My Aussie Farm Experience
Few weekends back we had another long weekend - Queen's Birthday. Instead of the normal trip down the caravan, this time we headed down to Kelly's farm, jz about an hour from our caravan park.
Kelly is one of Michael's good friend who made it to our M'sian wedding. She is one of a kind. If you meet her when she's all dressed up ready for a nite out, she can be such a girly girl looking very stunning and ladylike. But if you meet her at work, she'll be in her shorts & boots playing with dirt and loving her tools - jackhammer, chainsaw and all heavy duty boys stuff. She's a landscaper and works mostly outdoors and probably the only female at her workplace. She's tough but also the sweetest soul. She can carry bricks all day but she can also sew baby quilts. She's a girl's best friend and can often be just one of the boys.
She also owns a caravan close to ours and whenever we're down there, she'd always tell me about this family farm of hers that they've had for 20 years and the different kinds of adventurous stuff that we could do there and how it's just close to the caravan. I was all for it cos tho i do enjoy the caravan, i don't really mind doing something different for a change.
So, after months of trying to organise this farm trip, we finally locked in the Queen's B'day long weekend and together with Jake, Thea & the kids, Kelly, her hubby Ron, their neighbour & her family, we escaped the Sydney dreadful rainy weather and headed down the farm.
The farm is far from what i expected. I was imagining a big flat area surrounded by wooden fences, with horses & haiwan-haiwan ternakan and a small cottage at one end smelling all 'farm-y' aka horse poo. But instead, we arrived at what to me felt like a celebrity retreat that u often read about in the gossip magazines - tucked away in the bush, very secluded, very private, so so peaceful with a breathtaking scenic view of the mountains.
This is the view from up there!
They haven't got any animals on their property but there are horses jz near the farm if you wanna go horseriding. They have a 2 bedroom cottage complete with kitchen & bathroom. The place has this rustic feeling inside with nice woods and collector's items furniture. Outside the cottage there's a couple of sheds with more beds, pretty comfy for a farm living!
Just opposite their cottage, there's a walkway that goes downhill and leads you to this magnificent river. Your very own access to the river just nearby the farm! It was BREATHTAKING! This is where they chill out and swim or catch yabbies especially during summer. But it's the middle of winter and icy cold so no one went in while we're there. :p
What amazes me is that because this farm is so secluded & far away from town, there's no modern electricity or water supply BUT it's still so self sufficient as it is equipped with solar power and its water pump system purely from rain water. U can still watch TV and have hot showers but hey, you don't need to cos you're at the farm! We didn't really do much but relaxing and exploring the area & at nite we would jz sit around the campfire & chit chatted till late.
On the last nite there, we had the 'hangi' meal that everyone's been looking forward to. Ive heard of this numerous times whenever they talked about the farm. Michael described the 'hangi' cooked meat as 'the best daging ive ever had, so bagus the meat just kinda melts in your mouth!'. This, was probably the reason that got me excited about the whole farm thingy in the first place :p
The 'hangi' or the camper oven dinner, is where your meat is cooked underground. Instead of roasting the leg of lamb in the oven for 1-2 hours(which we can cos they do have it and Kelly's mom kept insisting on to save time!) we cooked them using 'earth' oven, which took almost the whole day to prepare!!
Kelly's dad, Pete, who made all things possible for the farm and who to me, is the most hardworking man i've ever seen, is of course, the 'hangi' master. It took a lot of work preparing for this special meal and with the help from the boys and Kelly, they made it all possible. Everything from cutting the firewood that started after breakfast...
then setting up a huge fire for the hot coals that took about 3-4 hours...
and finally cooking the meat that took another 3-4 hours...
It was HARD work - for them of course. All i did was drool & wait for the meat to be served!
It was AWESOME!! After all that hassle, it only took us about less than 1/2 hour to finish the food!
Michael & Avah (Jake & Thea's daughter). She's such a doll!!
We had such a fabulous time!!!
