WWOOFED BEFORE

After two weeks, Hannah and I had successful acquired what I like to call "vacation stamina" (the ability to be constantly on the move, possibly even sleeping in a new bed each night and not caring what is half way down in your backpack because you have already decided you don't care anymore and will just be wearing the same thing everyday.) At this point though, we were both ready to a)stay in once place for a semi extended period of time and b) actually be productive members of society.

That's where WWOOFing comes in! WWOOFing is more than its totally awesome name, it's a program that encourages cultural exchange and ecotourism, offering opportunities for travelers to assist organic farms. WWOOFing stands for Willing Workers On Organic Farms OR World Wide Opportunities On Farms, so you can choose which one sounds better to you. 

After an evening in Dunedin, we boarded a bus headed for the presumably farm-tastic oasis of Clinton, New Zealand. The bus driver was pretty surprised to find out that was our desired destination, essentially saying "are you SURE you're sure you want to go there?" So that gave us heaps of confidence. Nevertheless, he dropped us off on a pretty deserted road that was supposedly located in the town of Clinton. Luckily, I'm in New Zealand so you never really need to be worried about anything.

We stopped in the nearest gas station to ask for directions and almost before I even finished my question, the cashier, Jo, said "You're going to Wairuna Organics aren't you?" She had seen our kind before.

Jo decided she didn't want us lugging our backpacks up the road so she said "Run 'round to that wee red car. I'll give you a lift." Welcome to New Zealand.

Wairuna Organics is owned and basically solely operated by one man, Shaun. He is equal parts endearing and terrifying. His entire income relies on the money he makes from the Dunedin Farmers Marker each week. He also relies entirely on WWOOFers to keep the place going. Therefore, you are literally dealing with this mans livlihood each day you work on his farm. Hence, the terrifying-ness he can have at times. He hosts approximately 170 WWOOFers A YEAR. So, he definitely knows what works, who works, and what doesn't.

He hosts up to 15 WWOOFers at time. When we arrived there were two Korean guys, a French guy, a German guy, and a Malaysian girl working. Pretty cool international crowd.  Everyone is given their own sleeping space, and then we share "The Station" where we can cook/eat/watch TV/hang and such.

Our humble abode. 

 The deal is that you work from 10am-2pm every day in exchange for a bed and three square meals. Pretty good set up, I'd say. 

Our first day of work, we were sent straight to the fields. Garlic fields. Our mission was to weed the garlic and Shaun gave us a little inspirational speech before we began, "Don't you f*&^ing pull out the garlic!" So with that attitude, and the anxiety over potentially ruining an entire crop of garlic, we were off! Later, our job was to weed the raspberry bushes. Luckily we got to start this job just as it started to rain! Shaun asked us, about 45 mins into this job, "Have you guys WWOOFed before?" I said enthusiastically/apologetically, "Nope, this is our first time!" and he replied, "It shows." But then he smiled and laughed so its hard to actually dislike this guy, because I'm sure he was completely right, our weeding abilities were most likely not up to par.

Not a terrible view to look at all day while wedding garlic.

For the next week we continued to weed the garlic and raspberries, we picked lettuce (at least five different kinds), we picked and cleaned carrots (white, purple and orange carrots) and tended to the crops in the massive greenhouses he owned. We also hung out with his dog Chloe, a lot. 

Sorting carrots to sell.

Shaun was very stern and precise about what he wanted you to do, but then one second later he would give you a lesson about the type of vegetable you were working with. Where it comes from, what its used for, its likes and dislikes, all those sort of things. 

Each night we prepared dinner together, usually including a minimum of 2 completely homemade items, including but not limited to; bread, cheese and cheesecake. This was great because I really love food a lot. 

Cheese, passionfruit cheesecake, veggies and veggies.

Even though the farm ended up running out of water, and we had to sleep in layers on layers on layers each night (seriously 2 pairs of pants and 5 sweatshirt kind of layers) our time on the farm was amazing. It felt great to be doing something helpful, and we met interesting people. To top it all off, when we visited Shaun at the Dunedin Farmers Market a week after we left, he gave us a deal on the lettuce we bought! Can't beat that!