Feature = World Tourism Day = Tourism & Community Development = WWOOFing it Up in Kiwiland: 2 years volunteering on organic farms and travelling in New Zealand

Read this and other entries to the World Tourism Day Blog Competition here. 

Reflections = Tramping in Nelson, NZ

Knowledge is power; a cardinal truth in Community Development, both locally and globally. This truth has defined my last 2 years living and volunteering on organic farms around New Zealand, also known as, WWOOFing - WorldWide Opportunities on Organic Farms. ‘Wwoofers’ can access a database where they can find organic growers to ‘host’ them from a day to months, and even years. Furthermore, it's sustainable...

Sunrise in the valley,  Phytofarm Herbal Learning Garden, Little River, NZ

Heritage carrots, Phytofarm

Socially, it’s more than a simple exchange of labour for food and board; it’s a different way of travelling, of getting to know the ‘real kiwi life’, being more than just a passing tourist with a camera in a camper van. WWOOFing is experiencing the country as locals live it. It’s an exchange of knowledge, skills, friendship, family, enthusiasm and a passion for living, learning and sharing an organic lifestyle, being closer to the earth and in tune with the environment. I have been WWOOFing alone, but host families and their networks, make me feel connected to a larger purpose and community . I’ve met and made lifelong friendships with people from allover the globe.

Passion flowers, Phytofarm

Economically, it’s a win-win arrangement for both parties. Busy hosts have enthusiastic, willing (and usually young and energetic) workers to get the work done, and strapped for cash WWOOFers can travel indefinitely, knowing that they have their labour as a guarantee of food and a bed for the night. Hosts have social and professional networks in tourism that WWOOFers can access, often leading to ‘mates rates’ discounts on costly tourist rates and knowing of the best places to go for almost anything. And if the host doesn’t know; they know someone who does! Sometimes, it’s simply joining in on the weekly family fishing trip on the lake or tramp at the National Park.

Avalanche = like organic community development; it's unstoppable
Rob Roy Glacier, Mt. Aspiring National Park, NZ

Environmentally, Mother Earth must be nodding her head with approval. Passionate hosts have a need to share their livelihoods and expertise, and committed WWOOFers can learn about organics from the University of Life, instead of from books! WWOOFing promotes environmental stewardship on local and global scales. On my journey, I have found an extended family, made fond memories, and gained a practical education in the growing of organic produce using permaculture and biodynamic principles.

Rosehips; used to make oil
Phytofarm

It’s been an enriching experience and it’s exceeded all my expectations. I have a greater sense of well-being and better health from a mainly organic diet. I have reconnected with natural ancient ways of cooking, gardening, home and personal care, and home building. I have WWOOFed at an olive grove, beekeepers, food forest garden, herbal learning farm and adobe mud brick builders and learned to trust in the generosity of strangers; those friends I’ve still to meet. I’m really going to miss WWOOFing in New Zealand.

Fortunately, ‘WWOOFing’ is a worldwide movement and I’ve already heard on the organic grapevine the best places to WWOOF in the Pacific Islands. Next stop: organic coffee farm on Tonga, and maybe some swimming with the sperm whales ;)

Dawn mist rising; beginning our day's work, Renwick, NZ

Leaky gumboots are like leaky condoms. Useless.

Day 6

I'm having difficulty with the mortality rate in a country home. And with this dreadful Wellington weather. While I was stuck indoors cleaning, Ricky the Abyssinian cat brings in a still living mouse and drops it. As the mouse attempts to hide in a handbag, Caesar the Hungarian Vizsla then hunts him out and chews his head and I hear the crunches. Meanwhile, I watch fixated and repulsed as nature takes its course. I rationalise it; Ricky thinks he's showing his love for the humans, and Caesar's just doing what he's genetically predisposed to do, yet those feelings resurface from when he brought in the one dead and one practically dead rabbit 2 days before; feelings of repulsion, panic, empathised terror and a physical turning in the stomach. Being unaccustomed to country living, and deathing!, I could not go near the mouse and had to wait for the youngest son and his friend to return and 'fling' it outside.

Baa baa was biting my knees before he got his morning feed. Glad I had jeans on! He was super hungry but I don't think he knows that I wouldn't be very tasty. The animals here remind me of babies and toddlers. Both want food and cuddles, warmth, sleep. They familiarise with the world through touch, sight and taste. The animals retain that curiosity and innocence but children grow up and rationality begins to kicks in. Spending time with the animals has been an opportunity to understand them, and us, more. It certainly makes me think deeply about how we treat animals and use them for our personal interests.

