Rangiora WWOOF

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Finally arrived at my hosts' lifestyle plot in Rangiora, they have a ewe with 2 lambs, a few goats, 2 cows, lots of chickens and a big vegetable garden, they are almost completely selfsufficient and would be off grid if not for superior internet usage by the 3 sons, all home schooled, called Jochem, Jafeth and Johtam. 10, 16 and 18. The mother, Merel, is a bit of a crazy conspiracy theorist and the father, Jon, works in Christchurch.

The work was not very difficult but they wanted 5-6 hrs a day which was fine as there was not a lot else to do in the area. I chopped a lot of wood and dug a lot of holes in the 10 days i spent there. I ate so much at lunch on the first day there as i hadn't had a proper meal since leaving the UK on the 18th I shocked Merel and she didn't believe the boys hadn't been eating my bread (they aren't allowed grains) and so gave me the biggest plate of food I've ever seen that night for dinner! In the evening the boys showed me to use to motorbikes they were repairing which was great fun.

After being told they were not religious a few days later was yom kippur and no one worked or ate but me, I had to do it out of sight of the father as he felt very uncomfortable with me working on a holiday, was very awkward. Jafeth has whooping cough so more sleepless nights, oh the joy.

The next day Ruth Binfield arrived which was nice to have the company, and it turns out we were on the same flight over from the UK but she went skiing near Christchurch first. On our first day off we went to the stream near the house for a paddle and played age of mythology with the boys.

Over the next few days I dug more holes and moved some rocks around, while the girls (a german girl arrived) did the cooking and cleaning. Not a very good atmosphere as we keep having arguments with Merel on how to raise her kids, well, mainly the german girl and me and Ruth trying not to offend Merel while pointing out she's waaaaaayy too over protective of her sons.

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