Inquisitive Cows & Suicidal Chickens

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After 2 weeks of staring at maps of New Zealand, I finally picked a destination and decided to head for the Bay of Islands...being a girl on a budget I decided to take the HelpX network route and work in exchange for accommodation. I lined up a cleaning job at the Mousetrap Backpackers in Paihia but as they only needed me to start middle October I altered my route a bit. After chatting to quite a few hosts (turns out carpentry skills are well in demand....sadly I don't have any) I hooked up a gardening job in Kaihu which is 30km North of Dargaville on the West coast...

I was a bit taken back when Jenny (the host) asked for references...my thoughts were that I was going to be gardening not performing brain surgery...and she actually contacted 2 referees...turns out a few hosts have arrived home to find both their HelpXchanger and their valuables missing...

On Monday the 2nd of October I braved the pouring rain and caught the Magic Bus to Kaihu...when I told the driver where I would be getting off (it's supposed to be a hop-on-hop-off service) he told me that he didn't know where it was...when I explained that the sales office had assured me that Kaihu farm was on the route he said "well if I can see it I'll drop you off there"...gee, I hope his willing to go the extra mile for all his customers (or learns to use the telephone so that he can call the office and ask them for directions)...

His "on-board commentary" was read directly off a script...he's almost ready to start work at a call centre not-so-near you 😊

We finally arrived at Kaihu Farm Backpackers and we were quite happy to see the back of the driver (defintely no pun intended)... We (a German girl called Andrea who was frantically searching for a WWOOFing farm and ended up calling Kaihu farm from the bus and so became my gardening buddy) met our hosts and they were simply lovely...

Moeks you would have LOVED the scenery ~ rolling green hills with not a television aerial in sight...

We opted to start working straight away...spent the afternoon digging grass roots out of the vegetable patch...man alive, not sure what they feed the grass in NZ but this stuff is unbelievable...the roots stretch really deep (lots of digging required) and do not get discouraged if they get blocked by weed deterent mats (this may be a new word I just made up...the spelling certainly is), they simply grow deep underneath and then pop up the other side...

The chickens absolutely loved us as we were unearthing worms for them...they simply had to wait for the shovel to come down and then had their pick of wriggling worms and succalent spiders...trouble was they they were slightly trigger-happy: as soon as the shovel was lifted they would rush in for a feed - oblivious to the guillotine about to snap off their heads...serious injury was avoided but we managed to ruffle a few feathers...

The evening was spent traipsing through the Trounson Kauri Park in search of Kiwi birds...we heard 2 but saw nothing...our guide drove us to the park in silence and when someone asked what his name was he replied "I'll tell you when we get there"...think the "Hello, my name is Herb" is part of his introductory speech and there's no messing with the system...We heard an owl and turns out the universal-language-barrier-breaking explanation involves making your eyes HUGE and vigorously flapping your arms...what's more: IT WORKS!!!!
We also saw huge Wetta's (they look like ginormous crickets) and large spiders!!!!

We met an awesome Dutch girl (Margriet) and another from Belgium (Ellie) and so after our muddy gardening mornings we joined them in exploring the area...

We spent some time at the Kai-Iwi lakes which are absolutely stunning and did a night hike (only took 20 minutes) to the glow worm bridge...seems weird that we would brave the cold to go look at a bunch of worms ( AGAIN ) considering that we saw loads while gardening, but they are really awesome!!!!

Most mornings were spent attacking the grass in the flowerbeds, trying not to kill chickens, feeding cows and trying to stop the persevering pigs from entering the veggie patch (Andrea was treated to the sight of me fighting off 2 pigs, while the chickens were squawking around me, Buster, the dog, was barking incessantly at me and the cows were mooing lazily...not my finest moment). We were baffled as to how the pigs managed to move from one side of the fence to the other and were determined to solve the mystery...this was done by sneaking up the garden late one night and watching them in silence until they finally felt ready to make the move...very boringly they simply stuck their snouts through an opening and forced their bodies to follow...considering the lengths we went to to discover the secret the least they could have done was attempt jumping!!!! Think the chickens were on to me as their worm provider as they started following me around the garden...regardless of whether I was doing gardening or not!!!

Following my mom's advice we were went to great lengths to ensure that we didn't mistake any flowers for weeds...we very carefully dug around a huge prickly plant ...it was so difficult and Andrea ended up with quite a few scratches...after we were done Michel took a shovel and removed the whole thing...at least he didn't have to battle through mounds of grass to get to it...

Our hosts Jenny & Michel were so awesome...We were treated to awesome food...the roasts were exquisite and the desserts simply delicious...my travel note book thing now doubles as a recipe book! One our 3rd day Jenny put her back out and was carted off in an ambulance in acute pain...as the stretcher was being wheeled out the door she was telling us where to find things for lunch...it was soooo sweet!!!! As the main chef was in hospital Andrea and I were asked to help with making a cheese sauce (from scratch)...I am proud to say that it tasted cheesy and that there were NO lumps!!!! After that night we were pretty much part of the family and ate all our meals in the house...

