Last Two Weeks At Tauhara Centre

The "grandchildren" at the Art Cafe for our goodbye breakfast
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The rug has been pulled out from under us!  We have been moved out of the "white house" to a jail cell.  At least that is what they look like to us.  There are 10 cinder block units with metal bunkbeds, an overhead light, two towel racks, a mirror and a cube shelving unit for your personal items.  Plus two hot water bottles and a small space heater for the cold nights. Where is Martha Stewart when you need her?  The worse thing is that we have to go outside and down aways to the bathroom.  Being older you know what that means....  And just let me say that those toilet seats are really cold at 3 AM.  So we need another plan........that trash can in the corner is looking mighty good.........

Kahurangi the receptionist/chicken farmer
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Being grannie wwoofers we came to New Zealand to have fun while wwoofing.  So we instituted "movie night" and "game night".  Since I was now homesick for American food I started making "comfort food" for our dinners and desserts.  We introduced everyone to Zuchini bread, homemade oatmeal cookies, kangeroo tails, cajun chicken pasta, potatoes with butter and parsley, grilled cheese sandwiches and thanks to Jorjii [who we woke up super early one morning]pancakes from scratch.  This started the other wwoofers to make special dishes from their countries.  Henri and Berber from the Netherlands made an apple tart to die for, Valsamina from Greece who now lives in Scottland made many little dishes with olive oil and oregano, Maiko from Japan was to help make sushi but informed Stan [the chef] that her mother did all the cooking so yours truely made sushi for one of the meals we served a group of Shiatsu practicioners.  Jessica from Germany made a cookie collage of everyone the day she left for another job.  Ellen was characterized as a screaming brown cookie surrounded by four mice. and I was a cookie sitting by a cookie heater because I was always cold.

Kicked out of the White House and sent to Jail.

Jessica who took the bridge lesson from Ellen
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Because our "cell" did not have a fire place [like the white house] we started to use the woodburning stove in the dining room after the supper dishes were done.  All the wwoofers would make hot chocolate and eat the brownies I would make as we played Yahtze, Solo which is very similar to Uno, Rummy, or Swim.  Ellen even had us playing Bid Whist and taught one class of Bridge.

On movie night we broke out the wine or hot chocolate with cookies.  We all wrapped up in blankets, enjoyed the fire and watched old movies that we'd rented in town.

Stan the chef and Belinda who just completed Reiki Level One
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Our days were always the same as the first two weeks but the last two weeks were very special to us.  We were adopted as grandma's by the three remaining woofers; Henri, Berber and Valsamina.  We liked being referred to as grandma and they liked being referred to as grandson and grandaughters.  They were very protective of us and would lift the heavy things in the kitchen etc etc.

On our days off [work 6 days and get one off] we went to the lava heated thermal pools and once did a day trip to Mt Tongariro National Park.  Drove through a sleet storm coming back to Tauhara Center.

Belinda[born and raised in Taupo], Andrew, and Bill who was putting in the alarm system.
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One day Ellen walked into the kitchen and saw two large boxes of apples that looked rotten to her.[ PTSD from Awhitu] She started to groan oh no , not more bugs that I have to endure if I cut these apples up for chutney.   I cut them up so she didn't have too.  I am always saving her butt!!!!!!!!

Being in our 60's made it easy for us to make friends with the staff who were also our age or a little younger.  Kahurangi [Moari by marriage] taught me many things about chooks of which she has 250.  You have to  teach them how to roost at night for if they sleep on the ground they are in danger of hedge hogs getting under their wings and eating them alive.  She and I went to the store one day and she was appalled that I wanted to buy packaged items and didn't know how to make them from scratch.  She immediatey took me into the kitchen and taught me how to make custard without custard powder !  Andrew was another staffer who impacted our lives as much as we did his.  He was a holistic  practitioner of several modalities who we will no doubt see in Bowie come 2010.  Catherine and Nasir, managers of Tauhara, were kind beyond belief.They would give us extra days off if they thought we looked tired and honored us with a going away dinner.  Nasir was a fountain of knowledge about the Maori and NZ in general and Catherine gave us many names of people and places to continue our journey.  We developed a relationship with them that doesn't happen with younger or short term wwoofers.  Stan came to Ellen and asked for a Reiki session to help with his sore neck.

Henri and his wife Berber.
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Our last night we had a movie night with Domino pizza and coke.  We took our new "grandchildren" out to breakfast the next morning and said our final goodbyes.  I hope we hear from them in the future.  And so begins some R & R before our next adventure.