Mike and Claire's Wonderland

I did some yoga on the beach here today...

Heaven

The Yoga deck that's a little ways away from the main house, so it's serene and peaceful - :)

They sell their food at a farmers market on Sundays, or just out on the street near town (and I'm told are usually sold out within a couple hours)

The corn patch that another wwoofer, Andy from Ireland, has spent the last 3 months here tending to!

Mike and Claire's Wonderland

Yet another wonderful and beautiful place to stay! They have been on this land for 20 years and every tree has been planted by them, it started as nothing. They have 3 boys, 2 of which live here and one back in the states, in NH, with Mikes sister (who is actually here for a few months helping out on the gardens). All the meat and fish they eat, they have killed themselves. Claire is really into deep sea diving and Mike is very into fishing and hunting (as you'll see from the photos in my Kodak album!)

You can hear the surf from the bay from the house, it's just about a 10 min walk to the beach, and tons of bush walking opportunity all around. They have a sweat lodge, an area to do Yoga on a platform over a stream, plentiful vedge gardens and fruit trees, a big garage area (the size of a small house) with a pool table, dart boards and a heavy bag, and on and on. They have only taken wwoofers for one year, so it's a reletively new experience for them, but I know I'm going to learn a lot about horticulture and permaculture and I've decided to stay an extra week already.

Claire grows the vegetables mostly just for their family, and some to sell locally, but she's been farming forever, as her dad was a brilliant farmer. I have learned to:

• bake homemade Sourdough bread
• make homemade yogurt, buttermilk and herbed cheese from raw milk
• make homemade butter (literally by hand, there's no churn)
• make homemade Kefir (the good bacteria stuff from the raw milk - it's fermented)
• make Kombucha

And that's just what I've learned in the kitchen! I have also learned quite a lot out in the garden and about their lives of hunting and living off the land. They are having a fishing tournament this Saturday and about 30 guys will be in the race and someone wins prize money at the end...then the party will be here.

Rotorua

ROTORUA THERMAL AND MUD POOLS!!! WAY COOL!

There is actually a village of Maoris that live in amongst these Thermal pools. They use them (the steam gets to over 200 degrees Celcius!) for cooking, cleaning and bathing. It is all geothermal energy so there is no need for an outside power source. They stick the food they're making for dinner in one of the steam pools and pick it up after their day of work (in the village at the shops, tours, etc) and it's ready to eat! They steam fish in the pools, it usually takes about 3-4 minutes to steam a fish. There are more photos in my Kodak album, really an amazing thing to see! Oh, the bubbling picture of the mud at the top: that mud is too hot to touch, so there are fences all around that very large area. The mud is used for a host of skin conditions including eczema and psoriasis.

Ake Ake Vineyard

My home for a week

A day in the vineyard

Inside the bus I stayed in, it was cozy but very very cold at night! Again, glad I brought the down coat!

AKE AKE VINEYARD

http://akeakevineyard.co.nz/restaurant.html

This place was like a world apart from the Hokianga. Wonderful, but in a completely different way. I loved the work out in the vineyard, got to see the local waterfall, Rainbow Falls, and went on some jogs around the area to check out the scenery. The vegetarian food was incredible, and unlike anywhere else I've stayed, I could make my own espresso at home! :) it felt like such a naughty treat!

The Treehouse - Backpackers

The gorgeous Backpackers Accomodation

View of the Hokianga Harbor from my bush walk

I stayed at the most beautiful and luxurious TREE HOUSE BACKPACKERS the night I left the Hokianga. I actually wwoofed there so I didn't have to pay my accommodation. They have planted over 10.000 trees in the 20 years this couple has been on the land. There is a 20 minute bush walk on the property, they have many species of birds and ducks, sheep, and probably more animals I didn't even see.

Leaving the Hokianga

You haven't lived until you've spent a day shoveling cow poop...

And then shared the back of a truck with it.

