Where in the World is Meredith?

Yesterday we had our last real farm trip but we went out with a bang, another three farm day! I won't bore you with the details and I'll try to keep this short and sweet. The first farm we visited was Rosehill farm. It was different from any of the farms we visited because it was a very wet farm and actually needed to drain water from the land, not irrigate it. The owners were very nice and got onto our bus to give us a guided tour of their farm where they grow some crops but mainly raise sheep and beef cattle. The best part was when we drove through the cattle field, the cows just looked at us a little and saundered away from the bus, they weren't scared at all! After this farm we stopped for lunch at a camp ground and crossed over two bridges by foot so we could get some good pictures and met our bus on the other side. Then we headed over to the Chaffey farm (the one I had to write my Ag Blog on). This farm is fully irrigated and grows crops and grazes cows in the winter

This weekend started Friday afternoon for us when a bunch of us went into the city (Christchurch) to go to the International Buskers Festival, which is essentially a street performers festival. It was actually a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be and, other than one horrendous act, the performers were all pretty good. My favorite one was Reuben DotDotDot even though I only saw the end of his performance. He used to work for Cirque du Soleil and the part of his act that I saw was acrobatics. He was using a Chinese climbing pole held steady by four memembers of the audience. He did some amazing stunts such as climbing to the top and holding on with just his hands while his body was horizontal, sliding down using his torso wrapped around the pole, and climbing to the top and completeing a full circle on one hand with his body horizontal. He was amazing! Many of us arrived back at school for dinner and spent the rest of the evening lounging around. On Saturday a few other kids

Today we took a short trip to a stud farm just down the street from us. Essentially they are a horse breeding facility. They have a handful of stalions on the grounds that they collect semen from to use on site and to ship out to buyers. They also perform artificial insemination (AI) on mares they have on the property and mares that people send to them and foal the mares. We got to see all the stalions, the semen collecting, storing and shipping facilty and processes, where the mares are kept, where the foaling mares are kept, where they keep the mares and their foals once they are born and a foal being bucket fed because he won't suckle from his mother. What I found most interesting was when we got to watch AI being performed, it is a very short process actually, and we got to see a different mare being scanned (ultrasounded) for follicles after she had been given medicine to help her ovulate yesterday. Although I do love horses and I think they are beautiful creatures I am not ne

On Wednesday we went to three farms in one day! It was a long day but super interesting. The first farm we went to was another sheep farm, which all knew a good amount about but we learned about his farm specifcally. After he talked to us for a while we got back on the bus and drove around his property while he was pointing out specifc things he had mentioned earlier. The one thing I found the most interesting where the fallen trees in the shelter belt (a belt of trees to shelter the livestock from the winds and other weather conditions) from a wind storm. These trees were pretty huge and the fact that they were all torn out fromt he roots was amazing to me and indicated that it must have been a really strong wind. After that we went to the second farm, which was really just his house, we didn't go out to see his farm. He had a beutiful lawn that we all sat on while he told us a little about his farm ( he used it to grow crops and now his son uses it as a dairy farm) and a lot abou

On Tuesday we went on two trips, a livestock auction and the International Antarctic Center. We went to the auction first which was actually pretty cool. One of the men working the auction talked to us about how it all works, how the animals are sorted and things like that. There were so many sheep and we did get to see them being auctioned off but that wasn't as exciting as the cattle auctioning. The sheep auctions were just done with the sheep in their pens and the caller standing on a platform just over the pen with the buyers in front of the pen and then they would walk over a few steps to the next pen and contine as such. For the cattle auctions which ever cattle (or set of cattle) were being auctioned came out into a ring and the bidders were sitting in auditorium style seats looking down at the cattle. While the cattle were in the ring therewas a man in there to make sure they went in and out. Once the bidding was done the cattle left through one gate and it started all over

On our free long weekend we went to Queenstown, the center for adrenaline activities in New Zealand. The weekend was such a blast! It was about a seven hour drive on Thursday to get there so when we arrived we all got settled and head out into town to look for dinner. I ended up with a few other girls at a Japanese restaurant and had what I refered to as "Japanese chicken noodle soup", which was delicious. After dinner we went out for drinks and we ended up all only paying for one drink each that night due to a promotion and some generous Kiwis! We didn't stay out dancing too late though because many people had to get up early the next morning. I got to sleep in a little bit and spent the morning wandering around town and we ended up in the Queenstown Gardens. It was a really nice walk and had a playground and a cute rose garden. After lunch and swiss ice cream I headed over to go extreme canyoning, which was amazing! We got all geared up in our wet suit socks, booties, o

On Wednesday we went on a day trip to Acheron farm. The man that owns and runs it (Scott) was such a nice man and was great to have us! First we learned all about his sheep and how he farms them, when he brings them in to sheer or vaccinate or drench etc, when and how he breeds them, when they lamb etc. Then he tought us about the buisness part of the farm. His main income is from wool and not meat so he told us about how they class wool, what is good and bad, how much wool you get per sheep and about his contract with Smart Wool. He also has a few cattle so he told us about them too. Then he brought in some sheep to show us handling and explain how he condition scores them (a condition score hoe healthy the sheep is based on how their body feels/looks, basically if they are too skinny or not). Once we had lunch we walked up the "hills" (you would probably call it a small mountain) where the sheep live. The walk was a little tough but we made it and the view was breath taking

