WWOOF WWOOF and going Gaga

The stupid Huka Falls where I lost my wallet
Waitangi Treaty grounds, all this drama

because of a mis-translation
My Wwoofing hosts, Bruce and Alta, also

my first kiwi hug
The Earth Dome that Freddy and I

worked on for our wwoofing. We suggested

it be called a Hobbit Hutt to increase revenue
Earth Doming around

Amber baking up some awesomeness

in the open-air kitchen
My wwoofing home, with view of harbor out the

open-air kitchen.

So in case you missed it, I have my wallet, but haven't much had to use it since I lost it since I've been wwoofing. Those of you unfamiliar, WWOOFing is Worldwide Organization of Organic Farms and basically you pay $40NZ ($25 US) for a book and membership and then you can stay on farms anywhere for free with food included, in exchange for a half-day's work. This was my first opportunity to WWOOF since they mostly require more than 2 days stay so you can actually get into the work. Before I get into my wwoofing experience, I'll pick up where I left off...

After finding my wallet again, I was still a bit out of it, since I had been planning for the worst (meaning a drive back to Wellington with just $20), but I got on the road much lighter in emotion and much heavier in cash. I stopped at Waitangi Treaty grounds, where the Maori first signed the treaty with the British. Let me just say this treaty is at fault for all the drama here in NZ and basically for me being here right now, so I figured I'd pay a few respects. In order to tour the full grounds and get the full Maori experience, as a Non-NZer you have to pay $15. Although I'd just recovered my wallet I decided since I'm studying the Maori and treaty repercussions, I could skip this and just head to the cafe for a coffee and a look at my map. I did get a few photos. Next stop, KeriKeri, agriculture land of NZ (I mean it all sort of is, but KeriKeri means dig dig). So I decided to stop at the oldest stone house and the oldest wood house in NZ. This also includes the Stone Store.

I have grown so good at not-consuming here and, if you can believe it, I haven't "gone shopping" or entered a store for anything other than a necessity (okay I bought a few maps and some chocolate, but other than that...). To digress a bit, my income is one deterrent to shopping (about 1/5 of my previous income and no I wasn't making a million dollars) and in case I needed another deterrent, I found out the smallest size here is an 8. The last thing I need is to come home with a suitcase full of size 16 clothes. Anyway...In the Stone Store I made my first purchases just for fun, and all of them were gifts (watch your mailbox lucky ones). So after I got over my guilt of buying non-necessities, I got back in the car and headed north. Stopped to buy some local hot sauce (a necessity) and some snacks to eat on a few picturesque beaches that I stopped at along my way.

I called my wwoofing place since I'd told them I wasn't coming due to lost wallet, and reconfirmed I could still come and asked for directions. Upon which they told me, go past the two wrecked cars and lift up the second gate after the cows and go up the hill. People say NZ is like California in the 50s. Well Northland NZ is like Northern California (meaning far north of SF). Lots of trees, lots of farms, lots of marijuana growing, and lots of "unique" people. After making a wrong turn at the wrong cow and wrong gate which lead me to one such marijuana farm and whole host of barking watch dogs, I was greeted by my host Bruce on a motorbike. I arrived to a hilltop farm, with warm, loving Alta (South African descent), another German wwoofer Freddy, and a little girl, Amber who was spending her Easter break at the farm. I was greeted with a homemade chili beer and showed to my bed in a parked campervan on the side of the barn/house, and felt right at home.

Over the next three days I was spoiled with huge meals, home-cooked by Alta in their open-air kitchen, awesome views of sunset and sunrise, lots of chili beers and homemade wine, baking a la a Amber, interesting conversation, and a fun project to work on. I thought I would be working on a mini-hydro project that they're working on since right now they're only on solar panels, mind you the solar panels provide them with enough electricity to run the internet, a few lights, and do the wash every now and then (pretty impressive). But I soon found out instead I would be helping to build an Earth Dome, which is basically a small house made out of bags filled with dirt, and making chili beer and wine. Freddy, being a good German, was a great partner for the Earth Dome since he was stronger and much more focused on detail, than I tend to be. I spent three days wwoofing and probably could have spent 2 weeks. I mean building a house, and making wine and beer is pretty awesome, and coupled with free food and awesome views. Oh, I also learned to ride a motorbike around the farm. One of the highlights, was one night at dinner, around sunset, Bruce and Alta had two friends over and the guy (about 60 years old) kept talking about Lady Gaga. So we ate dinner with Bad Romance blasting from the computer (all on solar still somehow)with a bunch of sixty year olds bobbing their heads. Even when you're so far away from it all, Lady Gaga finds her way in.

A few notes about my hosts and the conversation - you'd think people living off the grid, on a farm in a remote part of NZ wouldn't really care much about what's going on in the rest of the world, right? Well my host Bruce did not let a day go by without informing me about the civil revolution that is forming in the U.S. and that Ron Paul is the only politician who can make a difference. He kept asking me if I knew about the huge bomb shelters that the U.S. was building and FEMA coffins, and if I knew we were going to have a huge revolution soon - I kept either trying to change the subject or just informing him I wasn't aware or that I was glad I was in NZ if this was all going to go down. I do think something happens to you when you get older that you become more of a conspiracy theorist, but this was intense. Then there was Alta, so warm and loving, originally from South Africa and she left because her children were threatened post apartheid and her father and brothers were shot. She's the first South African I've met who described apartheid as a necessary separation to keep white people safe and also feel terribly for what was done atrociously. Just goes to show you it isn't about race, its about bad people. Then there was Amber, my new bestie. She's twelve, and since Alta and Bruce were gone some of the time, I spent most of my time with her and Freddy. Amber loves to bake or basically anything that has to do with sugar. In my three days there, she made brownies, chocolate cake, pancakes with lemon and sugar on them, and toasted marshmallows every night. I realized quickly that I can't have kids anytime soon, because I will spoil them. I bought her marshmallows and took her to the store to get ingredients to make a dip and get icing sugar. In exchange, she did my hair like Pipi Longstockings. The one thing I'm worried about with little Amber is she's a bit of a racist. But up there in Northland, everyone seems to be a bit insular. Even more grimaces about my research. And then there was Freddy, my other Wwoofer. He's a 20 year old German, who's grandpa fought in WWII filling sandbags (weird similarity) and was jailed by the Russians. He and I shared our thoughts on traveling with guilt about your country, how our hosts (mostly Amber) were a bit racist, and how he needs to start a brownie business when he gets back to Germany.