I love it here so much, I've been here nearly a month now and it's really feeling like home. But I am traveling so I can travel, so time to move on. Some interesting and fun things I've experienced here:

- the neighbor about 1/2 mile up the road comes on Thursdays for his "weekly shower"

- a policeman was in town yesterday do make a report and came in and had lunch with us

- today I shoveled cow poop for 2 hours and actually felt content in it (Andy, tell Becky I was thinking of her while shoveling poo)

- I read in a Deepak Chopra book (which may or may not be true, but seems realistic to me) this week that 90% of our thoughts are the same thoughts we had yesterday....this is the beauty of this lifestlye...that's not the case here :)

- before lunch and dinner we walk out into the garden and pick our lettuce, veges and herbs for the salad, which they have religiously twice a day.

- I am getting used to not having a garbage can

(and I have updated photos from MANAWA VALLEY and added MORE WAIORA GARDENS PHOTOS) There are a lot from Angelas gardens!

More Waiora Gardens

Kahu in the tree (Helen's son at my last wwoofing place)
Our bonfire - we attempted to play the digery-do, only one girl could pull it off for a breath or so, I need my uncle Mike to come teach us circular breathing!

The house isn't really on fire, my camera is possessed (or Bri is, not sure which?)
Ned - the goat. He is still fed with a bottle because he's young
The compost Toilet! The process of using this for mulching trees takes about a year, but it is very good fertilizer! It was hard to get used to it, but I realized we as humans can get used to just about anything! Our dinners are lit by candlelight so that we don't ever turn on the lights in the house. If it is cold, we light the fire.
This is the main room where we have meals, read, have fires, use the computer, and this day Angela was giving a tour and permaculture lesson to one of the local permaculture classes
"Diggin' in the Dirt" (Peter Gabriel) me in the greenhouse planting trees :)
The Greenhouse


I'm still having the time of my life at Angelas. Today the other two girls wwoofing here (from Minnesota) were sent on a mission to gather pine needles for mulching. We were pointed in a general direction in the bush and said, go that way toward pine trees. But we basically got lost as there was no trail and found only one pine tree that we collected needles from. My first non-trail bush walk....and I'm okay if it was my last! ADAPTATION! I have a goal to make peace with the spiders!

I have been watching the "Zeitgeist" films (there are 2) and it's pretty weird to watch them while in such a remote location out of the country, my perspective is completely changed. Group conversations with people from all over the world is really interesting and fun. I recommend everyone to watch "Zeitgeist" www.zeitgeist.com it is free to download and watch, it's about 2 hours long but is in sections.

I'm sad to be leaving Angela's on Saturday, but Josh and I are coming back in February for a week!!!

Waiora Gardens

The area where a couple of the bedrooms are located
This stone was just on a mound of plants on the property
The yoga/meditation room
Driveway down to the house and gardens
Planting and mulching potato beds
Raised Beds with fruitful veges, flowers and herbs growing

WAIORA GARDENS

Angela moved from Germany to New Zealand with a husband and 5 small children. They converted an old school bus and lived in it for 3 years while developing on the land. She now owns the property herself and her kids are grown and mostly moved away and she uses this land as a center for the study of Permaculture and for somewhat of a spiritual retreat center. There are MANY animals and all kind of plant and flower species. They have orchards, vegetable gardens, chickens, ponds, camper vans all over for people to stay in, and a wonderful lodge for dining and sharing.

I'll be here for 2.5 weeks because I've found it's a great place for learning permaculture (permanent + culture or agriculture) and working with plants, soil, learning about composting and mulching, and what it's like to live so far from civilization. There are no shops, coffee shops or stores of any kind in walking or jogging distance, but a gorgeous view from the road just up the way that I get to see on my daily jogs. This is rainforest so we do see a lot of rain, but when the sun is out, it is beautiful. It's still cold in the evening/night, but the sky is clear and the stars are bright and seemingly close!

All my photo albums have links on the right side of the blog