WWOOF #6: Consumption and waste

It wasn't easy leaving the Hawke's Bay region.  We had been there for almost six weeks, which allowed us to explore much of the region and make a few friends along the way.  Carly and I both feel that we made the best of the area and saw heaps!  But on November 19th, after meeting Couchsurfing-friends Paul and Joseph for lunch in Napier, we headed southwest to the Kapiti Coast where our next hosts Ron and Leanne awaited in the town of Otaki.

We arrived at Harmony Farm in the evening where Ron was waiting for us near the wwoofers' quarters.  The area was made up of a small "cottage" with a kitchen, dining/living space, bedroom with a double and single bed as well as some dresser drawers, and a basic bathroom.  Attached to the cottage was an area to process the organic feijoas at the end of each summer.  Outside of the cottage sat two caravans and a brand-new sleepout which fellow WWOOfers helped to plaster and paint.

Laura & Christine

Ron and his wife Leanne have been together for five years after a series of fateful meetings and random run-ins.  Ron has two children from his first wife: a son (26) who works as a diplomat in Australia and lives with his partner.  His daughter, Laura (18), lives in Wellington with her mom and is super cool.  She and her friend Christine spent a few days at the farm studying for their final exams.  We really enjoyed talking about music with her and hearing about all of the cool spots to check out in Wellington.  They even drew us a map featuring all the hotspots!

Ron does management training part-time in Wellington as does Leanne.  Ron said he enjoys the "human scale" of New Zealand's businesses and corporations as opposed to those in the U.S. where he started working (he is American, born in California, and Leanne is Canadian).  Leanne has been very spiritual since the age of 13 when she used to see the white light (or aura) of her teacher follow her though the classroom as she taught.  It was seeing An Inconvenient Truth on a plane ride that got them thinking about their environmental impact, but it was the film What A Way To Go that really laid it all out and changed their lives.  Almost like a propoganda film, What A Way To Go was filled with doom and gloom, interviews from scientists and artists, and a random assortment of classic film clips as he focused on numerous aspects from consumption to overpopulation and more.  It was very bleak and hardly made you feel empowered to change the state of our dying planet, but it apparently had quite an effect on them.

Huge veggie gardens!

Before their lifestyle change, Ron owned four cars (two of them being sportscars) and many other luxury items. But after the film, they downgraded their lives - Ron donated his sports cars and they bought the organic property they own now just five months ago.  Mainly a feijoa and olive farm, it also had a home orchard and large veggie gardens.  Ron wwoofed on the property for the previous owners to learn about the land from the ones who planted everything, but it wasn't his first farm experience.  After majoring in agriculture, he worked on a kibbutz for a total of 18 months over two separate trips and did a number of tough and dirty jobs.  He also joined a local group a few years ago that helps to plant thousands of native trees in their region of NZ.

Ron and Leanne think very seriously about every piece of waste and how they can avoid it.  They look at everything with the 3 R's in mind and if that's not possible, try to come up with a solution to not create that waste the next time.  What they don't consume off of their own land they purchase in bulk from an organic shop in Hawke's Bay (a 3-4 hour drive) to cut down on packaging.  They carefully consider  how to use the ingredients they have available (especially in their garden).  Their home uses solar-powered heat for their water and they have a pee bucket in their bathroom to collect all that nitrogen-rich urine for veggies and trees.  They have a compost toilet outside made from recycled parts and Ron has plans for an outdoor shower in the wwoofer area as well as a solar oven.  Everything on their property is organic and we learned that you can use plants such as comfrey and nettle to make a tea that acts as a great fertilizer, something we also came across at Beehive Gardens.

Kiva and Carly with their shell designs.

We wwoofed with two American girls: Sarah, who arrived a few hours after us, and her friend Kiva, who came a few days later.  Sarah was originally from Connecticut, and Kiva from Portland, OR.  Kiva was a swimmer in college and recently completed a bike trip across a large chunk of the northern U.S.  She came from a family of intellectuals that had extremely high standards for she and her brothers.  Kiva and Sarah had a lot to catch up on, and that was apparent the moment Kiva's bus arrived in Otaki.  They both just recently graduated college at a small liberal arts school in Minnesota and are very interested in environmental issues.

