Wwoof, wwoof!

On Napier beach
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We got to Hastings with family, and then they went home and left us on our own.  Ben and Jenny left to fend for ourselves... how would we cope?

Well, first we found a campsite and spent a couple nights sleeping in a tent.  This is surprisingly hardcore for us, and we were terribly impressed with ourselves.  Next, we began our WWOOFing adventure.  WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, formerly known as Willing Workers On...) is an organization of organic farmers who give food and housing in exchange for volunteers to work on their property for a few hours a day.  A cheap, interesting, mutually beneficial situation and generally an awesome way to travel.

Ben with car, and tent, and Mousehead
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Our first hosts were a couple (and their 18-month-old daughter) who had always dreamed of living a sustainable lifestyle, and so just bought a patch of land with a house they are renovating and a handful of established fruit trees, and are actually on their way to reaching this goal.  It was terribly interesting and exciting to see them at work- I feel like most people who have ideals as grand as theirs are all talk and no action, but these people are action!  They knock stuff down and build things up and dig and plant and and you can really see that they are getting stuff done- it felt good just to be lending a hand in any part of this process.  What we actually did was: 1) paint their fence, 2) Ben helped in the construction of a pergola, 3) tend to the ridiculously adorable toddler, 4) clear the lawn and general start-the-garden tasks.

Rhys doing what he does best at ports
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Other benefits of being here?  They have two grapefruit trees, but do not like to eat them, leaving free range for us.  They have the most glorious lemon tree I have ever seen.  They are near a beach which was lovely, albeit a bit windy.  The Pacific Ocean is a lot colder than than the Gulf of Thailand.  They were former wwoofers themselves, and so had a ton of advice and recommendations.  They prepared beautiful, enormous vegetarian meals full of organic, fiber-rich ingredients.  And to top the list, they had the cutest, most monkey-like child who communicates through a combination of grunting and baby sign language - we have totally got to incorporate more babies into this trip.