Out in the sticks!

I've spent the last few days at the my other aunt's property, near Clevedon, Manukau City; in the countryside about an hour's drive from Auckland. I'm writing this from their front deck, looking out over their property, which is edged by native bush. It's a really nice spot, up in the hills above a valley, and possibly good pre-intro for any WWOOF-ing I might do here or in Oz (though the bugs will be bigger in Oz). Well, I've at least had a go at picking peaches,held a just-laid egg (the chicken was still doing it's "I've laid an egg - look at me" dance - either that or it was an "Oi! Who stole my egg?!" dance) and doing some extremely minor sheep herding (standing on a track flapping my arms slightly).

They keep eleven cows, twenty-something sheep, chickens, Muscovy ducks (which don't quack and have claws on their feet, making them quite a sinister proposition in duck terms) and guinea-fowl on their ~11 hectares. The cockerel here and the ones at the neighbouring property haven't quite got the hang of crowing at dawn; they like to keep some variety by choosing any time between 9pm-7am to make a racket! It's a pretty great way to wake up though; my first morning I was woken early first by the cockerel, then by some other birds joining in, and of course by the ever-present cicadas, which are even louder here than in the suburbs of Auckland - the sound varies from maracas-like rattle to a crazy loud fizz like sausages frying in hot oil. So, while it's peaceful here, with the lack of road or air traffic, it's definitely not silent.

Meeting the animals here was interesting, although apparently the sheep, which my aunt is very knowledgable about, have accepted me in the some way, because their leader Black Nose (who has his own facebook page!) actually took a few steps towards me when I went to their field. So at least I have one friend in NZ to start me off! There was also the Muscovy duck that was sitting on a nest of guineafowl eggs; the result of the eggs being abandoned by the original guineafowl. Unfortunatly the duck, being a lot bigger than a guineafowl, had crushed some of the chicks to death, but two had survived. An attempt was made to swap the duck for an extremely angry hen (aptly nicknamed Angry Hen), who had been nesting up near the house. But the experiment didn't work out when the hen started pecking at the chicks. Cue swapping by the now extremely annoyed duck back onto the nest, while Angry Hen was returned to her own eggs up by the house. Messing with nature gets complicated!

While here I also got to go on the bushwalk, which was great - clambering through undergrowth and pushing through massive dead fern fronds. I even got to see a possum which Rusty the Jack Russel sniffed out in a fern-top. Normally the possum would have been shot, but this time, since Bruce didn't have his gun, it was left - with Rusty still barking madly at the foot of the fern, ripping off chunks of foliage in a valiant but ultimately fruitless effort to demolish it and bring the possum down to his level so he could sort it out. Rusty remained in the bush for two hours after we left, haranging the possum - that's dedication for you.

written by  LizIsHere on February 7, 2010 from Manukau City, New Zealand
from the travel blog: New Zealand & Australia 2010
tagged Hi9
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