Updated by Anna.No more holiday it was time for some hard work on a small farm. They call it WWOOFING( Willing Workers On Organic Farms) and it means you work a few hours a day in exchange for food and accommodation. We met up with Janet who was a lady in her early 60s and a owner of three cows, ten sheep, fifteen ducks and hens and one rabbit. She is an artist with a whole separate house for her pottery school. There were several plastic houses with lilies and lots of weeds we had to remove on rainy days. The farm also had avocado, lime and mandarin trees.
We also met Janet’s friendly lodger Alex who was a young apprentice working in town. He lived in the garage(!) but always had dinner with us in the evening. There was a lovely fireplace in the living room that kept us warm on chilly nights.
Up with the rooster in the morning and off to collect big tamarillo trees and branches to build a massive bonfire. Paul was given the job as a driver of the worlds smallest truck to transport it to and from different places in the paddocks. The cows were there to wreck everything we built up by eating and pulling the branches down from the bonfire. It didn’t help that the truck would get stuck in the mud all the time and Anna had to push it.
It was sunny most days and this so called winter was really pleasant with temperatures of 17C. We fed the animals in the morning and all the ducks and hens came running towards me and I would throw the food out in panic scared of them to attack me the first time. After that though it became good fun to see them every morning. One day we decided to go for a walk to the village for some coffee. It took us an hour to get there, and by the time we got there café was closed. Typical.
One day Paul decided to move the cows to another paddock so we could work in peace. What he did not know was that the electric fence he thought was there was gone. What followed is a scene from a Benny Hill film. First the cows came running then Paul and then Anna. I could see myself in slow motion saying “Nooo there is no fence up” and Paul said “Oh shit“…..after chasing cows for 10 minutes we got them back into the original paddock and we could breath again and laugh J
Janet lent us her little truck and we went to see Whangarei waterfalls, an impressive waterfall with a gorgeous walk along the river. We also travelled up the east coast to walk along some beautiful beaches named Tutukaka, Matapouri and Ngunguru, to climb some rocks and cliffs that looked inviting.
Janet had a memorial evening for her ex-husband who died recently and invited friends and family to her house and we both got to meet them all. The house was full of children, grandchildren and old friends from all over New Zealand. Its true that New Zealand people give a lot of themselves and are really friendly. It was a nice evening full of food and wine and Janet planted a tree for her ex. We all tried to light up lanterns in the night but the wind was against us. We met some really nice people and we were invited to a table-tennis tournament the next day. 10 people played and it was sad to say Anna came last L
Our time at the farm had come to an end and we said good-bye to the lovely Janet and it was time to go further north to Pahia for more adventures…….
