Laurie & Suzanne

The farm that I stayed at is at a small village called Parua Bay, located about 20km from Whangarei. For ease of keeping track of all the places I've been to, I shall refer to this area as Whangarei, instead of Parua Bay.

The farm is owned by Laurie and Suzanne (Sue), a retired couple in their 60s. Before coming to Whangarei, they lived in Auckland. Laurie used to work in sales, and Sue in accounts. I suppose they made enough money from their old jobs, and their property investment, to be able to retire here in their 50s (they moved to Whangarei 10 years ago).

The farm is on 26 acres of land, although not all of it is being farmed. A section that's too steep for farming is simply left to grow wild as native forest. On the sections that are being used, about 6 acres is used for cow grazing. About one acre is used for pigs' area. There's also an orchard with orange, lime, macadamia and other trees. It's a very diverse farm, with a little bit of everything.

Lemon tree

Native forest

This kind of farm is commonly known as a "lifestyle block". The owners are not making money from the farm, but produce just enough for their own consumption. They are doing it because they love the rural lifestyle, and not for money. Having fresh home-grown food is also a benefit. The numbers of cows, pigs and chicken on this farm are not sufficient to provide a meaningful income, if the owners don't already have another source of income.

In the pig area, there were adult pigs and weaner (teenage) pigs. The number varies, due to new piglets being born, and older pigs being slaughtered. The pigs are very cheeky and intelligent. They are always trying to run away. To prevent this, the pig areas are surrounded by electric fences.

Weaner pigs

Electric fences was something new to me. Up to this point, I had only worked on farms without animals. So I didn't realize the fences on this farm was electrified up to 4000V. I touched one of them and had a real nasty shock! Fortunately I was wearing gloves, so it wasn't too bad. If you're ever on a cattle, sheep or pig farm in New Zealand, remember not to touch the fences...

Don't touch the fence!

There are beehives on the farm. These are put there by a local company that produces honey. Laurie and Sue have an arrangement, where this company puts beehives on their farm. This company collects the honey from their land, and in return they get a portion of the honey produced. It's a win-win scenario. There are some manuka trees on the farm, so the honey produced might even be manuka honey.

Beehives

Manuka trees

There are some chickens, and one peacock, on the farm. How it came to be a peacock on the farm is an interesting story. One day, Laurie found a peacock egg. He put the egg under a chicken, which incubated it. The egg hatched, and the peacock was born. Presumably the mother hen raised it as her own, not realizing it was a peacock. Being raised by chickens, the peacock now behaves like one.

Can you spot the odd one?

Chicken coop

All the cows, pigs and chickens on this farm are free range. They have plenty of space to roam and feed. The pigs are not kept in pens (although they are fenced by electric wires), and the chickens are not kept in cages. So the animals live a happy life, at least until they are killed.