Sarah was an extremely positive person, often giggling endlessly.  After graduating, she did a short stint with Americorps in Southwest Utah maintaining a community garden and learned about growing food.  After that, she spent the better part of a year as an apprentice on an organic farm in Maine.  In college, she lived in a special self-sufficient house where all of the residents agreed on a certain way of eating, growing most of the food and purchasing the rest from co-op (mainly vegetarian/vegan meals - only meat if found (aka roadkill)).  Between all of her experiences, there was a lot to talk about and she had a great deal of experience with all kinds of different plants, what they're called, their nutritional value, any medicinal remedies they provided, how to plant them, what kind of plant category they belonged to and more.  She knew how to butcher most animals and could live with very little luxuries - hardly using the bathroom and doing most work barefoot.  

Ron taught us how to make toothpaste out of baking soda, a little salt, and peppermint extract.  He also showed us how to make bread (in the breadmaker) and yogurt (with milk powder).  When we initially arrived, Ron attempted to put us in charge of figuring out what needed done, but after seeing our frustration with the fact that what we may see fit to do may not match the priorities of the property, he began making a list which was very helpful.  They have only had the property for five months and are still slowly adjusting to having wwoofers, constantly asking for input.

WWOOF #6 family photo

On our last night with them we cooked a meal for Thanksgiving.  We had chicken and roasties with pumpkin pie and apple pie.  Their friends, Jeff and Elva, joined us and made paua fritters as a starter.  Paua is a sea creature that lives in a beautiful blue/green shell and clings to rocks in shallow waters.  If it feels you nearby, it clings to the rock so tightly that you can't remove it without a special tool and some serious strength.  For eating, you must slice it incredibly thin or mince it since its a tough food to chew otherwise.  They are only allowed to be fished by individuals and each person can only catch ten a day.  Restaurants sell them for big money, Maori's use them as eyes in their carvings, and every souvenir shop in NZ has endless polished paua shell jewlery, keychains and more.  They were very good fritter-style, almost like a crabcake!

Paua fritter

We decided to cut our Harmony Farm stay a few days short in exchange for our first Kiwi camping trip.  We headed a few towns south to Paekakariki after a recommendation from Gina, Ron and Leanne's farm assistant.  There we stayed at a really nice holiday park that was very family friendly.  It had big kitchens with stoves and refrigerators and sinks, clean bathrooms and showers, and a playground with two huge trampolines.  The holiday park was located at the southern end of Queen Elizabeth Park, which lies in between the mountains to the east, and the Tasman Sea to the west (with a gorgeous view of Kapiti Island).  We did a bit of hiking throughout the park and spent lots of time at the beach swimming.  It was a much needed time to ourselves just relaxing, reading and playing cards.  One day while lying in the shade of the tent and reading, Carly felt the ground shake.  Unsure of what she had just experienced, she looked outside to see if I was shaking the tent to scare her.  I told her that she was crazy and that I didn't feel a thing, but she was convinced it was an earthquake.  A few days later, when we arrived at our next host, they confirmed that there had been a slight earthquake, which happens a few times a week.  Carly was stoked that she had noticed her first mini-earthquake!

Kapiti Island from Queen Elizabeth Park.

I'm going to stray from Carly's "top 5 things I learned" list and focus on two things: consumption and waste.  If you're concerned about the environment and want to reduce your individual impact, these are the two things I feel you should always have in mind.  They seem very vague, but if you apply them to your day to day choices, you may find yourself making changes that can lessen your impact on the planet.

