Grandma Pat and the Dairy Farm

 There is a sweet lady in the village named Vivian who has been very kind to our family ever since we arrived. She is a GP at the hospital and has a little boy named Timmy who is in Owen's class at school. She invited us over for fish and Chips just two weeks after we had moved into our house. I walked into her house and her Mom is sitting at the kitchen table. She introduces me to her Mom as "Grandma Pat."Oh, boy did that make me smile!! I think I probably sat way to close to "Grandma Pat"  but she just reminded me of my Mom. (For those of you that don't know, my Mom back home is  also a Grandma Pat whom I love dearly, and miss so much.) So after I invaded Grandma Pat's personal space all night long, she invited our family out to visit her on her Dairy Farm. So of course we accept. I was excited about my kids getting to go and visit a true working NZ Dairy Farm. I think it is important for our kids to not only live and play abroad, but to learn about out new environment and understand a little about the country. So the weather was really cold and crummy the day we are scheduled to leave. Vivian calls me in the morning and ask "Do you still want to go, it is going to be cold at the farm", and I reply "Yes, we are still going, raincoats are designed for days like this." And she says"Good on ya mate." Which has become, by the way, my favorite Kiwi saying!!

So here we are walking around and exploring the farm (notice Owen and his stick). Vivian looked at our shoes when we arrived (we all had on our nice Nike running shoes) and kindly gave us all Gumboots to borrow while we explored. The English call them Wellies, and Americans call them rain boots. Our running shoes would of been ruined with all the mud and cow poo!! 178 cows makes for a lot of POO!!

This is the Farm that Vivian grew up on with 8 other sisters (poor Dad). Grandma Pat has lived on this property(178 acres) and in this  house since 1939. It is the same house, with the exception on a small extension they added on. It is a small house with 3 bedrooms and a very small kitchen. I think most of the furniture is original as well. Most Kiwi houses do not have insulation, let alone central heat. So Grandma Pats house was quite chilly, she had an old wood burning stove in a small room off the kitchen. It was a very cold day, somewhere in the low 40's with high winds and hail throughout the day. The Ellington's had on 3-4 layers as well as ski hats and we were still cold. But Grandma Pat wore a long sleeve shirt and a thin merino wool sweater w/o a coat and was never cold!!! The Kiwi's are much heartier than us wimpy Americans. She served us Pumpkin soup and kiwi's for lunch and some delicious scones for Tea time. It was a fun afternoon, and we all learned much about Dairy Farming in NZ.

A Kiwi vine is growing on the top of this shed.

There were many baby calves on the farm. 

Some Milk facts we learned
1. New Zealand's main dairy export is whole milk powder.
2. 1 cow requires 1 acre of land
3. Dairy is NZ largest Export earner
4. NZ largest Company is called Fonterra which is a multinational co-operative owned by over 10,500 dairy farmers.
5. Fonterra is the Worlds leading Exporter of Dairy Products
6. Fonterra is responsible for more than a third of international Dairy Trade
7. A gallon of milk cost around $7
8. Never wear Nike shoes to a Dairy Farm