Episode 7
NZ Screening date 24 March 2004

As their time in the countryside starts to wind down the City girls can be justly proud of the many difficult goals that they have achieved in the face of enormous odds, and it is beginning to look as if they will return triumphant to the Big Smoke!

As Lou busies herself with preparations for the massive farewell bash that the City Girls have planned, Kate is coming to terms with saying good-bye to her pet pig, Wilbur, with whom she has formed a real bond over the past few weeks.

Over at Matt’s place four of the City Girls are docking lambs like seasoned pros, while Lou is assisting the Artificial Insemination technician at Paul’s farm, and part of this process involves rummaging around in parts of bovine anatomy that an international flight attendant would not usually expect to encounter. The product being inserted is the semen from prize bulls, and the method of obtaining that is equally eye-watering.

As the other City Girls have a rest from the docking the conversation turns to the up-coming party, and everyone is delighted that Matt is stumping up all the meat for the do, including the pork, which even has a name…Wilbur!

Looming even closer than the party is tonights meal, to which some of the lads from the rafting trip have been invited, and someone has to get the roast under way; Jo grasps the opportunity to make an early exit from the docking gang!

There is just barely enough time to freshen up before the boys turn up, and when Lou gets there she has brought along Alexa’s pet calf Stella, from Paul’s dairy farm.

The question about whether City Girls can produce proper country cooking is answered by Jo in fine style, as her first go at a roast lamb dinner is a huge success.

The new day dawns on what is Presto’s big day; he’s turning 50 today and the City Girls have a surprise birthday party planned for him and his wife, Annie.
After a thrilling ride over some magnificent country-side in a hot air balloon Presto carries on with the fun by asking the City Girls to come along for a round of golf.
The Girls are keen to have a go, but from the very first tee things are not looking promising, all except for Kate, who seems completely at home on a golf course.

The next day and Paul has to enlighten the City Girls on one of the more important rules about animal care…a few days previously Kate and Lex had gotten some milk from Paul to give to their pet calf, Stella. As there was some excess milk when Stella had finished so they fed it to the other four bobby calves in the shed. BUT, what they didn’t know was that the milk had come from a cow that had been dosed with penicillin, and if any trace of anti-biotics is detected in an animal going through the Works, then Paul could be fined up to $20,000 per animal . Very nearly a most expensive mistake!

After such a sobering beginning to the morning Kristy and Jo are about to encounter a brain teaser at Presto’s farm when what seems to be a straight-forward job becomes much less so the further they get into it - hanging a gate.

Meanwhile Lou is making short work of taking the forks off Prestos tractor. As three of the City Girls are performing some mental gymnastics, Lex is fighting another sort of battle…she had a too close encounter with a bull not long after arriving in Onga, and she is understandably nervous about a repeat performance.

The reward for a hard days work is often to be had in a hot shower, but try as she might the water that Lou is trying to coax out of the faucet refuses to heat up!

As things go awry for Lou, Kate has hatched a plan to save Wilbur from being the main course at the farewell party…she intends to buy Wilbur off the menu with her trusty cheque-book…City Girls are never without a Plan B.

Pet day has arrived, and the City Girls are going to be exhibiting their adopted animals along with the children from Onga Onga School, and with a bit of unexpected foreboding Charlie the sheep is proving tricky for Kate to catch…she has determined that Charlie will look his best done up as a lion!

Arthur the dog also decides not to go quietly, and with Jo in hot pursuit makes a beeline for the closest bit of mud, leading to bath-time number two for the escapee.

Kristy makes light work of retrieving her pet straight from the paddock, and although Stella doesn’t feel quite up to a parade today, Arthur really looks great after a blow-wave, and presents Jo with a little offering in return. A fun day for all the participants!

This evening Presto is holding a Guy Fawkes party at his place, and he and wife Annie have cooked up a special thrill for the City Girls… a ride in a vintage Tiger-moth bi-plane. Surprisingly the most nervous of the passengers riding in this magnificent old aircraft is Lou, the flight attendant…surely planes are meant to have more than just the one engine! This is not the only surprise that Presto has for the five City Girls, as he has named a paddock after each of them, and Lou’s paddock hosts a great Guy Fawkes party to set it off right.

The morning rolls around and it is Jo’s turn at the business end of the milking shed…she reflects on the hygienic side of the desk job that she has left behind, but, as with so many tasks thrown the City Girls way, by the end of her stint she is performing complicated moves with the milking apparatus like an old hand.

As their time in the country has progressed the City Girls have witnessed nearly every aspect of raising animals, and now Kristy and Lex accompany a load of lambs to the final stage of their short life’s journey, the meat works. They meet their tour guide who shows them through the entire disassembly process, the speed of which amazes the two City Girls.

As the end of their stay in Hawkes Bay approaches, the City Girls decide that they cannot leave without sampling some of the regions world famous liquid refreshments, so they are on their bikes and hit the wine trail. After a bit of sprucing up the Girls then continue on with the fun by having dinner in Havelock North then going clubbing in Napier.

Party preparation occupy much of the final two days at the farm, and on the day itself a big crowd of the locals that the City Girls have lived and worked with arrive to celebrate the past six weeks. A fantastic final get-together for one and all, and even Wilbur lives to breathe another day.

The day of departure dawns and it is all packing up and emotional good-byes to the farmers who have become their friends over the course of the last six weeks. As Jo closes the farm gates for the last time the City Girls know that a part of the Hawkes Bay, and the great folk who live there, will stay with them wherever they go.

One month later, back in Auckland, and it is fitting that the Sky Tower is the venue for the City Girls to re-unite, and to check up on how each of them is doing now that the adventure is done.

Jo has blended seamlessly back into the Big Smoke lifestyle, and has picked up pretty much where she left off.

Kristy has decided that bar work is not for her, and is trying to make her way in television, and broke up with her boyfriend shortly after getting back from the Bay.

Lex got together with a cadet that she met at Smedley - the Agricultural College, but their common ground ran out, so she is out on her own again.

Lou is still very keen on the idea of life on a farm, but won’t make the leap until she has very firm plans to aim for.

And lastly, City Girl Kate, who re-visits Onga Onga regularly to meet up with a Local Lad that she met at the farewell bash, and also to check up on the World’s luckiest pig, Wilbur, who lives happily and well in Matt’s paddock.