Galavanting Globally

Whakahoro (Yes, it's pronounced phonetically!) 

At the beginning of this trip Kelly and I decided we wanted to become more "outdoorsy".  As "sporty" girls, we realized it is drastically different, though often confused, to be athletic and willing to get dirty than it is to be real outdoorsmen (insert manly grunt here).  What that really means is up to anyone's interpretation.  This week we got away from the city life to follow our little pipe dream.

Mike and Anna, in addition to their parents we stayed with in Rotorua, also has family in Whakahoro.  The combined family has 8,000+ acres of gorgeous countryside where they sustainably, and quite beautifully, farm sheep, beef and honey.  In addition, they run one of the largest endangered bird and indigenous tree conservation projects in New Zealand.  You can almost hear my little hippie heart chanting to mother nature right now.  Dan, who leads these conservation efforts at Blue Duck Farm, took us city girls, I mean sporty girls on with open arms.  Within an hour of arriving we were asked if we wanted to go possum hunting.  Oh boy did we.  In addition to our new possum hunting passion, here's a list of other things we've done in the last few days that would have previously been on my "I never imagined I do this in my life" list:

1.  Sheep Docking - tagging, castrating and removing the tails from the lambs. 
2. Picking up dead boars on a four wheeler - from the tourist boar hunt, obvi.
3. Goat Hunting - both Kelly and I shot and killed our first animals, it was way more exhilarating than I would have ever imagined.
3a. Kissing the dismembered goat balls of my first kill in Kiwi tradition
3b. Finding out that kissing balls is in fact NOT a Kiwi tradition, but it is Kiwi tradition to trick gullible Americans.  At least Kelly did it too.

Before you all go thinking that we are now blood thirsty hunters, I want to clarify that all of these animals are introduced pests to New Zealand that cause major environmental strife and, in the case of the boars, kill the livestock.  In addition to the non-native predators, possum ravage the cute little kiwi bird who is in danger of extinction and many other rapidly disappearing native flora and fauna.  Also, as I previously laid claim to my hippie status, I am a meat eater and find that most of us are too far removed from our food source.  If I am willing to eat the dead animals, I should be able to take part in the ending of their lives.  Plus, the lodge made a delicious curry for the tourists out of goats.  Goat curry, nom nom nom.  Ok, ok, it was also really fucking fun to shoot some shit. Outdoorsy card earned?

In addition to our killing spree, we've also been spending a lot of time gardening, taking scenic boat rides down the Whanganui River and lazing about in the gorgeous New Zealand country side.  The people here are just as amazing (with the exception of that son of a bitch who convinced us to kiss the goat balls), so much so that we decided to stay another week.  It just gets harder and harder.