Over the past 3 years I have met many of my Twitter friends in real life (IRL) and have also had the fabulous privilege to go away to Noosa last year on a girls weekend with 8 of them which was fantastic. This Easter my family got an opportunity to go on a farmstay at one of my Twitter friends farms and it was probably one of the best experiences we have had together as a family. I had never met Jen and Reece IRL (names are changed for privacy reasons) prior to staying on their farm but we had been chatting for 3 years on a daily basis via Twitter and Viber and we had built an amazing friendship up to the point where we all felt comfortable enough to spend a long weekend together. Jackie invited my family and some other close Twitter friends to come and stay on their property and what ensued was purely wonderful.
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| My son the goat whisperer! |
After months of planning 9 of us arrived to the farm on Good Friday and we were greeted by Jen and Reece and her gorgeous family including her 2 cute boys, goats, cows, chickens and of course Oreo the wonder dog. We spent 4 days hanging out, watching chickens hatch, a baby calf being born, feeding goats, sitting around a fire, helping build a bonfire, eating amazing food from a traditional hangi, witnessing beautiful sunsets and generally having an awesome time. Nothing was too much trouble for our hosts, we had tents to sleep in, an outdoor kitchen, a purpose built bathroom with views of the cow paddock, a huge trampoline for the kids, a massive tent to eat our meals and even a space invaders machine to play in case it rained! The weather was glorious and the fire kept us warm at night when the temperature cooled down. We drank cocktails and the kids had an Easter egg hunt on Sunday morning. We visited the local shops and had lunch at the pub on Sunday so we helped the local economy and we got to experience a different part of Australia we never would have visited if it wasn't for a Twitter friendship.
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| One of the baby calf's on the farm |
We met some lovely country neighbours who invited us to visit their farm next time we are down and we had the opportunity to explain to them that not all people on social media are crazy! Our host was even told by the neighbours that she did good with her Twitter friends especially since most of the stories they had heard about social media were the horror stories. Before we had even started packing up to leave my kids were asking when we would be coming back again and if we could bring some of the goats home with us as they loved them so much! It was also an amazing opportunity to get to know each other even better than we already do and to realise that our friendships created on Twitter are something pretty special.
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| Tahlia with a 1 day old chicken |
Today as I write this post I get a bit teary as the holiday is over and it will be a long time till we can all hang out together again but I feel joyous because now when Jen talks about the farm and what is going on I will know exactly what and where she is talking about and we have already started planning the next event!
If you ever get the chance to visit a farm in this amazing country, make sure you jump at the opportunity people, it is well worth it!
Love ya guts
Katie
