oatmeal supplements with various type of jam, crunchy peanut butter, butter & honey. There are apples &
kiwifruit as well. I toasted two slices of bread, spreading crunchy peanut butter ( peanuts in peanut butter!yummy!) on one and put on butter + honey on another. Then, I have half of a kiwifruit & a hot milo. Filling b’fast!
b'fast of the day --> toast on honey and butter + kiwifruits
The weather wasn’t good. It was raining heavily. Thus, Roger decided to give us a lift through his big NISSAN pajero to take us to have a tour on his farm. His farm is very big as it measures 460 hectares which has 400 white sheep (included 2 black sheep), 350 cows, more than 10 bulls & 2 horses. First, we went to the sheep shearing factory. It was really interesting to see the bolts and the equipments used for shearing the sheep. Roger demonstrated and explained to us the whole process of sheep shearing and even allowed us to take a small chunk of sheep furs back as memento.
Next, we went to see the cows. It was really a wonderful experience to see the cows in very near distance. I was just few centimeters away from the cows! But the bad experience is there is full of cow dung across the fields. You just cant simply avoid it but face it! Hahaha =D We also helped to feed the cows with bales of hay. Still some of the picky cows prefer pure green grass instead of dry hay. they are fussy too..hehe=p
cows...cows...and more cows...
After that, we pay visit to the bulls. The bulls have darker complexion and rougher skin texture compared to the cows. Well, they were good at fighting not producing milk..haha Another feature that caught our attention is the electromagnetic fences placed around the farm. Roger even asked us to test on the electric power ourselves. Four of us, take turn grab a hand of grass then place it on the fence. When we did it, you will feel the electricity pass through your body. Hehe=p good experience indeed! After the bulls, we went to the sheep. It was really a fabulous view to see loads of adorable white sheep on the lush green mountains. They gave us an innocent looks when we first hop out the car but they were very shy and ran away quickly when we walked closer to them. hehehe
with the bulls....
After few hours at the farm, huge raindrops began to fall on us, thus we decided to go home. We had a short break. After the rain has stopped, Jason takes us around his garden at the back of his house. Besides such big farm we visited earlier, we found out that he has a vegetable farm, strawberry & raspberry plants, grape vines, a small chicken barn and a rose garden at the back yard. Lovely!
---> infront of vege farm
--->in Jason's garden
Around noon, Jason brought us to try on a new sport- hunting. Jason gave each of us to try on two shots using his rifle. Well, as we are the beginner of this sport, we don’t shoot on animal, instead we just have a try to shoot the can tins in some distance placed on a field nearby his house. Jason is an expert in shooting, Wyne & Poh Yee were not bad as well, they hit the target. Sadly, Elun & I did not manage to hit any target in two trials. For me, holding the rifle is not easy at the first place, it was relatively heavy. Thus, I need to place the rifle on a stand to support it. Then, aiming the target again is a difficult task as you really need to focus and maintain steady & calm for you to really get ur target shot. Once you got abit nervous, you couldn’t hold the rifle properly and you will begin to miss ur target. At the first shot, I was really afraid of letting off the shot from the rifle, I nearly shed my tears after the 1st shot, ha…how stupid m i? In the second shot, I was much more confidence still I miss the target. Slightly more to hit it! Arh…disappointed! Well, at least it is a new experience for me. I never thought that in my life I will ever have the chance to hold a rifle.
After having fun trial on shooting, we headed back to have our lunch. Our lunch were delicious. Wyne helped out to cut the vege & cheese into small pieces for the salad while Elun helped Jason to prepare the Apricot Chicken. Jason even did the salad mayonnaise by his own by mixing malt vinegar and condensed milk. Yummy & unique! I did helped out in cooking the rice. Jason did learn a lot when I rise the grains with water and measures the water level by using my hand palms…I guess the kiwi don’t do that normally when they cooked their rice. Well, we felt contented as everyone helped out to prepare the lunch! Roger praised us for that…hehe
tadaa...our delicious lunch
After a filling lunch & short break, as the weather turn sunny, Jason decided to take us for a walk at his farm besides hunting. We were really fond of the picturesque view of his farm which situated in the middle of lush green hills and mountains. We were also impressed by such a large farm he has. We were telling each other that if we own just a part of his farmland, we were already millionaire in Malaysia. Besides, we did passed by another interesting spot- the cow milking shed. Here we were able to see the pumps and the machines used in the milking process. On our way back, we also came across Jason’s tree house among a fleet of tall trees beside the milking shed. I believed there must be lots of wonderful childhood memories lies beneath the tree house. =)
beautiful view - part 1
beautiful view part2
the milking equipment- wehehe~
After a long day of working, all of us were tired and we went back to home to get some rest. Roger treated us chocolate cookies(baked by his wife) and salami (beef slices served with coby cheese) for our light refreshment break. As I don’t eat beef, I just tried on the cookies & the cheese…It was tasty!
--> the crunchy cookies < baked by Jason's mum >
---> Beef salami with Coby Cheese
Around 3pm, we leave Jason’s house. After thanking Roger for his warming welcome & nice stay in his lovely abode and farm, Jason fetched us back to town to the backpackers. He first fetched us to the Taupo botanical garden. In my mind, I thought the botanical garden will be as nice as the Wellington Botanical Garden. Yet, sadly, it was not as nice as I thought. Jason just drive us through the path, I was too sleepy and I fall aslp, so I dint manage to caught any interesting sight…hehehe
nice rainbow along the way to Botanical Garden~
After we bid goodbye to Jason, we checked in to Silver Fern Lodge, a pretty nice & clean backpackers. We were assigned into one of the bunk room available. As there were not much tourist right now, so they let four of us stay in one bunk room which is supposed to be 9 people shared room. It has a comfortable tv lounge, a clean & fully-equipped kitchen, clean bedding & electrical blanket plus with friendly and helpful people. It was pretty satisfactory.
front view of Silver Fern Lodge
the clean & tidy beds in the bunk room>>>
After we put down our luggage, Wyne & I went to the kitchen to make ourselves a cup of coffee. Fortunate enough, there is a few biscuits left at the coffee table, so Wyne & I eaten it up without knowing the biscuits belong to who…kekeke feeling evil here…hahaha
After taking bath, all of us walked further down to the shoplot to hunt for food. I was glad that I chosen the right backpackers, given the good facilities, Silver Fern Lodge is situated near to the city. It was just 20 mins walk down to shops. Sadly, we found out that most shops has closed, I guess most shops in New Zealand closed at 5pm. We were afraid that there is no restaurant or café open to us. If worst come to worst, we thought of eating fast food. Yet, after walking till the end of the street, we turn into an Indian food restaurant – Mr. India for our dinner as the price sounds reasonable and affordable. To our dismay, the services were poor. The lady attended the couple who came after us first. Sigh..Food was served in slow speed too as our stomach has began to groan on us. I ordered Chicken Tandoori – 4 pieces of chicken grilled with herb spices.
>>> Chicken Tandoori <<<
Smells good but I don’t really like it as it bit dry without any sauce. After dinner, we explored around. We went to Woolworth to buy our breakfast for tomorrow morning. We also bought a box of Irish Toffee ice-cream (consider as Elun’s treat ) for our supper! Lalalala… we have a really fun time by savouring our ice-cream at the balcony of our backpacker. Eating stg cold in the freezing cold environment! Hehe =p
>> Eating yummy yummy ice-cream
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