Here’s a nice shot of our lovely German wwoofer, Silvia, helping out
at the Nelson Market. She’s a happy one!
Cheers,
Jennie

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

FOR THE 2008 DUNEDIN FRINGE FESTIVAL, 29 March - 13 April

Volunteers are the backbone of the Fringe Festival and we need your help to ensure the smooth running of this year�s festival especially to help run venues and Festival events.

Being a Fringe volunteer includes all sorts of perks like discounted shows, a limited edition t-shirt and crew passes. You also get to see behind the scenes of the Festival and meet a wide range of participating artists.

The Fringe is looking for enthusiastic, reliable people of all ages to be part of a crew of volunteers. Tasks might include front-of-house duties at venues, ushering, sourcing materials, lifting equipment, putting up signage, administrative work, etc.

Volunteer forms are available from www.dunedinfringe.org.nz of from the Fringe Office.

For more info contact Karin Reid at the Fringe office on 03 477 3350 or email info@dunedinfringe.org.nz.

Get in touch today!

We have been hosting wwoofers for about ten years and have enjoyed  all that the wwoofers have done for us both in terms of work and added richness to our lives.  I would say 99 per cent of our wwoofers have been top quality workers and persons of excellent character.  So few wwoofers have been unsatisfactory that the numbers would be almost neglible. 

Our current wwoofer is from Switzerland and has been that type of wwoofer who not only does what she is asked but goes that extra mile. This is because she has a genuine interest in our farm and organics. She has also taught us about fitness which she studied at school and we have enoyed doing excercises with her and learning new moves.  She has brought in creative and practical ideas about making chicken tractors and worm farms. Chicken tractors are temporary pens for chickens to use while digging up your garden beds.  She has helped us improve our computer skills.  Young people are so far ahead of us in this area! She has shared with us her life in Switzerland and some interesting things about the educations system there. It is far more arduous than our school system here.. The children there are at school from seven in the morning until five in the evening.  The high school students have homework which takes them until midnight each night. The primary students also have heavy homework assignments.  There is little time for family life. She feels her system needs to be changed because the children do not have enough time to play and be kids.  I would agree her.

One area we have struggled with is sharing our computer time and phone line with wwoofers.  Finally we decided that as we use the computer mostly in the evening that wwoofers could use it in the morning before they start work.  We have never had a problem with them running up our phone bill as they all seem to use  phone cards which they buy as a prepay.  However they engage the line and make communications hard for us. We are still working on solutions to this problem.  However this is minor and all in all I am grateful for this wwoof system and the people that keep it ticking away for us. That’s Andrew and Jane Strange of course.  I was just thinking today as I walked up the farm, “Where would we be without wwoofers and what would this farm look like if we had never had them?”  I hate to think.

Pam Adam, Wainuiomata

Dear WWOOF 

For me this is an end of an era. Times have changed at the settlement but I will let you know if and when a new start can be made.

I have enjoyed my 18 years as a WWOOF Host very much. I would like to thank you for the totally splendid work you have done for so many people. The WWOOFer book is the most up-lifting book I know!

Nick Pyle and Anne Mohrdieck

Quaker Settlement 

Hello,

I am a high school English teacher and an independent documentary photographer. I’m traveling to Auckland during my Spring Break, March 24, to visit a friend, and would like to tour a WWOOF site, photograph, and interview. The focus of my current work is to create large scale photography projects around social and environmental issues, and to then garner shows & publication of them as a communication tool to “get the word out” about positive, sustainable efforts around the world.

Regards,

Neva Knott

nevaknott@hotmail.com

Naturally, we’re considered paradise and who wouldn’t want to come and wwoof on their way to/from Europe or North America to NZ and Australia?  So far we’ve found that the paradise location is the drawing card rather than fair exchange of labour for accommodation and food and cultural exchanges. We’ve had a considerable number of enquiries but when “we want to come to paradise” predominates the mail, we’re a little sceptical.  We would prefer they provide some references of where they’ve worked and what transferrable skills they have.  At least a list of what tasks they’ve carried out and how they coped with a/many tasks that proved to be a challenge.   Everyone wants to work in the café but where we really need the help is in the garden and plantations. This is not a garden in New Zealand – the demands in the heat are quite different. The eager wwoofer forgets that we’ve got extra hours of sunshine which is intense, severe heat, downpours in buckets, not much night entertainment and as two seniors we’re not given to bringing up so to say “wwoof children”.  The reason I say this is because the last one was so excited to come to paradise, had starved herself for a long time on beans and rice (and consequently kept eating for the 3 days she was here), had no work clothes (so we had to get her some) and immediately fell prey to the mosquitoes (had brought the bites with her and then used repellent we provided, plus antiseptic creams) etc..  A severe allergic reaction to the bites, added to sunburn she had brought with her from another island, in addition to several demands for her comfort, (such as padlock for door – we’ve never had locks unless we leave the property and even then all our doors are open)  etc. etc. As a consequence we decided to prepare a rudimentary list of “basic understanding” which I now e-mail to all enquirers.   Regards, Sonja

Cook Islands

Current events, ideas, suggestions, stories, feedback, advice – add it here.