25 November 2017 - 4 December 2017 Wwoofing with Conrad and Becca

Every time we are excited again when a Wwoof host accepts us and we go there to work for a few days. And even though Becca and Conrad were our fourth Wwoof job, the excitement was just as great as the previous times.

Conrad had written to us that we could come around five o'clock and since it was raining all day, we walked from McDonald's, where we sat for two hours, to Burger King, where we spent another 3 hours to use the free Wi-Fi there. Apart from the art gallery, which we had already visited, Lower Hutt didn't really have any other indoor activities to offer.

So we spent the whole day in fast food chains and at quarter past five we went to Conrad's. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we found a closed door. No one seemed to be there. So we called Conrad, who didn't answer but wrote ten minutes later that he was on his way.

The two of them arrived with shopping bags about five minutes later. They greeted us nicely and while Conrad brought the shopping into the house, Becca showed us around the property. She showed us the chickens and ducks, the 'vegetable garden' where nothing really grew, only two compost bins and a lot of weeds found their place there. Then we went into the house and she showed us every room and finally our small one, which had a bunk bed, a small wardrobe, and a mirror.

For dinner, we had pasta with tomato sauce and vegetables, and Conrad showed us the tasks for the weekend since they would be in Christchurch for the next few days and leave us alone. A friend would come by occasionally to spend the night with us and someone would come to install the new kitchen.

Accordingly, we woke up in an empty house the next morning, had breakfast in peace, and then went to work. We fed the chickens and redesigned the compost bins. One of them was to be rebuilt so that the interior of the compost would now become the outside wall, thereby transforming the current outside wall into the interior of the compost. The second compost bin was to be 'expanded'. We built an outer wall out of the second old compost bin and put remnants from Conrad's organic coffee business and weeds inside. Not a really appetizing matter. After we finished that, we cleaned the veranda floor and then called it a day.

Since we had forgotten some things at the campsite where we had slept the last two nights, we went back there in the afternoon so I could get my pillowcase back and Jasmin could get some clothes and part of the sleeping bag. We also baked some cookies.

For dinner, Steve came, the friend Conrad had announced. Together with him, we watched Zoolander, a really silly movie that was so bad that you had to laugh through half of it. Then we had a Skype call with our friend Sophie and her boyfriend before we went to bed.

The next morning was not really different. We woke up in an empty house, had breakfast, and went to work. In the afternoon, we baked bread and received a message from Conrad that they had missed their flight and would have to spend another night in Christchurch. In the evening, we watched another movie, drank wine, and ate the last cookies we had.

On November 28, we painted the veranda and then went to the Red Rocks, which Paul recommended to us at the time because we could see seals there. Unfortunately, we didn't walk far enough as we only saw red rocks in the sea, but unfortunately no seals.

In the evening, Conrad and Becca were back and we met Conrad's children Bella and Henry, with whom we watched a movie in the evening (surprisingly).

On the next two days, after work, we always went to Wellington and visited Te Papa, the best museum (which unfortunately cannot be published on the internet), that I have ever visited. It has six floors with different thematic areas. The exhibition on World War I related to New Zealand was very interesting.

In the evening, we played Train Dominoes with Conrad and Becca, and I have to admit that I didn't really understand the game.

We celebrated the first day of December with a pizza party. Our hosts invited friends and made pizza in their (newly painted) veranda pizza oven. Extremely delicious. We learned the strange habit of New Zealanders to put potatoes on their pizza. Very strange. For that, everyone (except Becca, but she's English) didn't really understand why we sprinkled corn on our pizza. We also had cider for the first time in our lives, the alcoholic beverage here in New Zealand.

For the next few days, we had pizza for lunch as there was still some dough left, which was not a problem for us. After work, we went shopping, even went for a run one evening, and on our day off, we went to Wellington and visited 'Zealandia', a protected nature reserve where many New Zealand birds live.

In the evening, we played Dominoes Train for the last time and then said goodbye to them.

Wonderful 10 days.

Jana