The moment I have long been waiting for finally arrived! That's right...I am officially a sheep herder. Evan invited me to join him at his WWOOF location for the weekend, Medina farm on Conway Flat (in the Canterbury Plains). Through WWOOF (World Workers On Organic Farms), Evan and I were able to sleep and eat for free in exchange for helping on the farm during the day. Since it was his birthday (among other reasons), I decided to take a "mental health day" from school, and I took a shuttle to Conway Flat on Thursday after school. Although I left my wallet on the Shuttle and didn't realize it until 20 minutes after the shuttle and I had driven in opposite directions, I made it with no problems. I was staying with a couple named Pete and Megan on their farm. Evan, Matt, and I even had our own little cottage set aside from the main house where we could relax after working. Evan and Matt had been working on the farm since Monday. We woke up early on Friday morning (when the sun was rising) to the barks of 10 or so hungry dogs ready for breakfast. We jumped in warm clothes and boots and headed to the hundreds of acres on quad bikes (Evan drove...I just went along for the ride on the back of his bike). We arrived at one of the many sheep paddocks that Pete owns and I watched as the sheepdogs herded the sheep into a small gated area. These sheep all had blue dots on them, which indicated that they were pregnant with one lamb. Many also had colored tags on their ears, which indicated their age. After the sheep give birth, Pete is expecting to have about 4,000 total! We then squeezed them even further into a narrow paddock so that we could individually give each sheep a vaccine nicknamed LSD (Lamb Survival D____). Evan would take a needle and shove it in the back of each ewe's neck. This injeted antibodies into the sheep that the lamb would receive from its mother's milk supply to help the lamb quickly develop an immune system. Then, Pete would come behind him to squirt some more into each sheep's mouth. I did a good job taking pictures and counting the sheep (but I did apply lice treatment to a couple sheep...but don't worry, sheep lice is not the same as human lice, so people usually don't catch it from the sheep).
The view was incredible! To my left were towering mountains-the Seaward Kaikoura Range-and to my right was the Pacific! And this was all Pete's property! Later, I helped garden by pulling weeds. Pete and Meg usually eat beef, lamb, eggs, honey, and vegetables that they get right from their farm. We tasted it all, and it was delicious! Evan and I later took a walk down to the beach (about 25 to 30 minutes). About a week before we arrived, the area was swept by terrible floods and many of the rivers had changed course, bridges were carried away by strong currents, and trees and plants were ripped from the ground. We had to find our way through the mess, and I ended up falling into a creek that was a misjudged distance from one bank to the other.
we had so much fun and I felt so excited to have finally worked with sheep...definitely a kiwi experience!
On the beach, with the Seaward Kaikoura Range in the background that meets the Pacific Ocean!
Evan chasing the sheep in the paddock to spray them with pink substance meant to ward off lice.
Looking out to the Pacific.
My dream of jumping in a sheep paddock came true! The ewes did not like me there but I thought it was great!
Among my other jobs, I help Riley, the house pet who thought he was a sheepdog, while the other sheepdogs did the real work. Riley sometimes tends to be a burden more than a help.
Evan stopped to get some business done. 
Mildred and George, two pet sheep that loved the barley I was feeding them.
The property name was Medina, named after a river in England. Pete's grandfather started the farm and gave it the name it still has today.
Pete is leading the way on his quad bike. 
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