More from Caretaker Farm

So I have been in New Zealand for a little over a couple of weeks now.  I feel sort of weird doing a blog post because to honest no a lot has changed since I last posted.  It is weird because I am in a different country but I am not going to new places all of the time.  So I will probably just go a little more in depth to where I am and kind of my thoughts as of late.  At Caretaker farm you work about 5 hours a day for six days then you get a day off.  On my first day off I went to the Auckland Museum.

Auckland Museum

It was a pretty cool museum, there is a lot of stuff from all of the different populations of the islands in the pacific, and if you didn't know there are a lot of islands but a lot of the people of the different islands lived pretty similarly but the stuff was pretty cool to look at.  There was also some stuff about the Maori culture which was the native people of New Zealand.  The museum also had a natural history floor which was cool to see what kind of animals they have (it also pointed out to me what animals they don't have).  Getting to and from Auckland pretty much took up my day off so I didn't get much done.  On my second day off I stayed closer to the farm and spent time in the towns of Warkworth and Matakana.  They are both cute towns about 20 and 10 minutes away from the farm, respectively.  As most of you know food is a highlight so in Warkworth I want to a cafe and had a latte and french toast the french toast had a pile of bacon and lots of maple syrup on it - it was so good - it was the first coffee and maple syrup I have had since I left.

French toast!!

Hitch hiking is very easy to do in New Zealand (sorry mom), you pretty much get picked up within about 5 minutes.  So next I hitched to a winery and had a tasting.  This winery is really good you can get four tastings for $5 but why I really like it is because it is the only place with a wifi connection where my podcasts will download (I have really been missing my TBTL, This American Life, and Savage Lovecast).  Next I want into Matakana and saw the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel...it was pretty good a little predictable but cute and well acted.

This the outside the winery I like to go to

As for the farm - things are moving ahead with the community oven.  We started building the walls today!!  In the photo you can see Fabrice in the green vest showing how to keep building.  The others are some of the other wwoofers.  After we build it, it will have to dry for about six months before we can cook bread in it so I will have to come back and visit on my way back south.

People have asked a bit about the food here and so far I have found it to be pretty similar to the United States.  It is sort of a mix between US and the UK.  The family I am staying with are originally from the UK so we have Yorkshire pudding and stuff like that.  So far I have not had the opportunity to have any vegemite but there is a lot of Nutella.  The weather so far has also been great the high during the day is about 20C and at night down to 10C.  So far the only way it seems like winter is there is currently about only 12 hours of daylight.  I miss home and a miss my friends but not so much where it feel like I want to go home.  Hope everyone is doing well - much love!!