Ron and Leanne looked at what they consume, how much they consume, and ways in which they can reduce their consumption.  They then looked at how they can limit the amount of waste that is a result of their consumption (i.e., buying items in bulk to reduce packaging).  Think about the foods you eat.  What does it take for the box of brand-name cereal bars that you eat every morning to get into your pantry?  What does it take for those companies that produce, market, deliver and distribute those cereal bars to your grocery store?  Could you avoid all of that by purchasing ingredients to make your own granola (which is probably healthier since you know every ingredient)?  Being mindful of how you can either reduce or alter your consumption of food, gas, electronics, paper, etc. to have a better effect on the environment will go a long way.  In no way am I perfect, but I feel that making small changes in my lifestyle by really considering what and how I consume things will cast my vote for a cleaner environment.  (Now I just have to get over my love of Nature Valley granola bars!)

WWOOF #5: A Balanced Lifestyle

We arrived at Beehive Gardens in the late afternoon and Alistair, the owner of the property, gave us a quick tour of the grounds and showed us to our sleep out where we would be staying. He and his wife, Jane, live in a beautiful old house with their 2 teenage daughters who are attending university. Alistair's parents, Trevor & Christine, also live on the property in a small cottage next door. They live just outside of Hastings in Hawke's Bay, and their property was a perfect example of why the area is called “the fruitbowl of New Zealand.” Their property is a gorgeous mixture of fruit orchards (apples, pears, apricots, peaches, plums, feijoas, etc.) hazelnut trees, huge veggie beds, a netted berry patch (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries & raspberries [both thornless], boysenberries, etc.), chickens, and beautiful lawns surrounded by big flower gardens, trees, and brick paths. They even have 3 beehives to help pollenate everything (and for the honey of course).

It is a very peaceful piece of land and gives you few reasons to leave it, but they offered us bikes to ride to the 2 nearby towns of Hastings and Havelock, each about a 15 minute ride. Hastings is home to one of the most famous ice cream shops in New Zealand called Rush Munroe's. Needless to say we visited it 5 times during our short stay trying flavors like Malted Milk, Treasure Hunt, Feijoa, Lemon Honey, and Double Chocolate Chip. Ocean Beach - outside of Havelock North - was revered as the best beach in the world by most of the locals, and nearby Te Mata Trust Park had beautiful hiking trails with an incredible redwood forest. Just a 20 minute drive to Napier, we also got to enjoy a few more days of Art Deco and their “hot pool and spa complex” called Ocean Spa. A large complex with numerous pools of all different temperatures, Ocean Spa sits right on the seaside and is a great place to spend a day lounging in the water.

Our sleep-out stood just outside the main house and was fully contained with 2 twin beds, a full kitchen with table & chairs, a bathroom, and all the amenities (dressers, coatrack, tv, guitar, wifi, etc.). Alistair provided us with all the groceries we requested for breakfasts and lunches and cooked us dinner which was delivered to our door each evening. Every night was a surprise with restaurant-worthy meals of a great variety – we had curry, fried rice, fish & veggies, stew, pasta, pizza, several yummy soups, and often a delcious fruit crumble with ice cream for dessert. As a physics teacher, Alistair was extremely busy with exams and reports as the school year was wrapping up, so we didn't see much of him during our stay. Jane was sweet and bubbly but her day job working real estate prevented us from seeing her too often as well.

We worked alongside Alistair's father, Trevor, who does most of the daily work on the property since he is retired, willing & able. Trevor is a kind-hearted man who always addresses you by name in conversation, something we really appreciated. He treated Steve and I as equals, never doubting my ability to drive the tractor or be in charge of projects in the garden (which is sometimes hard to find in rural New Zealand). He was more than happy to teach us new things and tell us about his life experiences. Trevor and his family are from the Isle of Skye in Scotland where he and Christine say it's almost always rainy and gray. He told us that in Scotland, you can cross anyone's land to get from point A to point B – nothing is considered trespassing as long as you are respectful of the people and their property. He was surprised to find that this is not the case in New Zealand when they moved here permanently last year. Before achieving New Zealand residency in 2009, he and Christine could only visit for 6 month holidays at a time.

