Day 5-Morning Feeding

Ok, so I have to share with you the best way to start the day. Ladies and gentlemen, my kids.

They are greedy buggars and they love their milkies. They come out with THE BEST milk faces you have ever seen. And yes, it's faces. The milk will not be contained to mere mustaches.

Meet the crew!

Mama: Connie
Babies: Mr. T, Gutsie, and the new spotty, brown, unnamed one. (I'm toying with Pinto but open to suggestions.)

Mama: Queenie
Babies: Prince George (He's a big fatty), Frank Castle aka. The punisher, and Elwood from the blues brothers.

Mama: (Mean name describing her temperament and the fact that she sometimes kicks her calves. We'll call her...FB)
Babies: Panda (on account that his spots look like a panda face), Gus, Daisy and Slick Rick.

I love them. They come and nuzzle me and I scratch their soft faces. It's everything I imaged it would be when I watched "City Slickers." Baby Normans. Everywhere. So much love.

Day 2- Drenching

Drenching the cows. We chased 20-22 into the run at a time
and then Craig administered the pink goop of health. 

Property Tour. A panorama of one of the lower fields down by the river. 

The ladies. We got to chase a small group down to a VIP pasture
to eat their fill.

Oh sweet mercy

I am in heaven. I woke up this morning, walked out my front door and beheld the most beautiful sight I had ever seen in my life. Green hills bathed in golden sunlight and baby cows frolicking around in the pasture. I stepped off the porch, hopped the fence and gave my fleet of baby cows a morning scratch, visited FJ and Frankie the horses and then helped with the morning feeding.

While Brenden and I were working with the wee ones Craig rounded up the herd for drenching. We're going to be tackling that task after breakfast, which I burned. It was oatmeal.  I am ashamed to call myself a Mathis.

I am covered in wool, I smell of maneuver and hay and I couldn't be happier. Cheerio!

The classic cappuccino

This is for anyone who has ever worked at a coffee shop in Hawaii and has had an Aussie or a Kiwi look at them incredulously when you handed over a cappuccino without chocolate powder on top. This is what they are supposed to look like. Just less blurred. I had just taken a sip before I took this shot and my taste buds were dancing, hence the less than sharp picture. Yummity yum yum.

Auckland sights

St. Matthew's church.

Outside.

Inside.

Their take on the space needle. Except they BASE and Bungee jump off of theirs. ;-)

This guy just hangs at the airport. 

American observations of the land of New Zeal

Things are different here. -collective gasp- I know. I was shocked too. Here are a few things that I have noticed in the last 8 hours. 

1. We hire things like cars and suits now. We do not rent them.

2. We're driving on the left side of the road. I know I did this in Thailand, but my brain freaks out every time I stand at an intersection and watch people turn into "wrong" lanes. I just try not to scream and cover my eyes in horror. 

3. iSites are awesome and are officially my new best friends. They will book anything for you just because you ask them to. I hope they never find out that I'm just using them for their sweet connections. 

4. There are roofs of every variety. Metal, tile, flat, sloped, terra cotta, falling in... It's not super different per se, just fun to see the smorgasbord. 

5. Fire trucks look like dump trucks. And they say something about biohazards on them. I don't know, but it seems like maybe these fire professional are a little cooler than ours. I mean if you're in that crazy anti-fire suit already why not clean up a little flesh-eating green ooze while you're at it eh?

6. Everybody seems to know each other. I caught at least 5 interactions on my walk this afternoon, from high fives to enthusiastic head bobbles to support this. It's pretty neat.

7. We've got tomato sauce. Not Catsup. It tastes...saucy. That is sweet and perhaps a little slimy. Not a big fan.

8. Everybody is super nice. I haven't met a single kiwi that I have not liked yet. May that always be so. 

Tomorrow morning I'm taking off at the booty crack of dawn and start my voyage to Napier and the farm. A day in the city was enough for me. It's time for the comfort of green hills and livestock...yep. I said it. Onward! 

Last post from the states

I am on the flipping plane! This is what I see! 

Classy, I know. 

For my two euro buddies meet "Air pacific!" He might be a necessary travel buddy. ;-) Seriously, traveling with me could be way better than ferrying around tourists to and from Fiji. 

And here I go. Last shot from LAX.

 I am settling down for a 10 hour and 20 minute flight and wishing maybe a little that I had the "hookups" I did when I made my trip in 2007. Hugs and love to all. I land 12:00 local time in NZ on "Monday." To the future!