We contacted some hosts on the Banks Peninsula based on very positive feedback from our friends, Mike and Ali, who had done some WWOOFing there. Though the listed hosts did not have availability, they did refer us to a lady who needed assistance. Through email contact, we arranged our stay.
We stayed in Little River for a week and had a pretty luxurious WWOOFing assignment. Our accommodation was in a separate "sleep-out", a room off the garage with heat and wireless internet and our hostess (or Michiel) made us three meals per day as well as a coffee break with bread or cake. Most of the meals were centered around fruit and veg from her garden with the addition of store-bought items like sausage or fish or oatmeal for breakfast. She had apple, pear, lemon and lime trees, berry and grape plants and a decent-sized organic garden with companion planting.
One of the things I´ve taken with me from this experience is her recipe for a refreshing herbal tea:
Steep 3-4 leaves of lemon verbena, a slice of fresh ginger root and a slice of lemon in hot water for 3-5 minutes. Serve.
Our room and the grapes
The side yard
Our tasks included removing some non-producing berry plants, making a planter box, mulching around trees and shrubs, mowing, cleaning the pool (a new skill to add to my resume), chainsawing and clearing a downed tree that fell across the driveway during a storm, bringing rubbish to the dump and washing windows when the wild winds prohibited us from working outside.
The berries have been removed and Michiel has built a planter box for next year´s tomato plants
We did some travel around the Banks Peninsula after our week was up, then spent a wonderful weekend with our friends, Anna and Chris.
Scenic drive on the Peninsula
With Anna on the Godley Head trail.
