McLeods Daughter....

Hey everyone!

While work is quieting down, my life here certainly isn’t! Trying to fit in all the things I wanted to do and meet up with all the people I wanted to see is something you shouldn’t leave till last minute, but somehow always seems to happen that way.

Last weekend I FINALLY borrowed Geoff’s car and took the (ONLY!) one hour ride to Sheffield, where Craig and Sally live. Some of you might remember the family I stayed with at their farm for about 10 days four years ago. Some of you might also remember me really not wanting to leave this place and New Zealand behind that time and promising I would be back! The bad weather forecasted seemed to stay out, so around 12 o’clock I drove up a familiar looking driveway and got welcomed by Sally and Craig and their 3 month year old Emma. It was so good to see them again and not a whole lot had changed since I’d been there, which was just great! Craig had to move some sheep, so I sat down with Sally and just started chatting away when all of a sudden the rain outside turned into snowflakes! “Don’t worry”, Sally said, “it’s not settling”, so we continued our conversation. But all of a sudden the world outside started to turn white! Big snowflakes kept falling down, so after a short moment of doubt we decided it was better for me to hit the road again and drive back to Christchurch, while I still could! During a quick goodbye Sally asked me to come and stay with them the following weekend, which I happily accepted! As you can see on the pics, it was a good snowfall I had to drive back through! Pretty cool! It was a real winter wonderland! Halfway back it turned into rain again, but later that evening it started snowing in Christchurch too, so the next morning I went out and took some awesome snow shots! Men, what am I gonna do without these views back home....

The Dutchie in me is slowly awakening though as Tjeerd and Frank are real soccer fans and told me about the European Championship. Have to honestly say that I couldn’t manage to get up at 6.30 Tuesday morning for the victory over Italy, only saw the second half! But I did manage to get up and on my bike by 6.15 Saturday morning to go and watch the France smashing game in the pub. Wow, aren’t WE good!!??

After that it was time for me to hit the road again yesterday afternoon to go and stay at the farm. I didn’t see their two boys last weekend and Harry was 9 months old when I was there four years ago, so it was awesome to have Harry standing in the doorway welcoming me with a “Hello Pieternel!”. He had just had his 5th birthday party, so lots of new toys he and his cheeky younger brother, Jack, could play with! It was just so good to see them and the two boys are sooo cute! So is Emma, but according to Craig she doesn’t like my accent, cause as soon as I started talking to her she started crying...haha! This morning the boys had sneaked out to my sleep-out (might be a Kiwi thing, I had never heard of it before I came over, but it’s a separate cabin/house that has got a bath- and bedroom in it, they’re pretty cool!) to come and wake me. Thankfully Craig hadn’t allowed Harry to come over at 6, which was the time he had first asked permission! Haha! After breakfast Craig, Harry, Jack and I went out to one of the paddocks to fix some electrical fencing, although I spent most of my time playing ‘dirt-bike’ (running and falling into bushes...) with the boys! Pretty cool to be out and about again though, I seriously think I could get used to that quite easily, maybe I am just a born McLeods Daughter! Went for a horse ride on Sally’s horse, that I have probably scarred for life as I pushed her to go through the creek and she tripped pretty badly and I only just managed to stay on.... Spent the afternoon chatting away with Sally and then it was time again to leave... Not good at saying goodbyes and really didn’t like doing it again here. Threatened them I’d be back again within two years this time, so hopefully I’ll see them again soon! It was a great weekend and now it’s time for the final two weeks in New Zealand, lots of uniwork to do still and the final episode of Grey’s Anatomy, so catch ya all later!!!!