wwoof here, wwoof there

Life at the farm was very laid back and peaceful but at the same time, buzzing with activity. With so much going on there were so many different things to help out on and get involved with which made being a wwoofer (willing workers on organic farm) a very varied and interesting experience. Chan (another fellow wwoofer from Hong Kong) and I did a lot of jobs together. The first being some tree planting down in one of the fields. We were planting shoots in quite a boggy area and the hardest part was trying not to lose a welly in the sticky mud. The constant squelching fart sounds also helped to keep us amused as we tried our hardest not to faceplant into mud! Another daily activity was feeding the animals. The pigs were partiularly entertaining because they would get so excited while watching us approach with all the food scraps for them. Other jobs included painting, doing some mosaic tiling, preparing fruit beds, weeding ("weeeeeeeeeeeeeds"!) and bits and pieces here and there.


With an amazingly stocked lader full of wholesome goodies (every kind of dried fruit and nut under the sun, cereals, pulses a plenty, baking goods, honey, wholesome crunchy peanut butter etc etc you get the idea) and a plethora of homegrown produe cooking was extremely fun and Marijke made us some very yummy meals. We also had lots of Roberts homemade beer, lots of different types including a darker mix flavoured with liquorice. All of this food and drink was obviously justified by all our hard work on the farm! We helped out with some of the cooking - Chan made us some authentic chilli beef on one night and i got to do some baking rustling up my favourite Pumpkin Pie desert.


Evenings were spent often by the fireside reflecting on the day and other things. Chan and I talked a lot about the cultural differenes between Asia and the West (Chan: "That is so interesting", Me: mmm). He also showed me how to palm read (well the basics) and how he had had his future predicted by a fortune teller!I tried to explain to Chan that it is common practise in England to put the kettle on and have a cup of tea whenever you come back into the house, even more so if its a bit cold outside...he just said i drank too much tea. He also thought i was a bit crazy when i randomly started doing yoga (tree pose) during one of our tea breaks!


At the end of my stay another previous wwoofer, Shai returned. He had the intention of traveling around NZ on one of the horses and so i gave him a few handy tips for working with a horse that hadn't been broken in yet! It was fun having another wwoofer around and the 3 of us had an interesting conversation about our views on worldy issues and discussed how we thought the world would progress and what we hoped would happen in the future. It was fun to philosophise and share our inspired views while tending to the plants in the garden! Shai also entertained us with his didgeridoo and stories of his travel adventures over the last 5 years.


All in all i had a great time on the farm and left feeling inspired by the world and community that the people are creating for themselves there.