Wwoofing

Wwoofing stands for worldwide working on organic farms, and basically means working 5 hours/day for food and accomodation.

Although I had serious doubts about this 'wwoofing stuff', Anna nevertheless suggested and decided to go wwoofing for a total of 10 days the first month of our NZ travels. She found 2 (child friendly) farms that allowed us to only work 2 hours a day which sounded reasonably OK to me. One farm had about 780 cows and the other farm had about 10.000 sheep.

The cow farm was run by the energetic and relaxed 31 year old farmer Jon and his Austrian wife Birgit. I had expected all kinds of farm work but this was not the case at all. Brick laying, weeding and wood chopping were my prime activitities at the cow farm. No tractor pulling or other fun activities for me. Given my 'farming experiences', it felt that Jon made a good choice though. One day however, I requested to help with milking as to make sure I at least touched a cow. When I set the alarm for 04:30, I started to doubt already. When I arrived at the cow shed, it was cold, wet, dark and smelly but the cows were noisily awaiting the start of my shift. Putting the 'milking devices' on the 'titties' (thats what the farmer called them and I do not know the proper English word for it, sorry!) of the cows was not an easy job. Given the speed of the rotation station (basicly a round conveyer belt with cows) I needed to be helped out by Jon quite often. Apart from trying to keep up with the rotation speed my main concern was the 'aim capability' of the cow concerned. I always kept a watchful eye for the sky or on this case, the milky way. I managed to avoid most of the bombardements but I nevertheless felt and smelled like shit when I got home (09:30) again. I took one of the best and longest showers in my life and enjoyed every second. We had to buy some new shower gel though. Respect for all the farmers who deliver us fresh milk and other dairy products every day!

The sheep farm was located in the beautiful Catlins and was run by Rata and Sheila. Apart from cleaning the sheep shed, feeding the pigs and searching for eggs (in about 3 acres of forrest) not many farm/ sheep activities for me up here either. Again wood shopping (I feel like a true lumber jack but according to Anna I do not have the body as such yet) up here as well. It allowed me to drive the quad which was quite nice though. One day, Rata asked me whether I could help with dagging next day. Dagging sounded OK to me but when I found out that dagging meant sheering lamb's bums, I was not so certain any longer. When the sheering crew showed up next morning, I realised I was safe! Rata judged my skills quite well and I was assigned with supplying lambs to the sheering stations. Donkeys are stubborn they say but leading sheep to a sheering station is a hard job as well. They are fast and they are always run in the other direction. With help of Storm (not the Jiskefet commando but a great dog) I did quite well, I would say. The stations never ran out of sheep so no availability losses up here. Rate of the sheerers was bloody impressive! It required some tough sheep handling (read 'throwing sheep over the fence') every now and then but I managed. Again lot's of poo and pee but it was an unforgetable experience. Too bad my shoes smelled like a sheep shed/ shit but again a nice shower after my farm working day. Respect for the sheep farmers who are amazing planners and are able to manage big herds of chaotic sheep.

On both farms, Anna was assigned various back offices activities that are not so visible but that do keep the farm/ front offices going. It goes without saying that the freerzers were full with nice bread and cakes when we left both farms. It was a little bit of a struggle though to put things in the fridge as it was very tempting to most family members to harvest the goodies the same day already.

Anna impressed with a yummy daily cake surprise! 'Wat een boer niet kent dat vreet ie niet' also applies to NZ farm kids. When they found out that there was coco nut in the cakes, it became a no no. The more for the appreciative parents though!

In the end we worked much more than the agreed 2 hours a day but that was perfectly fine with us. The wwoofing families were flexible towards Junia, they showed inormous hospitality and we had a great time at both places. We did our best to help out as much as possible. The least one can do when being confronted with such enormous generousity and kindness.

This wwoofing is, I found out, much more than just 'working on an organic farm'. Although both farms had organic elements (eg, organic yoghurt for breakfast), we managed to avoid the uber green, veganistic tree hugging stuff. Both families provided us a unique opportunity to get insight in true kiwi style of living. It also provided us a glimse of rural farm life in New Zealand. Anna has been living with various foreign families before but it was my first time. Not so bad to have that experience when you are an AFS board member.

We have about 3 wwoofing days to go somewhere in March. I am sure I will survive those days as well. Do not know whether they have cattle. Maybe deer or Alpacas?

Some painting needs to be done in Orsa this summer. We offer organic berries to be picked in return. You can count the food to be great! Any volunteers?