Quiet farm house near Waitetuna

Walk time?

Beautiful Driveway

For the month of January Andrew and I have the unique experience of house sitting for a family on the west coast of New Zealand, near Raglan. Our responsibilities include walking the dog to the mailbox twice a day, feeding the chickens and pigs, and watering the garden. In exchange, we get to live in an amazing location for a month!

Walking the dog

We are using the opportunity to learn how to surf, which is an awesome sport as I mentioned before in this post. Andrew has managed to find a job in Raglan as well, meaning that we have a chance to stay in this incredible area for longer.

Playing on the trapeze

The family we are house sitting for is also a circus family with some really fun equipment in their house. I am seriously jealous of their living room, which has silks, a trapeze, a Spanish web/corde lisse, and a pole, not to mention an assortment of juggling equipment. Oh, and a hammock. Their only warning was to try not to hurt ourselves.

Beautiful sunset

Their house is entirely self-sufficient. They get all of their water from a nearby spring, as well as collecting all of the rainwater in a huge tank when it rains. Their power comes solely from the sun, with a couple of massive solar panels on the roof. They also have large fruit and vegetable gardens. I have been really enjoying the access to all the fresh produce, not to mention the fresh eggs every morning from their chickens!

Fresh fruit from the garden

Cooking has been a bit of a challenge. While I have used a gas stove before, I have never had to use matches to light one! I think it took me four or five matches to get the thing lit the first couple of times. I've figured out the trick now though. The oven, on the other hand...not so much. A gas heated oven is somewhat new to me, although I have managed to cook most of our meals without burning them too badly.

I am really enjoying the very relaxed way of life. There is no television as that would take too much power from their limited supply, which means my days have been spent crocheting, painting, and writing. When we aren't surfing at least! It is very quiet here and I really enjoy waking up every morning to the sound of birds chirping, with no other sounds except the wind in the trees. It is very peaceful, although I can understand that this type of life wouldn't be for everyone. I would recommend everyone with the ability to take their time with travel to try the WWOOFing experience as it has allowed me to truly immerse myself in the location and to experience what living here is really like for the locals.