Blue Skies Over Levin

Pictures from my trip north from Dunedin, time with Lee and Lowey in Wellington and my WWOOF experience in Levin can be found in the album to the right titled “New Zealand: Heading North.” I haven’t uploaded the pictures yet but will in the next few days!

• Sunday, 23 Jan: Slept super well in a super comfy guest bed; rode with Lee and Lowey around Wellington, taking in the sights through the rain; visited farmer’s market; visited Te Papa museum; grocery shopping; ate licorice wrapped in chocolate, uber-light cake and a fabulous cupcake; met Lee’s brother and his girlfriend at dinner; huge homemade dinner.
• Monday, 24 Jan: Lee and Lowey drove me to Levin late in the morning; met Jane and Craig, my WWOOF hosts; started cleaning up their garage, focusing on books, organized over 100+ books into piles; toured the farm: greenhouses, horses at pasture, cows at pasture, chicken coop, compost piles, vegetable gardens, fruit trees, tons of flowers and pretty plants.
• Tuesday, 25 Jan: Worked outside, weeding specific areas, carting compost around, watering plants, replanting seedling; went to a nearby beach in the afternoon when Jane and Craig worked some injured horses in the surf; watched “In America” and had lovely homemade, home grown food for dinner.
• Wednesday, 26 Jan: Worked outside, replanting seedlings and potting various flowers; went to the beach again, swam this time, got a bit of sunburn on my face; worked inside, organizing boxes in the garage into like piles.
• Thursday, 27 Jan: Worked inside in the morning, vacuuming, cleaning and washing the washroom sink area; then worked outside, weeding bagged and potted plants; slight drizzle all day; made a big dent in huge batch that needed weeding; worked a short time in the garage.

 

The day I arrived at Jane and Craigs home it was gray, rainy and dreary. That first day, I helped Jane with clearing books out of the garage, organizing them into theme piles and sale piles. Jane was friendly, chatty and reminiscent about family as she sorted through the odd box. Craig seemed extremely quiet at first, but turned out to be friendly and funny.

The next day dawned beautifully: clear blue skies from horizon to horizon! It was time to do some outdoor manual labor, the type of worked I envisioned when I decided to give the whole WWOOFing thing a try.

I first heard of Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF) years ago in relation to Italy and someone’s trip there. The basic concept was, farms that had some sort of organic vision for their farms could sign up, for a fee I think, and then individuals interested in helping out could sign up, also for a fee, and in this way the two groups could communicate with each other. In the “old” days, individuals who signed up were sent a hard copy book with information on all the farms that needed help of some sort, a description of their land/livestock and a description of the type of work needed. I envisioned working in vineyards, erecting fences, pruning vines, picking fruits, that kind of thing. Then I learned that WWOOF is everywhere. In fact, most Western and first- and second- world countries seem to have a chapter of WWOOF. This seemed to be the one unfortunate aspect of the whole thing: there wasn’t a worldwide network of WWOOF, just country by country.

When I started planning my travels last year, I found this last fact to be especially true, so I just signed up for New Zealand’s WWOOF community. It was the one country I knew I would go to no matter what and I also had an idea of when I’d be there. It cost me $40 NZD and I was given access to the website, where farmers and volunteers can list their needs and their skills. A few months into my trip, I posted a blurb about who I am, my general skills and interests, and timeframe of being in New Zealand. Just a week or two later I got an e-mail from Jane, a native kiwi living in Levin, caring for racehorses and tending to her vegetable and fruit gardens and greenhouses. She offered to host me if I’d come by and help around the place, including assisting her in organizing things to be sold on the internet.

So, that first day when I arrived I started on the garage, but the second day I got to be outside. I was a little disappointed at first when she set me my first project: clear out three patches of ground that were infested with weeds. Two of the patches had rhubarb growing in them, though, and I was to leave those plants alone and intact. Weeding! Ugh! However, as I got to work and chatted away with Jane, I started to enjoy the process. It was great to be  able to see my progress, too, so that at the end I was beaming at the three lovely, cleared areas. I’ve often seen my mother weeding and wondered at her seeming enjoyment of it… now I can understand it!

Next up was shoveling and carting compost from the compost bins to a potting area. This didn’t take long and soon I was transplanting bulbs and plants from old bags or pots to new ones, carefully pairing and labeling each. Late in the morning, some welcome news came: a friend of Craig’s had a horse that needed some working after an injury and the plan was to take the horses to a nearby beach and walk them in the surf. I was invited to come along to enjoy the beach, which of course I agreed to right away. The horses were beautiful, regal creatures, but way out of my league to help with in any way, so I parked myself on the sand and soaked up some sun.

Once back from the beach, I started on the garage: there were over a hundred boxes of “stuff,” memorabilia and cooking stuff and books and … you know, the stuff you collect over a lifetime. I started sorting them out, putting like “stuff” together in piles. I spent a few hours at this before knocking off and relaxing. One other thing we did that day which was fun was to harvest gherkins from her patch of vegetables, then “refrigerator pickle” them. This consisted of mixing vinegar, water and spices in a jar or container, stuffing as many gherkins in as possible, then stoppering the container. There were a few of these is the fridge already and I feasted on them throughout my stay.

The third and fourth days I worked primarily in one of the greenhouses, weeding individually bagged or potted plants. It was a time consuming, peaceful job and of the hundreds of plants Jane has, I only got through maybe a hundred, but I enjoyed every minute of it! I listened to music or just daydreamed away as I picked and prodded and cleaned out the weeds, carrying four plants at a time into my little work area. It was gray and drizzly out on the fourth day, which meant no beach visit, but I was left to my own devices in the greenhouse and just plodded along with the weeding, which was perfect for me.

On the last day, a Friday, Jane and Craig drove me into town and dropped me off at my bus station before heading off on errands of their own in town. For my first WWOOF experience, I think I was lucky to have such a laid back and friendly couple to host me. The work was loosely defined and I had my choice of inside or outside work each day. Homecooked food every night for dinner had many fresh items from the gardens and their home was comfortable and inviting. I can’t wait to see what the next WWOOF experience has in store… I haven’t set it up yet, but I’m absolutely positive I’ll do it again!

--Z