Hokitika, Lake Kaniere
Our action packed day continued in full flow, we had taken to the air, tramped through forests to the Hokitika Gorge & now we all leapt into R's 'ute' to tour the farm.
As l mentioned yesterday RM had been a guest of the YFC movement in the UK through an exchange scheme way back in 1981. Young Farmers from various countries visit host farms both here & abroad, & R stayed with my husband's family on his UK trip.
The farm itself is sited in the flat flood plains inland from Hokitika, with the farm specialising in pedigree Jersey cows.
The cows are farmed using the 'New Zealand' low input system, whereby they are farmed less 'intensively' than back home incuring fewer costs & making a healthy margin compared to British farmers thanks to the rapidly growing market for dairy products in China & low cost of production.
The cows are milked once a day in an open sided milking 'shed' with the milk being collected by Westland Milk, a farmer-owned co-operative, based in Hokitika. Incidentally products from this plant can be found in the UK under the brand name of EasiYo.
The milking herd, youngstock & beef spend 12 months of the year out at grass & this particular herd is fed little in the way concentrates. The entire milking herd is 'dried off' for one month giving R's family a chance to holiday!
Well, by early evening the mercury was still in the 80F, so to round of the day nicely, the family speed boat was 'yoked' onto the ute & we all headed off to rather large expanse of water known as Lake Kaniere.
Due to recent drought conditions, the slipway was more exposed than usual, & the pebble beach fairly large.
Once launched out came the water skis, donut /ringo rings & wakeboards & the next few hours saw us all screaming around the lake in a totally irresponsible manner. It was great!
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