Blue Tractors and E-Bikes

Thursday 26 February

The last leg back to Ōtautahi Christchurch - after a brief pause to pick fruit and for smoko with Robbie our POP host!

Woke to another chilly morning but the sun quickly warmed things up. Caught up with Robbie on his morning rounds on the mobility scooter (letting out the hens, checking the orchard and turning on a few irrigation hoses) and he invited us to join him for smoko at ten. We spent a fascinating hour with him and two other fellow campers who were both in their 70s and had been farming all their lives. We learned heaps about ballot farms after the war and goat farming as well as witnessing a tussle for supremacy between John Deere and Ford tractors!

Robbie had recently turned 80 and was very proud of the blue Ford tractor birthday cake which had been made for him - it was a work of art! His love for his trusty blue Ford Tractor is evident everywhere - in the sign on the gate, in illustrations around the room and in his fighting talk verus the merits of up to date John Deere tractors! Wandering around the property I spotted his darling in a paddock behind the house, hiding behind a hedge!

The other couple at morning tea/smoko were the occupants of the Hilltop van who arrived after us and found us in their booked space (oops - not our fault, Robbie got in a muddle!). They were both in their 70s and the talk was mostly about ballot farms after the war and goat farming - we had very little to contribute but it was a fascinating learning opportunity.

After WW2 large tracts of land were parcelled up into 100 acre blocks and returning servicemen and their families were eligible to enter a ballot to win the right to farm this land on a Crown Lease, with the option to buy over time. Apparently some of the later ballots were less well subscribed so our colleagues were made eligible to enter the ballot even though they had not served in the military and they won a section of land up on the Hauraki Plains, south east of Auckland. After working the land for several years, they were able to purchase their land and they have been farming in the area ever since.

They talked all about goat farming which was one of the projects they undertook - apparently worm issues affect goat farming quite badly and the solution is very clever. In the wild goats only eat the tips of the plants they graze on over a large expanse of land, so any worms that they may drop in their faeces stay on the ground and do not get re-consumed. In a well grazed paddock scenario the worms can be reingested as the goats crop the grass close to ground level, and it is impossible to break the worm cycle (leading to gastro/digestive issues and a lack of health and therefore milk). The solution was to create large barns with spacious goat habitat on either side and then a feeding panel down the middle. Between the two spaced the fencing was like a row of cricket bats lined up side by side - the goats would stick their heads through at the thin handle end at the top where the gap was larger, then run their necks down into the narrower space below and eat the food from the feeding space... they would only eat with their heads down so no food would be dropped back into the living space, so the goats would not rummage around looking for food in this space so they did not risk reingesting the worms that they had dropped in their faeces. Such a clever solution. Colony goat keeping!

Back at Banjo I had a doggo chat with Azzy the spoodle who lives with a lovely lady who is a fairly permanent resident in this POP then waded through the long grass across one of the paddocks to pick a few quinces from Robbie's precious quince tree (hopefully Ella can make something delicious with them!)

We packed up, hit the road and finally made it to the Weedons NZMCA site in Christchurch just before lunch, set up Banjo then headed into town to drop off the bikes for fixing/service and to do a few chores then out to Rolleston to see Emma Bell (daughter of our lovely friends Ann & Mark Bradley) who is now a practicing physio. She worked some physio magic on Louis and hopefully he’ll be working better again soon!

Emma's business seems to be running very well - she was with a clinic but currently works 2-3 days from home. She tried to needle Louis but he was quite vociferous about this... so back to massage and manipulation. I had a wander around their lovely neighbourhood and then hung out with Victor and admired the fantastic woodwork he has created and the abundant garden. We left with a less munted Louis and a bag of fresh tomatoes, strawberries and mint - yum!

Dinner at Banjo and a chill evening in - early night for him and late night blogging for me…