With time, Trevor has learned a great deal about all the different varieties of fruit trees on their property and the reasons behind the way things were planted by the previous owners (who followed many bio-dynamic principles). Many of the fruit trees bear fruit that Trevor has never seen before and some experts cannot even identify. Because they run their property in an organic manner and sell some of their fruit and hazelnuts for profit (if they're lucky), Trevor must keep notes of every task that is done each day for the yearly audit.

Trevor has been bee-keeping since 1975. At one time he was the Secretary of the Beekeepers Association in Scotland and became very interested in the health benefits of all the things the bees provide, from honey & pollen to propolis & royal jelly and even bee stings! He read an article about doctors using bee stings to help cancer patients and believes that some people (including himself) can receive a high that lasts upwards of a week when stung, giving you extra energy and motivation. He has honey and pollen with his cereal every morning. I had the chance to take a look in the beehives with him and spotted the un-marked queen in one of the hives all on my own – something he said was pretty lucky considering he doesn't see her 9 out of 10 times he visits the hives. I also spotted a tiny red dot on one of the drone bees which Trevor noted was a varroa mite, a dangerous little pest that can collapse the whole hive if not prevented with chemical strips since there is no organic way to get rid of them yet. He showed me what the cells look like for each baby bee – worker, drone and queen, removing any queen cells and some of the drones to prevent a swarm (when the bees leave the hive for bigger digs).

Trevor & Christine are very active in their community, enjoying Scottish country dancing which they practice 3-4 times a week and perform in full traditional dress (kilts & all) about 10 times a year. We had the chance to sit in on one of their practices and to see Trevor play some traditional Scottish folk songs on guitar at a local retirement home. They definitely know how to get the most out of life and have travelled all over the world (many times visiting their 4 children who have lived on all 4 corners of the globe). Trevor likes to make beer and wine and showed us how he makes elderflower wine (his favorite kind). He also gave us a bottle of his feijoa wine from the previous year which was delicious and made us jealous that we don't have feijoas growing in the States.

Every Sunday, Trevor, Christine, Alistair & Jane have a family dinner which Alistair and Christine partner up to cook. They invited us to share one of their meals and it was really nice. We had a variety of delcious hot and cold salads with sundried tomato bread and wine, and finished our meal with a dessert of fresh strawberries from their garden and hand-whipped cream (really the only kind of whipped cream in NZ). Trevor and Christine argued playfully throughout dinner about various things (whether the Cape Kidnappers walk was worthwhile and if Trevor took aged or ancient garlic capsules). Their banter was hilarious as well as Trevor's ridiculous stories of happening upon a young female skinny-dipper on a waterfall walk and counting how many times both he & Christine and Alistair & Jane have moved. Alistair and Jane won with a total of 12 times (and that's just since getting married).

We learned how to do a wide variety of jobs including mowing the lawn with the tractor, sowing carrot seeds and planting leeks, how to thin apples, and how to make elderflower wine.. The variety of work, the healthy, delicious meals, and all the options during our spare time to relax or explore the surrounding area made it one of our favorite WWOOFing spots thusfar. We found a real sense of balance that we appreciated greatly and would like to cultivate in our own lives.

5 things I learned at Beehive Gardens:
1.Make your own alcohol – It's easy, delicious, and it gets your drunk quick!
2.Use names in conversation – It really makes you feel important and appreciated when someone addresses you by name in conversation.
3.Live somewhere you love – Although Trevor and Christine had travelled all over the world, when I asked them where their favorite place was they said Napier, NZ. They go into town every Wednesday and enjoy coffee, shopping at the market, and a stroll down the seaside.
4.Mix it up – Don't do the same thing all day long – make a to-do list and chip away at different things. It makes the day much more enjoyable.
5.Find balance – When everything works in a nice equilibriam with healthy food, a good variety of work, beautiful scenery, physical activity, and fun times throughout, that's the good life.