Day 7

Today I'm back at Big Sis and Big Bro's recharging, doing my laundry, filling up the car with petrol, and returning my gumboots to the shop because they're leaking. Leaky gumboots are like leaky condoms. Useless. Thankfully leaky gumboots are returnable. Think it's worth forking out for a quality make. Afterall, I'll be here for a year or two.

Baa baa has the X factor, and that's what saves him from the fate of his peers. He is the 'house' sheep.

Day 1

The sky is blue and the sun is hot. Without the breeze through through the window when driving, that non-UV-filtered-sunshine is what's going to turn me into sunkissed caramel before the Spring is over. I find myself driving through a green lush valley, along winding roads through fields of cows, sheep, and horses, following the Waikanae River. I smell the distinct aroma of manure (clean and pleasant) and I feel a smile grow between my cheeks... after years of 'thinking about it', I am finally 'doing it'. I'm happy to be finally heading towards my first Wwoof hosts but I'm feeling equally as nervous. Like these bendy, angled roads, my mood doesn't know which way it's going. Then the road turns to onto gravel, the traffic disappears, and potholes start appearing. Potholes, shmotholes, this is paradise! Rural New Zealand is even more beautiful than I remember.

On arrival, I knock at the door a few times and get no answer, momentarily panic, thinking I'm at the wrong number and then knowing that docking lambs' tails is on the agenda for today, realise that heading for the baa-ing and bleating might get a result. They started before I arrived and I was half disappointed, but equally apprehensive, and somewhere in between glad that I wasn't getting thrown into the deep end! A fear that the method being used would be surgical, and having convinced myself, in this case, that I would be the surgeon! (hope for the best: prepare for the worse), I was also relieved to see there were 6 people on the job already. Another relief was that it was the more 'humane' method, of putting rubber rings on the tails and letting them eventually fall off. More humane? Well, the sheep can't talk...

Day 2

It's amazing how quickly animals, including humans, become familiar, and fond of each other, or simply just used to each other. Baa baa the lamb was evasive yesterday, and unreceptive to my petting. What a change today! He was up close and sniffing at my gumboots (wellies), and then jumping up on me. What a sweetheart, how could I eat the wee lamb? ... I then made myself a salami sausage and felt a new kind of guilt... if Baa baa was an Oink oink would I have made the sandwich then? This was after Dice the Jack Russell shamelessly dragged a headless rabbit into my way in the garden while I was weeding and proceeded to chew it.

When I returned after ravenously polishing off my guilt laden salami salad roll, the also very cute domestic dog had left half the rabbit (presumably digesting the other half,) skinned and gutted laying a few metres away from the original spot. She, unlike lambs, is safe from the literal chop. Mainly grown for human consumption, Baa baa has the X factor, and that's what saves him from the fate of his peers. He is the 'house' sheep. While he doesn't live with us in the house, he is hand-fed by humans and lives alone in the orchard. This means he can keep company with ill lambs or sheep convalescing in the orchard too, as the 'eating sheep' are not used to solitude.

Social norms are a funny thing. Why are some animals OK to eat (sheep, pigs, cows) and other animals not? This thought was resurfacing from yesterday, when I was helping feed the animals, including the horses, animals that in France, are more than acceptable to eat. All 4 horses have names, like the 6 cows, but only the cows will be chopped. Why name it if it's getting eaten? Curiouser and curiouser.

The family hosting me have 3 children between 14 and 19 years old. The youngest drove the quad bike with me hanging on tightly on the back, to the barn to pick up hay to take to the cows for their evening feed. The whole time I had a smile on my face, this is idyllic and I was jealous of these kids growing up in it, but for them, it's normal, nothing special. I fed the chooks (chickens) and picked up 2 eggs, warm and freshly laid. I also got a go at feeding Baa baa a half litre of milk substitute which amused me. He bounced about, sucked for his life through the teat and finished the bottle in 30 seconds flat and I'm sure he didn't take a breath! Today I could also get close enough to pick him up and cuddle him. The top of his head touched my cheek and he felt like a heated fleece! Emotionally, I felt growing affection.

These simple experiences, all new to my 30 years of city life, gave me so much pleasure. But do all these come at a price? And for who? I honestly don't know, but the animals are maybe the one's picking the short straw... yesterday I witnessed Baa baa being sterilized, because this will make him a much nicer sheep, ie. more tame...