There was a steady stream of guests and we met some awesome people!!! Their was a Maori guy who brought his teenage son and his friend up for a few days...when walking down the streets in town these boys will have you believe that they are all rough and tough...they were keen to see the glow worms but on discovering that they had to walk through the forest at night they decided that they weren't that keen...when told that a group of girls had done it the night before each one quietly explained to me that he really wanted to do it but that his friend was too scared!!!! It took them 3 nights before they built up the courage (and they only did the walk as a bunch of people were going).

Our afternoons consisted of an afternoon nap (gardening is pretty tiring) and then a little day trip...we "picked" mussels at low tide on Mangunui Bluff and cooked them for dinner, did the very muddy (the information office lady said that the route was a bit "rugged") Lookout Hike in the Waipoua Forest, sampled the cheap ice creams in Dargaville and did a horse ride through several farms. My horse was pretty lazy and had to be well prompted before she would bother galloping...but that suited me fine. Andrea's horse decided that she really wanted to roll in a mud patch and so simply lay down and then rolled over..with Andrea still on her back...aaarrrgggghhhh! It was still an awesome day, so beautiful and peaceful...on return we rode bare back to take the horses to their pasture...I would like to add that I am now a pro at dismounting from a horse...if you witnessed my not so graceful dismount from the horse in the Copper Canyon you would agree that it is high time (just not as entertaining to watch)!

While riding we were introduced to Gareth (the horse riding guide's) "delightful" neighbour, he gave this whole speech about how animals should be tied up as the public property didn't belong to anybody bla bla bla...always nice to meet the local nuts!!!!

Andrea was supposed to leave on the Saturday...as we didn't trust Magic's admin that much she phoned the office to confirm that they knew they were picking her up...they confirmed that she would be picked up at 1pm...we saw her off and she waited for the bus at the pick up point...an hour later we called the Magic Bus company to find out what the delay was and discovered that they had decided to pick her up at her destination point and had managed to pass us an hour earlier than scheduled...she's still waiting for an apology and had to stay 2 extra nights as they only run every 2nd day...the morning of her recsheduled departure she called the office to find out the ETA, the office insisted that it would be 1pm and refused to get the driver to call from Dargaville (so that we could gauge the pick up time) as it would defintely be 1pm. Just to be sure she headed off at 12:30, and bumped in to the driver who was walking down the driveway really annoyed that she wasn't waiting at the stop...when she said that the pick up time was supposed to be 13:00 he said that everybody knew that he was always early...think they got an earful from either Andrea or Michel cause they phoned on my departure day to say they would be early and to check whether that suited me...

The morning of my departure Jenny told me that she had some bad news...she said that the bus company had called to say that they wouldn't be picking me up as they had broken down...I started thinking that it was very organised of them to actually phone up (considering our past experiences) but looked up to see her collapsing into a fit of giggles! I was quite sad to leave as I absolutely loved my time on Kaihu farm!

Made it on to the bus without any hassles and got to see Tane Mahuta (one of the biggest trees in the world...estimated length is 50m)...the Hokianga Harbour (really beautiful) and some awesome scenery...would have been even better if my camera was working (it decided to have a nervous breakdown during our forest hike and so I was left cameraless for some of the most awesome parts of my stay)...was really disappointed that I didn't get to take an "after"-shot of the garden...

Arrived in Paihia at about 3 and checked into the Mousetrap Hostel...very cool hostel...met up with Andrea for dinner and decided to splurge on pizza and wine instead of cooking ourselves...great plan!!!! Chatted for hours and was sad to say goodbye as she's heading off to Oz...

Got back to the hostel at 21h30 and found that my dorm mates had put themselves to bed and had switched off all the lights...so frustrating when people do that cause you start fumbling round in the dark and end up disturbing them more...

Started work yesterday...there are 4 cleaners at the moment - all of them are really nice but 3 are leaving in the next week...most of the backpackers here are long termers and all seem to be German...

Did get to watch people make sushi. which was awesome...can't wait to give it a try myself!!!!

Managed to get a waitressing job...am taking over from one of the other cleaners who leaves next week...another easy interview which basically consisted of me meeting the owner and being told that I start today...never waitressed so this should be an interesting experience...

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Photos

Garden - BEFORE
Sadly I have no AFTER shot but am working on getting one...

Comments

[Michel]

Photo of the after.
Hi Marianne, Sounds as though you are still having a good time. :) I will get a photo of the after for you and post it on the blog. That way you can boast to all your friends about the slavedrivers we were to make you work :). Jenny is over in Tauranga this wekend for Julien's appearence in the NZ Young Performer of the Year competition. Apparently the reports are that he is holding his own against the older contestants. Jenny's back is better now, and the guests are having to put up with my cooking this weekend. I don't think I will make any macaroni cheese though. I made do with a vege curry on rice instead. Have a great time and really look forward to seeing you again. Love Michel

[Moeks]

cheese sauce
I am most impressed about the sauce. The bus company sounds as if they only have a wrong side of the bed to get out of in the mornings.

[Michel]

Julien makes semi-finals
Hi Marianne, I have taken some photos of the after garden and will send them on to you. You will need to load them yourself. I will do that after I have picked Jenny up from Auckland later today. Julien got to the semi finals of the Young Performer of the Year. He ended up winning the "Most promising singer" prize and scored a digital camera. He was the youngest semi-finalist - so he did well. Hope you are having a good time on the other coast and not getting too sunburnt :) Love Michel