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Published: January 4th 2009
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Garden
veggie garden wwoofing at Palm Beach Who needs debauchery when you can wake up with the sun in your own little caravan, walk 5 minutes down the road to the beach and have a half an hour hoop followed by a skinny dip and all before breakfast?
Not me it seems.
Waiheke is a small island a 45 minute ferry ride away from Auckland and feels almost like it's own little country. It is full of idyllic little beaches, mangrove swamps, bush, and lots of holiday homes...almost 75% of the population disappear after the summer holidays. There is a real sense of community here though amongst the residents and most people from my experience are people who arrived here when they were my age 10 or 20 years ago and so are now a little bit older.
My fist stop was at Kiwi's place who builds the man at Kiwi Burn and lives in these cool recycled water container domes with his flatmate Hi Dive, also a burner. This was a particularly amusing transition going from decorating Victorian tea trays with Damascus roses and scones with violets to living with two blokes who don't even have a stove to cook with and who keep
Waiheke beaches
Onatangi beach, close to Kiwi's house the fridge too cold to keep food in because it freezes but is perfect for ice cold beer. And so I rock up with my little lavender pillow to make my bed smell nice and make sprouted seed salads and yoga sessions etc, much to their bewilderment. Kiwi is awesome - a hard drinking & smoking man's man, a builder by trade with a weather beaten face and twinkle in his eye and whose passion in life is to blow shit up and make fires although in secret he has an alter ego called Cinnamon who likes to dress up like woman and wear a blonde wig.
After 2 days spent getting high and going for little walks and exploring and hitch hiking back and forth (which is friggin awesome coz it's so safe here and you get to meet and chat to all sorts of people you wouldn't usually) I decided to move on and have now spent the last week wwoofing in a little place in Palm Beach with a family there who live in a gorgeous wooden house they made themselves with extensive veggie gardens and chickens (I start my work collecting their eggs and feeding
Roosters
strutting their stuff.... them) and hammocks and my very own caravan which I can hear the ocean from when I lie snuggled in bed at night by candlelight.
I could so get stuck here....my days consist of doing 4 hours of wwoofing work which ranges from weeding, taking care of the chickens, planting a few things and distinctly non-wwoofing things but which I enjoy like sewing and mending jobs and taking care of the kids, Angelo and Pheobe who are 10 and 13...and then in between there is yoga and hooping and swimming and sunbathing and cooking gorgeous food and learning about macrobiotic diets (this morning I ground some barley and amaranth and made a porridge out of it and then later there was a plum pie made with spelt flour and local rye bread with tahini and sprouted seeds) and reading and hitch-hiking and visiting the wild roosters that are famous here, all strutting about with their chests puffed out and then going to the Saturday market where I had an iridology reading done (he told me I have a shit memory, too much brain chatter, a mild iron deficiency, should eat more protein and have a tendency towards high cholesterol.
hulahoopadism
Outside my caravan Oh, and that my eyes are actually blue and through pollution and other irritants turned hazel. Not quite sure how I feel about that.
I can't get over how amazing it is here, how blessed I feel to be here, how grateful I am to myself for giving myself these experiences. There is a beautiful little nudist beach 5 minutes walk away, a little tucked away and so I can wake up with the sun and then have a hoop on the beach gazing out over the ocean and then have a skinny dip before breakfast and then later go back when the sun is setting and the light is all golden and be all naked and yummy. I'm being so good to myself, loving my surroundings so much....and this is only the beginning...tomorrow I set off for the Coromandel and more magic and adventures await. Plans to come back here though at some point to wwoof with this amazing healer lady I had a session with who lives on an eco community in quite a remote part of the island...gah! 5 months is not enough in New Zealand, I may have to get stuck here permanently.
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Adam
non-member comment
Hecticness Vs Lushness
Hey up my dear, My body is literally aching for a little more of what you're describing and although I am insanely jealous right now I'm so happy that your adventures are taking you on a path you want to be on. Things back here are moving on little by little for me and I am starting a small carpentry course in 2 weeks time before probably heading off to France for a while to see Ruth and build some yurts for as long as I can. The last 3 weeks have been an explosion of hecticness as only London can provide. The usual ingredients are all still there and it is taking my head a lot longer to readjust than I imagined. Serendipity is abounding on some new paths I have been exploring though :) Missing you and your company. Much love A x