Togs and Jandals

We have been busy settling into New Zealand life over the last few weeks. To help us save money through the winter we have decided to stay with families and work in exchange for room and board. This is quite common in New Zealand and there are several websites set up to assist travelers. The largest site is wwoof.co.nz (willing workers on organic farms). Hosts listing on that site are supposed to be organic and many of them only offer vegetarian cuisine and from what we have heard can be a little more strict with their house rules. The other website that is somewhat common, and the one we are using, is helpx.net. It allows hosts to list regardless of their organic status and even allows people without farms (catering businesses or roadside fruit stands) to list their place if they want help. The general rule for these sites is that the worker is expected to work 4 hours a day (or work a full day and then get a day off) every day except Sunday and the host is expected to provide all meals and a place to sleep. There is also a website, backpackerboard.co.nz, that travelers can use to look for jobs if they prefer to work longer hours and get paid for the work.

Because we were buying a car, it was hard for us to pin down the date that we would be leaving Auckland so we waited until we purchased a car and then started e-mailing hosts to ask if they had an opening. Most hosts that we wanted to stay with did not have an opening and by our last night in Auckland we were beginning to worry that we wouldn’t have a place to stay the next night. At the last minute one of the hosts that we had e-mailed called us back and said that he would be happy to have us. We left Auckland and went straight to the 200+ acre lifestyle block (property that people own to experience rural life, but usually have other income off the property) just outside of the town of Waimauku that our first hosts live on.

Our first hosts, Tim and Kelley, have 3 children, Taylor (10), Jack (6) and Ella (almost 5). Tim has owned a variety of businesses over the years and currently runs a small chain of auto parts stores. Tim bought part of his father’s old farm and has moved onto the property to give his kids a taste of the rural lifestyle. He is currently renovating the building on the property to make them useful again and is also building a number of new rental houses on the property to provide an additional source of income. We spent our first couple of days chopping thistles in the pastures. Thistles and gorse are a big problem on the place and they are working to get them under control. On the Friday after we arrived, Tim left to go to a business trip to Asia. During our first weekend with the family Kelley took us on a drive around the area and showed us a few of the touristy areas that we hadn’t seen yet. Jenni spent the next week working around the house helping with cleaning and gardening projects. I spent my time working on a wide variety of projects including planting bushes and trees, building a raised garden and painting a renovated milk shed. During the next week Tim and Kelley got the news that their current au pair was leaving unexpectedly and they offered Jenni the position. They also offered me a job helping to build their newest rental house when the plans get approved. We thought about it a couple of days before we committed to working for them from May through July. We won’t make much, but it will give us a good base in the north part of New Zealand where we can hide from most of the cold. We will also have weekends off so that we can take trips to see most of the points of interest in this part of the country.

Before we committed to working for Tim and Kelley we had already arranged to stay with another helpx host starting on 24th April. Jenni didn’t need to start working until 7th May so after spending Easter morning with Tim and Kelley, we headed further north to our next hosts. Paul and Fiona live a little outside of the small town of Ruawai close to where the Wairoa River enters Kaipara Harbour. Paul owns a ranch and manages his father’s ranch which is right next to his ranch. Paul buys holstien bull calves from dairy farmers and fattens them up for slaughter and eventual export to the US and Fiona works in an eye clinic. Paul and Fiona have two children, Natasha and Liam who are very active. Jenni has been working around the house and garden and I have been working on the ranch moving stock, vaccinating new stock and fencing. Paul and Fiona’s house is on a hill that overlooks the harbour and from their deck they have a wonderful view of the sunsets. It’s been fun for me to experience how different farms in New Zealand can be from the farm that I grew up on and I hope that I will get to experience more before we leave.

On the 28th we took a day off from working and drove into Dargaville to get our car registration renewed. After getting our registration renewed, we headed further north to visit what remains of the Kauri forests. Kauri trees were used sparingly by the Maoris to make their large canoes, but were mostly logged out by the Europeans. There are a few large trees remaining and we hiked out to take a look at them. The largest living Kauri tree is called Tane Mahuta and is 51 meters tall and 13.8 meters around. It was raining the whole time we visited the forest which seemed appropriate as it is considered a temperate rain forest.

Even though we are settling in, there are still a few things that we are getting used to:

I’ve only driven on the right side of the road once.

We are usually driving around at 100.

The temperature is usually around 20 degrees and we are hot.

Possums are a cute animal with fur that is desirable for making clothing or blankets.

People keep telling us to get our togs and jandals on so we can go to the beach.