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farm! What farm?"
    "Mine actually, well a third of it is. When Dad died back in the nineties he bequeathed a third to my mother and a third each to my sister Trish and myself.  I think Mum gave Trish quite a large loan to help her buy a new home with her farm profit share used for repayment." Ryan grimaced. "At least that's what should be happening."
    "But it isn't?"
    "Probably not. Mum is a little soft in that way. Anyway, Alan and Mum want to buy me out of my third." He frowned. "I'm not too happy about it so thought I'd go over and check it out. There's a manager on the property but the original house on my part of the farm is empty. That's where I stay when I visit."
    "And where is your farm?"
    "Over the hill and near the coast east of Masterton."
    The hill Ryan referred to was the highway that climbed two hundred metres over the Rimutaka Ranges north of Wellington. On the far side was a broad valley that led north to Masterton, a service town of twenty thousand inhabitants, a hundred kilometres away. From there it was a further fifty kilometres to several small beach settlements on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island.
    Karla glanced up and smiled. "So when will we leave," she said.
    Ryan caught her eyes, "So you'll come?"
    "Of course. I couldn't think of a better place to visit."
    "We could leave on Saturday and stay through to next Thursday. The weather report is good and there should be newly born spring lambs everywhere on the farm. Clive Windley the manager, has been in his position for twenty years or more. He is in his mid sixties and wants to retire next year. That has brought everything forward about what we're going to do with the farm." He shrugged. "Alan is being pushy, too."
    This was the second time Ryan had mentioned a possible conflict with his stepfather but again he said no more and Karla didn't pursue the issue.
    "Saturday will be great." She felt almost nervous as she looked at him. "Want to come around for a meal, tonight?"
    "Sure," Ryan grinned, stepped forward and kissed her lightly on the cheek. They both knew that he'd stay the night and they would sleep together. In many ways he was as bashful as she felt about their affection towards each other. "Must away. They're laying new carpet in Rooms One and Two downstairs and the contractors want me to shift the kids' desks into the corridor."
    Karla smiled and returned to her computer. She glanced at the notes she had been typing and shrugged. "It'll wait," she muttered to herself, switched the monitor off and walked out to her car. Somehow, her enthusiasm for schoolwork had taken a lower priority lately. Nobody seemed to appreciate the long hours she put into her position anyway and with even her syndicate disappearing by the end of the year, why bother?
    *
    After stopping for an early morning coffee in Masterton, Karla let Ryan take over driving her late model Mazda, as he knew where to go. They headed east towards the coast. It was a sunny spring morning and lambs or calves were everywhere. On cultivated land, crops were sprouting in neatly ploughed paddocks. This was one of the prosperous faming areas of New Zealand with a rich history of European settlement. The land had originally been bought in 1853 by the government for a pittance from indigenous Maoris and resold in large blocks to landed gentry from England who had been sold a town section in hilly Wellington where the harbour was and a farm here. The original idea to transpose the English class society into this new country never eventuated with New Zealand becoming free of the rigid British class society.
    "Yes," Ryan replied when Karla asked about his family. "I am the fifth generation owner of the farm." He grinned. "The family did change though. Dad inherited the farm from his mother whose family owned it. I guess it was lucky for Grandma was the only child of Great Grandpa. In those days the girls usually inherited nothing if there was a brother to carry on the family