After our short stay in Wanganui, we drove to Kumeroa where we had set up a 2 week WWOOFing stay. We arrived on December 23rd and stayed for two weeks. Our host, Mitch, was there during Christmas, but left for vacation on the 26th and we stayed to house sit and puppy sit. Kumeroa is a dairy farm town where Mitchell's family owned almost all of the land. It's situated in a small valley and the population is just big enough to have a school and a hall nearby (the bare minimum for a New Zealand township). Although Mitch's family own the dairy farm and over 500 dairy cows, we were only responsible for his permaculture garden and his puppy, Bella.
There was a sweet old converted hippy bus on the property that had been left there years ago by Mitch's friend. It had two stories and had been owned by a family that had been driving it around NZ (which is hard to imagine because NZ has small windy roads). It had multiple bedrooms inside as well as a lounge space.
About a week into our stay, we decided to take a day trip to Napier to explore Hawke's Bay. It was New Year's Eve and we went to the beach, went wine tasting, walked around the town of Napier before returning to Kumeroa at night.
The Manawatu River ran through the property, and if the weather was good we didn't miss a chance to go for a swim with Bella!
Those rolling green hills have to stay green somehow, so this meant that most of our stay in Kumeroa was rainy rather than sunny.
When the rain was letting up and the sun was coming back, it made for some pretty spectacular views of vibrant rainbows!
Due to all the rain we experienced, we were stuck inside a lot and this meant we got to try out tasty, new recipes! There was lots of bread baking in between meal times.
We definitely reaped some of the benefits of being on a large dairy farm... to get our milk we simply went down to a huuuge vat on the property, opened the large faucet ever so slightly, and out spewed the milk. Because milk was never an issue, it allowed us to try a great feta cheese recipe that required 3 liters of milk to make. Mmm, the feta cheese turned out great and it tasted so fresh!
Mitch left us some jobs to do around the place while he was gone. We bird-proofed the tomatoes by putting lots of chicken wire around them, we created a wall for the beans to be able to climb, we did a fair amount of weeding, we transplanted some of the baby plants into the larger garden, and the one we are most proud of: we made the gate for the garden a swinging gate by attaching hinges to it and used a nail and chain to lock and unlock it!
There were quite a few sheep around the farm, but Mitch only had three sheep around his place. The smallest of the 3 was named Rosie, who Mitch hand raised from a tiny lamb. Tail still intact, she was one of a kind! She somehow found a way to get out of the fenced paddock on the daily and she would come running through the garage or the garden in search of us. She was a cute sheep and soft to the touch.
Since Rosie was not fully grown yet, her and Bella grew up together. They were both very jealous of each other and would compete for our attention. Sometimes this sisterly competition got a little out of hand when Rosie and Bella would both run inside the small living room and chase each other around! Sigh, pets!
One of our favorite things to do around Kumeroa was ride bikes whenever we got the chance. We would take Bella with us to tire her out while we got nice views of the surroundings. The next few pictures are from a particularly pretty sunset ride!
We even saw our first live groundhog on this ride! Isn't he cute?
We enjoyed the simple country life so much that it was very easy to get used to! We could have stayed for a lot longer. **side note** Hayley read a book called 'Twelve by Twelve' while in Kumeroa about a tiny house in rural North Carolina off the grid. She highly recommends it! The book seemed to mimic our stay because it was very much about a growing shift in consciousness to sustain one's life instead of always striving for more.
We want to dedicate this post to Bella. During our two week stay in Kumeroa we got very attached to her! She is a 5-month old border collie with lots of love to give...who wouldn't fall in love with her? She went everywhere with us (except on our Napier day trip because she gets car sick) and would even sleep in the same room as us (and would jump on the bed in the morning of course). It doesn't quite do it justice to say that it was very very difficult to say goodbye to Bella and leave her behind :(
