Tom the Young Farmer has loved every second of his time in New Zealand. Photo: Supplied
"It's going to be painful to go back to milking in a herringbone parlour after the speed that we're able to milk out in the rotary here," says Tom Everall, aka Tom the Young Farmer.
He's currently working on a Canterbury farm, learning everything he can before returning home to his family farm in the United Kingdom.
After just a few months in New Zealand, Everall is dreading saying goodbye.
Our different milking sheds, or 'parlours' as Everall is used to calling them, are just one of the things he'll miss.
"It takes me about an hour and a half to milk nearly 500 cows here, where it takes me an hour and a half to milk 100 back home.
"It's going to be a step down for sure when I do eventually go home."
Farming is in Everall's blood - he is the fifth generation to work on his family block in Shropshire, milking a total of 110 cows twice a day.
He was drawn to New Zealand through family connections. His grandmother grew up outside of Wellington before Everall's grandfather "turned on the charm" and she returned with him to England.
At the end of last year, Everall packed his bags and made the trip down to the Southern Hemisphere, touring around for as long as the bank account allowed.
"I advertised myself on a local Facebook page and I think in that afternoon, I gained about six replies.
"Having to choose between six different options was quite a shock. It's incredibly easy to find work really, or I definitely gained that impression."
He's now working on a total of 420 hectares of a spring and autumn calving block, outside of Ashburton.
"It's a very big setup really. A lot of grass space, and pivot irrigators.
"All of these things are completely new to me compared to the funny shape small fields we have in the UK and [there is] no irrigation or anything like that. It is breathtaking how different it is."
Tom Everall says it will be painful going back to old farming systems in the UK. Photo: Supplied
Everall says there are quite a lot of Kiwi ideas he'd like to adopt on his farm back home - the main one being paddock setups.
"There would be an opportunity in some of our permanent pasture grazing fields to put in paddocks effectively and just have a better setup for the rotation of grazing.
"Because at the moment, it's just a lot of temporary fences and it's a lot of time to keep setting them up."
Everall's Kiwi farming experience has opened his eyes to the way staff are managed.
In the UK, a 12-day-on, 2-day off roster is customary - compared to a 6-day-on, 1-day-off roster that Everall has become accustomed to here.
"It seems a bit mental once you've experienced this.
"It means I only get a weekend off every six weeks but I've not had any real issue with that. I mean, primarily from a saving money point of view, not being able to go out on the weekends has been no bad thing."
That's not to say New Zealand farmers couldn't learn a thing or two from our British counterparts, Everall says.
The 24-year-old, who has already done a stint as chair of his local Young Farmers' Association, believes farmers should get together on a more regular basis.
"In the UK we have social events almost every week, maybe even more than once a week. Just different things to do barn dances and things like that.
"I definitely think that New Zealand even could benefit from some of those."
Everall plans to work in Aotearoa for a few more months before taking a tour around Australia and eventually making his way back home to Shropshire.
While he's loved every second of the adventure, he says there's no place like home.
"As much as I love it over here and I definitely think I am going to miss it when I go back home to the red tape of UK farming, I think the UK will always be home for me.
"I've got a bit of time left, as long as it doesn't rain too much and reminds me of the UK."