On Monday afternoon, post-lunch, we headed over to the wildlife reserve to walk through the "zoo", have a guided Kiwi tour and experince some native Maori culture. The first thing we did was walk through two of the three different sections of the reserve, Wild New Zealand and Heritage New Zealand (our guided tour was of the third section, Natural New Zealand). Wild New Zealand was my favorite because it had more exoctic animals, the ones that were brought in from other countries and now live here, such as wallabies, deer, lemurs, monkeys, etc. All of the animals were so adorable and I took tons of pictures! Heritage New Zealand is the section of farm animals such as miniture horses, peacocks, goats, cattle, etc. I am not sure how peacocks classify into farm animals but I guess the do here in New Zealand! Once we walked through those two sections we had some time before our Kiwi tour so I spent some time in the gift shop getting some gifts for people at home and even something

This weekend was our first free weekend and we went to Kaikoura, a beach town. Most people did water activities such as whale watching and dolphin swimming but I took the road less traveled and did some hiking, cave exploring and 4-Wheeling. The bus picked us up at school on Friday after lunch and we all piled on with our backpacks stuffed for our weekend adventures. About half way to Kaikoura we stopped for a bathroom break and found out that the bus was "running a little hot" so we wandered around the little town of Chaviot for a while, had some tea and checked our e-mails. We ended up having a big group dinner there because fixing the bus was going to take a while. There was a nice resturant that offered to bring us platters of food for $10 per person. We had so much food we couldn't even finish it all! The resturant owner was so nice and was able to cater to both our vegetarians and our gluten free students as well. After dinner we hopped on the bus for the rest of ou

So yesterday (Wednesday, January 8th) was our first farm trip. During class they told us that the bus was going to pick us up after lunch, at 1:15, in front of the dorm to go and the university's dairy and sheep farms. We got out of class early had some time to relax and then after lunch we all went to go put on our boots and wait for the bus. At this point it was about 12:45 and people were going to go sit in front of the rec center to get wifi. I sat on the benches by the dorm because I didn't need wifi, I was just reading my book, and it was sunnier there (plus it was right were the bus was picking us up). So there I am reading my book and I check my watch it says it is 1:40, so I just figured the bus was late so I went over to the rec center where everyone else was before to see is Dr. Griffiths or Susan had told them anything and there was nobdy there. I walked all around and in the rec center, checked the cricket field and still nobody. I tried calling all the phone numbe

Today we started off by visiting the local weekend market in Christchurch. This market was huge and has pretty much anything you could want. A bunch of us got mini donuts for breakfast and they were amazing! After wandering for a while it started to rain and we seeker shelter under an unoccupied tent and watched the people who walked by. We also purchased souvenirs and got more tea! While waiting for it to be time to head into the city we sat on a field and listend to live music. Once we headed into the city we went to the Canterbury museum and botanical garden, which is one of the top ten gardens in the world. It was so beautiful and we took so many amazing pictures. There was a pretty cool street art exhibit at the museum too. For lunch we went to the boat docks and had toasties on the river. For those who don't know, a toastie is basically a grilled cheese and you can add other things. Then we headed back to the garden to continue our picture contest and wander on the trails. On

Today we went to Akaroa, a small town on the ocean roughly an hour away from Lincoln University. It was such a beautiful drive and we stopped at a stone beach where we picked up New Zealand green stone which can be polished into gems. The beach was beautiful! I could have spent a whole day there alone looking for nice stones, skipping rocks and relaxing. You aren't supposed to swim there because the waves are really rough and the water will take you under really quickly because of the rock surface and rip tides but even without a swim it was still amazing. Then we stopped at a little town and went to local ice cream shop and walked around a bit taking pictures, playing on the playground and learning about the deer farming industry (yes, they farm deer!). After a nice break we all loaded back into the bus and continued up the mountains and down into Akaroa. The mountains were so beautiful and the roads were so windy and steep that I am amazed how buses can go up and down them with s

After a long one and a half days of travel all most of us wanted to do was sleep but it was barely noon here so we had to stay awake until bed time! The first thing we did was went on a little scenic tour of Christchurch with our bus driver, Robbie, who is the biggest hoot! Then we went to the mall where we all came to realize how expensive simple items such as shampoo and sunscreen are on an island. Then we cam back to the university and had dinner and did a scavenger hunt. Then we all conked out until the next morning. The following day we had our first class which was more of a spew of information about what was coming up and showing us where the computer lab is. After lunch we all went into town to go to the bank and have a look around. When we came back we all went out onto the rugby field and proceeded to play soccer, nap, read books and get sunburned. We have all now realized how very important sunscreen is here. After dinner we all went to the local pub and had (for most of us