As you may or may not know, I’ve been going through some emotional struggles at the moment, and it definitely hasn’t been easy. But like I’ve said many times, I have the most amazing friends who will take me out to places they know I’ll love and let me talk about anything I need to get off my chest. Today was extremely healing. One, because my friend allowed me to safely realise things about my situation through retrospection; things I would’ve never figured out on my own. And two, because we got to feed the cutest farm animals! More animal therapy coming up!
Today we are visiting Hunter Valley Resort + Farm, a 100-acre resort in the heart of Pokolbin. The accommodation part of the resort is fairly small, but the activity part of the farm has so much to offer! You can feed the animals, ride horses (or just relax in a carriage ride), take a segway tour around the area, take lessons in wine making and cooking, and so many more thrilling activities like axe throwing and archery! Who knew wine country could be so fun?
As I said before, my friend brought me to this farm to help cheer me up after going through a very difficult time, despite the fact that she is afraid of animals. Now that’s the kind of friend you want by your side guys! The property and location were very peaceful and calming, as well as being absolutely stunning! But it’s the Hunter Valley, so that’s just expected. We walked up to the farm’s “reception”, followed by the horse and carriage, and bought a bucket of animal food to feed the hungry farm animals. We were recommended to buy one bucket between the two of us so that we wouldn’t have to spend as much, and there was plenty of food for the animals anyway. So let’s get to feeding!
We started with the chickens, who weren’t too interested in any of the food, or us for that matter. So we moved on to the ducks and geese. I was actually surprised by my friend, who was doing her best to feed the animals despite her dislike for their unpredictability. That was, until one of the geese hissed at her while she was holding out the shovel of food. So no more food for the birds. From us anyway.
Next up, miniature goats! These guys were absolutely adorable! And VERY hungry. We started off feeding them as normal and noticed the grown-up goats were hogging all the food, so we tried to feed the babies some more. But every time we would move over to the babies, the grown-ups would push them out of the way to get to the food! So we fed them some more, hoping they would be content with how much they’d eaten. Nope! They kept pushing and shoving the little kids out of the way. We managed to give the baby goats a bit of food by tricking the others, but it still wasn’t very nice of them. My friend definitely didn’t like it! She’s the sweetest soul I’ve met, and can’t stand inequity, even in the animal world.
Now to my favourite animals of the farm, the donkeys! These guys were the sweetest, and they really enjoyed a nice pat. Which was great for me as well, since I really needed some animal affection today. One of them was once again pushing to get some food, but we were able to distract it to give the others a good feed too. The other two donkeys were super kind and actually snuggled up to me when I was patting them! I almost melted into myself here. I couldn’t get enough of their friendship and their goofy faces reaching over the fence while they were trying to snag some more food. My friend actually reached out to pat one of the donkeys here too, and it was so gentle with her despite her being anxious. I actually felt like a proud mumma here, watching her child get over her fear.
We quickly met a few very reserved alpacas before moving on to an adorable pair of cows! One of the cows stayed in the shed the whole time we were there. But as soon as we walked up to the fence, the other cow got up to say hi! This was another sweet soul that enjoyed a gentle pat more than a feed. I wanted to just climb over the fence and give this cow the biggest hug! My friend said we were matching because of our nose rings, and I didn’t know whether or not to laugh or be offended. But I’ll take it as a compliment since this cow was the cutest thing! And another animal my friend went out of her comfort zone to pet!
There were only a few more animals left to meet, like some very loud pigs and a very timid sheep. At first, this sheep was just staring at us, not coming up to us for any of the food when we were holding it out. My friend noticed that it had a hole in its ear from a previous tag, so it may not be used to people, or may be a little traumatised from its past experiences on another farm. So I crouched down to get to its level and held out the food again. And it came running right up to me! It was still a little shy about taking food from the shovel, but I was just happy it was eating. We spent the last of our food on a very friendly deer, probably my friend’s favourite animal here. With its gentle nature and happy personality, it’s not hard to see why!
Well, that was all the animals at the farm. We returned our bucket and shovel and went to the farm’s pub for lunch. The food, drinks and scenery are amazing, we both said we want to come back and experience some of the other activities Hunter Valley Resort + Farm has to offer. I’m really happy to have friends like these who will take me out when I’m going through a hard time, despite the challenges of their own. And I’m even more proud of my friend for getting over her anxiety towards animals and having fun with all the different farm life!
All photos in this post were taken by my friend and I. For more information, visit https://huntervalley.com.au/
The Travel Journal 
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