Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We're back on the road again after two weeks 'WOOFing' (Working On Organic Farms) with the Pattisons just north of Tauranga. You may note the Geordie surname - Stuart was born in Corbridge and spent his first seven years living in Cramlington before his family moved to Wales... somewhat of a coincidence as I spent the first seven years of my life in Newcastle and then we moved to Shrewsbury, near to the Welsh border!! He and Megs moved to New Zealand 3 years ago, after she'd been in the UK for 15 years, back to where she comes from on the Bay of Plenty.
We lived in their 'chalet' - a caravan with an MDF 'extension'! - and helped out (in exchange for board and lodging) in their home and on their 10 acre plot. They both work pretty much full time (Stuart in IT and Megs in her 'Natural Health Shop' in Katikati, and as therapists - in Bowen therapy and reflexology respectively) while the organic farm gets going. It certainly felt very rural, quite a way from anywhere, including neighbours, and extremely tranquil (when two year old Sam was asleep!), with ducks (2), chickens (about 50) and cows (9) continually wandering past the bedroom window!
Simon painted the living room ceiling, and used the plastic from a blown down poly-tunnel to make a green house in which he planted vegetables and rescued some of Stuart's strawberries from hungry chickens! I launched into the housework - for the first week with Yuko from Japan, another WOOFer - and all of us spent time looking after Sam and Alex (her 6 year brother) - they were lovely... very sweet. After 8 months of travelling it was nice to be a bit domesticated!
We enjoyed Stuart and Megs' company (and food and telly!) and learned a lot about, the mainly hardships of, trying to start up your own organic farm... as well as about living in New Zealand. As parents now too, it was quite a leap from the affluent and childless city life they'd led in London...!
We left, ready to get on the road again, despite Megs' offer to stay longer and look after the children over Easter(!), and having stacked up on health products from the shop and a lot more insight into 'living organically' (I even had a lesson in using the best cotton nappies, despite insisting that Simon had been potty-trained for quite some time now!) - food for thought. I think, for all those reading this, that we should at the very least embark on using environmentally-friendly cleaning products. I used a lot while I was there(!) and they work equally as well as conventional (evil) stuff. It doesn't really make sense why we're not all using these products anyway (aside from the persuasions of advertising and marketing)... I've bought Ecover products at home and the Pattisons were using Eco products - don't know if we have that at home; must do more research....
We had a couple of nights in Rotorua, wandering among geysers and mudpools (including the Pohutu geyser in the photo), getting sulphur headaches (or was it the overdoses of Megs' supplements?!), and enjoyed a very touristy but fun Maori evening of dance (and haka) and food (cooked on a traditional hangi)... It's a lovely town on the lake and we had a good walk around the lakeside, past yet more bubbling hot pools. It's quite odd in these parts to be driving along and seeing steam rising out of the surrounding countryside!
From there we headed to Taupo for a night at the cinema and morning swimming at the local pool. We've decided that to 'free camp' as much as possible and then swim and shower and get washed that way is the way to go...! There are so many activities to do everywhere we go, but swimming is about what we can afford (over jetboat riding, bungy jumping, paragliding...!) It's fun looking for free things to do 'though! We've vowed to return soon to Tongariro National Park just south of Taupo to do the Tongariro Crossing of the three volcanoes. It was great driving past them, through country where Lord of the Rings was, in part, filmed too. New Zealand started to feel more dramatic..
We're now in Napier on Hawke's Bay (surrounded by vineyards and apple orchards), trying to track Simon's friend Sean down. It's lovely here, too. It seems we're often rocking up in places and saying 'Hm. We could live here. This is nice!' Okay, that's all for now. Time for dinner.. outside... next to the van... on our gas stove. Will miss this when it's over... so don't be over yet please!
Byeee, love us xxx
- comments