Speaking of fabulous, Sex & the City Movie premiered in Oz earlier this month. We wanted to go on Gold Class but it was fully booked for the next 5 weeks!! CRAAAAZY!! Since i can't wait for my girlfriends to organise a movie nite out & because my husband is a closeted SATC fan, i went with Michael one nite after work and it's so GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!! One moment i was laughing, like REALLY laughing, another moment very teary eyed, then so irritated with one of the guys, then laughing some more, then so frustrated at one of the girls, then pity the other one..like urghhh!! SO FULL OF EMOTIONS! Felt like i was PMS-ing or something, but in a GOOD way. I love it..:)
Kelly is one of Michael's good friend who made it to our M'sian wedding. She is one of a kind. If you meet her when she's all dressed up ready for a nite out, she can be such a girly girl looking very stunning and ladylike. But if you meet her at work, she'll be in her shorts & boots playing with dirt and loving her tools - jackhammer, chainsaw and all heavy duty boys stuff. She's a landscaper and works mostly outdoors and probably the only female at her workplace. She's tough but also the sweetest soul. She can carry bricks all day but she can also sew baby quilts. She's a girl's best friend and can often be just one of the boys.
She also owns a caravan close to ours and whenever we're down there, she'd always tell me about this family farm of hers that they've had for 20 years and the different kinds of adventurous stuff that we could do there and how it's just close to the caravan. I was all for it cos tho i do enjoy the caravan, i don't really mind doing something different for a change.
So, after months of trying to organise this farm trip, we finally locked in the Queen's B'day long weekend and together with Jake, Thea & the kids, Kelly, her hubby Ron, their neighbour & her family, we escaped the Sydney dreadful rainy weather and headed down the farm.
The farm is far from what i expected. I was imagining a big flat area surrounded by wooden fences, with horses & haiwan-haiwan ternakan and a small cottage at one end smelling all 'farm-y' aka horse poo. But instead, we arrived at what to me felt like a celebrity retreat that u often read about in the gossip magazines - tucked away in the bush, very secluded, very private, so so peaceful with a breathtaking scenic view of the mountains.
This is the view from up there!
They haven't got any animals on their property but there are horses jz near the farm if you wanna go horseriding. They have a 2 bedroom cottage complete with kitchen & bathroom. The place has this rustic feeling inside with nice woods and collector's items furniture. Outside the cottage there's a couple of sheds with more beds, pretty comfy for a farm living!
Just opposite their cottage, there's a walkway that goes downhill and leads you to this magnificent river. Your very own access to the river just nearby the farm! It was BREATHTAKING! This is where they chill out and swim or catch yabbies especially during summer. But it's the middle of winter and icy cold so no one went in while we're there. :p
What amazes me is that because this farm is so secluded & far away from town, there's no modern electricity or water supply BUT it's still so self sufficient as it is equipped with solar power and its water pump system purely from rain water. U can still watch TV and have hot showers but hey, you don't need to cos you're at the farm! We didn't really do much but relaxing and exploring the area & at nite we would jz sit around the campfire & chit chatted till late.
On the last nite there, we had the 'hangi' meal that everyone's been looking forward to. Ive heard of this numerous times whenever they talked about the farm. Michael described the 'hangi' cooked meat as 'the best daging ive ever had, so bagus the meat just kinda melts in your mouth!'. This, was probably the reason that got me excited about the whole farm thingy in the first place :p
The 'hangi' or the camper oven dinner, is where your meat is cooked underground. Instead of roasting the leg of lamb in the oven for 1-2 hours(which we can cos they do have it and Kelly's mom kept insisting on to save time!) we cooked them using 'earth' oven, which took almost the whole day to prepare!!
Kelly's dad, Pete, who made all things possible for the farm and who to me, is the most hardworking man i've ever seen, is of course, the 'hangi' master. It took a lot of work preparing for this special meal and with the help from the boys and Kelly, they made it all possible. Everything from cutting the firewood that started after breakfast...
then setting up a huge fire for the hot coals that took about 3-4 hours...
and finally cooking the meat that took another 3-4 hours...
It was HARD work - for them of course. All i did was drool & wait for the meat to be served!
It was AWESOME!! After all that hassle, it only took us about less than 1/2 hour to finish the food!
Michael & Avah (Jake & Thea's daughter). She's such a doll!!
We had such a fabulous time!!!
Speaking of fabulous, Sex & the City Movie premiered in Oz earlier this month. We wanted to go on Gold Class but it was fully booked for the next 5 weeks!! CRAAAAZY!! Since i can't wait for my girlfriends to organise a movie nite out & because my husband is a closeted SATC fan, i went with Michael one nite after work and it's so GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!! One moment i was laughing, like REALLY laughing, another moment very teary eyed, then so irritated with one of the guys, then laughing some more, then so frustrated at one of the girls, then pity the other one..like urghhh!! SO FULL OF EMOTIONS! Felt like i was PMS-ing or something, but in a GOOD way. I love it..:)
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