Hello friends and family!
I'm writing you from a very pleasant cow farm a few hours drive north of Auckland, New Zealand. In fact, I'm writing this blog with the soothing voice of Willem in the background, reading off the prologue to Star Wars II (We are all jazzed about the plasma screen that this nice house is sporting).
We arrived just a few short days ago and have spent our time getting to know our host (Shiela), working on the farm, and contributing to the upkeep of the home with rotating chores. Work on the farm includes (but not limited to) pulling rotted fenceposts (Christine, David, Cliff, and myself (Ryan) have all helped), stapling fencing to new fenceposts (this has been mostly Willem, Christine, and Gordon), digging trenches for electric fencing (props to Gordon and Dylan), naming cows (Hannah and Christine were in charge of naming a cow and chose "Precious"only to find out it was a male cow. fail.), weeding (more like deforestation from the size of the weeds), and picking ripening fruits from the orchard. Most of the group has chipped in on the weeding at some point or another, and it's definitely already showing. We all give our best effort and it's clear in how smoothly things are running.
We've all been thrilled with the food here. Gladly enough, New Zealanders also have four meals a day. What a happy place! So if you were worried about your loved one on this trip shrinking away, DON'T. We've been chowing down on some lovely Cowbell, which is the name of the cow that we have been slowly working on.
The rolling hills surrounding the farm have natural terraces and varying types of trees and plains, which several of our group members have begun to explore. We're all just happy, to put it plainly, and trying to take it all in – we're starting to see how fast time is rolling by and want to make the most of each day. Already 1/3 through the trip!
This will post will be accompanied by another in just a few days, with a short shout-out from each group member and a more detailed list of what's been going on and what we've accomplished. With any luck, we'll tag a few photos to my second posting as well.
Until next time, know that your loved ones are happy and healthy, and learning more about the world and themselves every day.
Ryan Gasdia
