I moved out of home and began working as a whitewater rafting guide in Rotorua. This was an amazing time in my like, 18 years old and whitewater rafting every day. I was also fortunate enough to travel to Japan for two summers as a guide.
The other key event that occurred during my time in Rotorua was meeting my future wife. It would be safe to say that at 18 you're not planning on meeting your wife, rather just looking for a good time and a bit of fun. We stayed in Rotorua for two years, before deciding that the long term career path of a whitewater rafting guide wasn't one that we wanted to take.
Kate moved to Auckland to study Graphic Design and I moved back to the farm to see if I was ready for country life. Kate didn't last long up in Auckland and joined me on the farm but it wasn't long until we both got itchy feet and decided to move to the Gold Coast in Australia. I was very keen on experiencing as many different jobs as I could. The first job I got on the Gold Coast was as a door to door salesman. It was 100% commission based, so even though I didn't enjoy the work, it taught me a few fundamentals about selling.
After 4 months of knocking on doors I had learned what I needed to know about sales and decided to move on. The next job was concreting, building canal walls on a large new subdivision. The work was hard and in some very hot temperatures, but I was getting over a $1,000 a week and surfing everyday, so life was pretty sweet. Kate worked at Sea World as a photographer and we meet a lot of really cool people.
We were on the Goldy for a year and then decided to move to Manchester, England with some friends of ours. After the novelty had worn off we were both thinking "what have we done". In Aussie I was earning good money and surfing every day. In Manchester I was labouring on a construction site earning minimum wage and we were heading into winter. We decided to make the most of our time in England and left Manchester to start working in a country pub.
When we applied for the job I told the manager that I had worked in the kitchen of a very nice restaurant in Rotorua, I just left out the part about me scrubbing the dishes in the kitchen, not cooking the food. Let's just say that I had to learn quick about cooking in a pub. By the time we left, I was running the kitchen when the head chef was away and Kate was managing the bar. We had saved up 10,000 pound and had brought a camper van. Europe here we come.
We drove around Europe for 4 months soaking up all the sights and sounds it had to offer until we eventually ran out of money and returned to London. Whilst in London, living in a basement flat and earning just enough money to cover rent and a bit of food. I came to the realisation that Waimana isn't such a bad place and that I actually missed the farm.
We returned back to New Zealand after three years of traveling. Kate wanted to become a draftsman, with the two year course being in Tauranga. I had made the decision to become a Dairy Farmer and got a job in Papamoa, which is close to Tauranga so Kate could study. I started as a farm assistant because even though I had grown up on a farm, I had no clue about how to farm. This is also the time that I started to write down goals. I didn't want to be just 'a farmer', I wanted to be a 'good farmer'. I spent a lot of time studying the theory behind what it took to run a profitable and efficient dairy operation.
I returned back to the family farm after a couple of years ready to practically apply all the theory I had been learning. For those of you who have ever worked for your Dad you will understand that your Dad is possibly the hardest boss you will ever have. There was definitely an adjustment period when I first went home for myself and Dad but once we started to see good results on the farm everything just seemed to work itself out. I've been home in Waimana for 8 years now and in that time my wife and I have, bought the herd, had three kids and have opened two retail stores in Whakatane.
Life can get pretty hectic some times, but for now we are enjoying the ride and are finding out what we are capable of.
I can't wait to see where Broken Compass will take us.