hello from Beautiful Bay of Plenty!

so i am currently living on a farm just outside the town of opotiki in the bay of plenty. it's paradise...
yesterday we went to move cows (a 2 hour hike beginning at 6:30am!). to accomplish this, we first had to quad down to the river in the backyard, cross it by boat, then hike into the surrounding mountains. sounds good eh? and i did it all in a sexy pair of hip waders. don't worry mom, i'm not wasting away... my host mike likes to feed me man-sized meals of meat and potatoes. i don't think i've ever eaten that much of a deer at one time.
to add to my list of new things, i pierced a calf's ear yesterday. and learned a lot about cows. i mean a lot. dad, i'm coming to the coffee shop with you when i get home and i'll wow all those farmers with my extensive knowledge of the cow species.
i live in a little building that used to be a cafe on a yard with ten, yes 10, lovely dogs, a horse, and 15 chickens. there were 16 till yesterday, when the new dog decided to try its chicken catching skills. they worked.
today we poured concrete onto a ramp for the cows. my skills out here have become quite varied. mike says i'll have to castrate a calf before i go, and then tell all my future boyfriends to watch their step [insert evil-sounding laugh here]. we'll have to see about this one.
during the last section of my bus trip i got to go caving- swimming, tubing, climbing, falling (or was that just me?) through underground tunnels and caves. it was so cool! pretty much have bruises all over my body as the last part of the caving adventure was called "the pinball". i was the pinball. enough said. just to make sure i made a good impression on my caving mates, i managed to get stuck in a front float on the last section of the cave. i was floating beside my friend phil (who was walking by now, like everyone else) and i was like "phil! i can't put my feet down! help!" apparently i have a buoyant bottom. so while laughing at me, he yanked me to a standing position. that's right, i rock. it was such a good time though. i also managed to meet some friends from my other bus tour in rotorua, where we stayed for night.
the computer at home is deathly slow, so i am currently posting on an internet cafe comp. so if emails are a bit sparse, it's because i can only write about 1 in half an hour.
i still love hearing from you though! keep me posted
love to you all from down under
becki