Wwoofing in Little River

This time we are doing wwoofing near Christchurch on Banks Peninsula. The campground where we work and live for 2 weeks is located in Okuti Valley, next to the sleepy town of Little River. We chose this place after our original wwoofing partners canceled on us relatively short notice, so it's kind of a fallback option. Things work a bit differently here, it's not wwoofing in the traditional sense because we only work for accommodation, not for food. That means we work much less, only about 3 hours a day, and we provide for ourselves and don't eat with the hosts as usual. It's a bit of a shame because the two of them are very interesting and nice people. With other wwoofing experiences, you become part of the family and have a much closer contact with the people. But we shouldn't complain, working 3 hours a day is really relaxed, Marcus the owner is super laid-back, and we have a rustic, charming hut all to ourselves! After 6 weeks of camping, we're very happy to sleep in a bed and have regular access to (warm) water. We also appreciate practical things like chairs and tables 😉

The tasks we do don't have much to do with gardening. There are two small vegetable gardens where we can still harvest plenty, but most of the work takes us up the hill into the forest that belongs to the campground. Here you can find hidden, very nice seating areas, slides, swings, stages, and even a China Town film set where a movie was shot last year. Marcus also organizes a festival every year and other smaller music events. So there's a lot to discover and a lot to work on 😊 One of the most beautiful places here, in our opinion, is a hidden trampoline that has been raised with ropes to tree branches. Very nice for lying in the sun and watching birds. We spent some moments here with our Dutch co-woofers. The tasks we've done include repairing stairs, slides, and small things in China Town, maintaining paths, removing non-native plants and trees, cleaning and creating streams, and helping in the grandparents' garden. In general, everything had to be made winterproof because Marcus and Megan will be traveling through Europe for 3 months. Sometimes we felt like real foresters 💪 and getting insights into New Zealand country life was quite interesting. The topic of wood in general and tree felling in particular dominates many conversations 😆 Another favorite topic is the control of pests like possums, rats, mice, and rabbits... Although Marcus and Megan are not the typical countryside folk, they originally come from Christchurch and are somewhat unconventional. During a jolly gathering around the fire on the weekend, we got to know a few friends of Marcus and Megan... all over 50, childless, and pretty crazy in the most positive sense 👍

Since we no longer have a car, we are grateful for bicycles that we use to ride to Little River, which is 5 km away. There is a small grocery store, a cafe, a village library, and actually a small art gallery where Marcus' wife works.

On a day off, we hitchhiked to Akaroa. It is a slightly larger town on the peninsula. The first settlers there were of French origin, which is why it is still called Little France. Apart from all the French flags, street names, and cafes called Rue and Brasserie, it is not very French 😉

Now the 2 months in New Zealand are coming to an end... After a somewhat bumpy start to the journey on the North Island, we had wonderful moments and experiences on the South Island. On the North Island, we had bad weather more often and the landscape is simply not as impressive as you might think, especially if you come from Australia, where the coast is much more beautiful! In addition, there are fewer animals in NZ, too many tourists, people are less friendly, and everything is more expensive... we really missed Australia at first, but now we have largely made peace with New Zealand 😙 2 months were a bit too long for us personally, so we are even more excited about Mexico now! 😀

This time we are doing wwoofing near Christchurch, on Banks Peninsula, in a small village of 1000 inhabitants called Little River. It is a campground located in the Okuti Valley where we will be working and living for two weeks. The system here is a bit different from the other times we have done wwoofing: in this case, we work about 3 hours a day in exchange for staying in a cabin at the campground, without food included. It's not that we mind cooking for ourselves or going grocery shopping, but it does take away from getting to know the hosts, as the best conversations often happen during meal times 😊 But there are also positive aspects, as working so few hours a day is very manageable and allows us to do other things during the day. Additionally, our host Marcus is a very nice person and allows you to organize and do the tasks as you see fit. Another aspect that we value a lot after spending so much time camping is being able to sleep in a real bed and not on a sleeping mat, having regular access to a hot shower (as some campsites have cold showers or none at all), and having chairs and tables to eat comfortably 😉

The tasks we have to do are also somewhat different from what we have done in previous occasions. Although there are two small vegetable gardens at the campground where we can pick vegetables, our tasks mainly involve maintaining the forest and the paths within the campground. The forest, which is located on the slopes of a hill, is full of places where you can enjoy views of the valley and have fun, such as trampolines, giant swings, or a slide along the path up the hill, as seen in one of the photos. There is also an area called China Town, where a movie set was built in 2016. The task we have done the most is removing non-native plants and trees from the forest, followed by fixing and cleaning bridges, paths, and streams, repairing some damage in China Town, and a couple of days we went to Marcus' elderly parents' house to tidy up their garden a bit 😊. We have done all these tasks together with Jens, another guy from the Netherlands who has been doing wwoofing in the campground for 2 months as well.

The campground is about 5 km from the center of Little River, but luckily we can use a couple of bicycles from the campground to get there. There's not much to see, but there is a store, an art gallery, and a library with internet access.

One of our days off, we took a trip to Akaroa, which is one of the larger towns on the peninsula.

And now 2 months have passed since we arrived in New Zealand! Although we were a bit skeptical about the country at first and missed Australia quite a bit, we really liked the South Island and it was worth coming here. In addition, during these 2 weeks of wwoofing, we have been able to get to know the Kiwi way of life a bit better, which is not easy due to the number of foreign tourists. You could say they love talking about trees and wood, animal pests, poisons, and traps 😁, well, that's the impression I got. But they are really nice and friendly people.

Now it's getting quite cold around here and we feel like we have seen quite a bit of the country, so we are very excited to finally go to Mexico!