Hello from the WWOOFers!

So its official we are all WWOOFers now :).
WWOOF stands for willing workers on organic farm. The farm we have been working on the last week is called Marama farm. Marama farm is a sheep farm on the south island of New Zealand. Our time spent here has been a whirlwind of new experiences and has definitely brought our already cozy group even closer together. For starters we ate the most delicious sausages i have ever has in my life made from sheep from Marama farm. The owner Graham Clarke has been a fantastic host and we have learned so much about what it means to run a farm in the past week. If it werent for all the new adventures waiting for us in Australia I would say that I would love to stay here longer and learn more. Graham has been working on this farm since he was 20 years old and has been farming his entire life. On this particular farm there are 10,000 or more lambs born every year. More than 6,500 of these end up at the butcher :/. Amazing how shepards used to tend to and make a living off of only one flock of sheep. Our first day was spent removing the tails and castrating lambs. The process involves stretching a super tight rubber band around each appendage to cut off blood flow so they will fall off. The sheep are often full of feces and are visibly shaking and terrified. This type of work involved holding each lamb against ones chest so that the bands could be applied. The level of intimacy required to do this job properly was certainly slighty out of my comfort zone but I, like my wonderful group members, was able to embrace it. Our group rose to the ocasion and we were able to get through 1000 lambs in one day of work. The remainder of our stay here involved building about a half mile of fence and doing some gardening work. As you can imagine a farm as large as this one has hundreds of miles of fence. The fence we tore down and replaced was more than 70 years old. Fencing is far less mentally and emotionally draining than taling sheep and is actually very theraputic. Spending hours with the gorgeous New Zealand landscape in the background hammering in staples to string up wire between fence posts is very rewarding and neccesary work. I find myself stopping several times a day to marvel at the breathtaking and often 360 degrees of beautiful landscape in any given place in this marvelous country. The gardening project was a success as having a garden available on a farm is very ideal. I tried parsnips for the first time that I can remember. They are delicious and go very well with lamb. We are off to Queenstown tomorrow and then to Sydney after that! All is well
-Dan