Well, life on tha farm is kinda laid back..........

G'day mates!

Hope all is well with everybody and congratulations to everybody in the northern hemisphere, summer finally kicked in :). Weather in NZ starts to get colder now when winter is coming up and it's been pissing down all over the country pretty much every day since beginning of may. The temperatures are not to bad yet thou, around 15 on the days and down to about 8 on the nights.

About half a year ago, just a week after my arrival in NZ, I met Brenna from California on a campground in Turangi just south of lake Taupo. After a chat on the evening and a day of biking the day after we decided to travel togheter for a while becuse both of us were heading down south to the ferry in Wellington over the ditch to the south island. We started out west from there towards Tamaruni and "The Forgotten World HW" that was leading us through spectacular scenery to the town of Stratford and the Taranaki area. By sunset with an strong headwind we entered Stratford and decided to keep on south to the outskirts of the town before start looking for somewhere to stay for the night. Just before Eltham on HW 3 we pulled up on the driveway to a house along the road and knocked on the door to ask if we could pitch our tent somewhere on the endless green fields around. Russel and Karen Joblin togheter with a big part of there family where gathered in the house that evening and they didn't saw any point in us putting up our tent when we could come in and have a feed and sleep in the livingroom :). We stayed with them on there dairyfarm for a couple of days before we continued our journey south. Just before we left the place in mid-november Russel said "If your'e traveling this way on your way up north again, your'e more than welcome to visit us again". I keept that in mind and half a year later I sent and email to the nice family and asked if I could visit them again and experience more about diaryfarming.

In late april I left the small village of Pokeno 50 km south of Auckland and headed south on my pushbike with the intention to visit the Joblin family for a couple of weeks. I started out on HW 1 which just transportation down to intersection to HW 39. The weather was good and I enjoyed being on the move again after a week of sickness up in Pokeno. I passed Towns like Huntly, Ngaruawahia and Ngahinapuiri before I came to Pirongia were I decided to stay for the night. It was still kind of early but I'd covered a good distance so I bought some food on 4 square and sat down on a bench outside to firestation which was located in the middle of the town. As I had my lunch I was looking around for some place I would be able to put up the tent and there was a small sheltered area behind the town Hall just beside the firestation were I thought would be prefect.

I was just about to finish the coke I bought and go for a lay down on the lawn in the playground when a pick up pulled up at the firestation. I thought that I might as well ask the guy if a could put up the tent on the property of the fire brigade and maybe save me some trouble if some one would question my choice of place to crash. I introduced myself to the guy whos name was Bill. He said, fore sure, but your'e very welcome to stay on my farm togheter with my wife and my three sons. Couldn't say no to that and we through up the bike on the back of the car. They had a spare room, actually, a spare little house were I could crasch. On the night me, Bill and his three sons who also was working on the farm had a good chat and a couple of beers.

The following day I continue my journey down south and after another 2 days of biking I reach the decent sized city of New Plymouth. Liked the town by the time I entered it and after cruising around in the towncenter for a while I found a backpacker in the middle of the town were I decided to stay for the night. I met Maicon, Fabio and Daimon from Brazil at the backpackers and togheter with a bunch of kiwi-girls from Wellington we had some drinks before we headed down on the town.

On late Sunday morning, actually more by lunchtime, I started to bike my approxomately 50 km towards Eltham. The terrain was mostly very flat whit an amazing wiew over Mt. Taranaki that stands up like from nowhere in the middle of otherwise flat grassfields. Arrived to Joblins after a couple of hours of biking and it was really nice to se everybody again after 6 months. Have been here for 3 weeks now and got to experience some of the works on a dairyfarm which been really fun and interesting. Exept from the farm the family also have a stockcar racing team called Joblin Motorsport were the three sons Simon, Scott and Adam are competing and also are some of the best drivers in New Zealand. This weekend I got to follow to a stockcarmeeting to see some races wich was really fun. check out there website at http://www.joblinmotorsport.co.nz/

Early morning, getting ready for milking

Looking for some specific cows that lost there numbertag

Racing during the weekend. Russell in the back, Simon and Scott leaning against his stockcar

Wiew over a part of the big dairyfarm

Simon and Scotts 2 - year old son Boston in the truck that brings the stockcars to the meetings

Russell is getting ready for race.














On wednesday it's time to head of north again up towards Auckland. Russell and another farmer from the area called Keith is gonna drive me up there. This will be the last post on the blog from New Zealand and next time you'll hear from me will be in about 2 weeks when I've arrived in Alaska for next trip down south through Alaska, Yukon, BC and down to the lower 48 were I can look forward to roads like this. Cheers mates!