The next morning Ted picked us up bright and early and, when he saw our luggage, said he wondered if we’d left anything back home in America since it was obvious we’d brought nearly everything we owned in these suitcases. To avoid any further sarcastic commentary, we didn’t tell him we had 3 even larger suitcases we were temporarily leaving in Auckland at the place we’d been staying. He stuffed them into the back with his assortment of pots and off we went.
We drove south and the drive was stunning. I had never seen so much green. Or sheep. New Zealand had more sheep then you could possibly imagine, far more sheep then people. It was borderline disturbing. We stayed each night at a hotel on the way down to the farm, courtesy of Ben’s pot selling job. We all had a blast together, and Ted and I really started to connect. We became sort of an instant couple. When he began to feel really comfortable with us, he shared some important news. He had a 3 year old daughter from his ex-wife. And there it was: The baggage. I knew there had to be something wrong with my seemingly perfect-thus-far kiwi. (You’d think living on opposite sides of the world would have been enough for me not to let myself get attached, but apparently I was oblivious to red flags.) I decided I was o.k. with it since he seemed like a good father and we were so smitten with each other. I was having the time of my life. At one point Ted and I were discussing the topic of love and he told me I was someone he could definitely fall in love with. Uh-oh, now he’d done it. I was officially falling for my kiwi.
We finally made it to his father’s farm, which was different then any farm I’d ever seen in the states. When we first arrived, Ted took us for a ride out into the picturesque green rolling hills and stopped in the middle of one. He told us to be quiet and look to our left. We did and saw a pack of wild horses running right by us so close I could’ve reached out and touched them. It was stunning and I couldn’t help but gasp while Ted smiled at me and hugged me tightly. I was in heaven and already wondering how I could commute to my job in the states after I’d moved to New Zealand.
Later that day Ted’s dad was taking us horseback riding. When he asked us if we’d ever ridden a horse before Kylie quickly said no. Thinking it’d seem impressive to Ted, I unfortunately decided to be cocky and say that I’d done it many times before, and was a great rider. I had to mention that when riding I’d always liked to gallop ahead of everyone else because I loved riding fast. This was true but I’d only done this on trail horses, horses that were used to strange people riding them constantly, and it had also been years since I’d even sat on a horse. Me and my big mouth. I found out later that the horse they gave me to ride that day was known to be crazy and mean. The only reason they let me ride him was because: A) they thought I was a skilled rider and: B) they thought the horse was tired out from a long day and therefore wasn’t as dangerous as he normally would have been. They were wrong on all accounts.
Kylie got onto her horse, which was safely contained inside of a round fence, and was content just riding her horse in slow circles. Ted helped me up onto “crazy horse” and asked if I was o.k. I told him of course I was, that I just needed to get my bearings since it had been a while. Before that could happen crazy horse immediately sensed I had no clue as to what I was doing and panicked. He started to trot up the hill quickly. I began feeling a little nervous and tried to guide him back down. He wouldn’t listen to me, all he knew was that he wanted this foreigner off of his back. We were now at the top of the hill looking down at Ted, his dad, a couple of farm hands and Kylie trotting around in circles. Then it happened. Crazy horse started galloping down the hill towards them all as fast as he could with me on his back, my arms flailing wildly in the air, bouncing around trying desperately not to fall off, and screaming in a high pitched way that was more than embarrassing. We were getting closer and closer to the fence and crazy horse was not slowing down. Oh holy f*ck, he’s going to jump the fence. As we got to the fence I braced myself and closed my eyes, but at the last second he made a sharp right turn and stopped suddenly, sending me flying off of his back, onto the fence, and then onto the ground.....To Be Continued
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