Patrick and Kari's Travels

Kari and I have arrived at our first Wwoof farm and gotten settled. It is a small resort in the Bay of Islands area, in the town of Kerikeri. The resort, Avalon, is a small family operation (they are immigrants from Holland) that includes 4 cottages for guests and an apartment that is rented out in the summer and used for Wwoofers during the fall, spring and winter months. There are two ponds and a stream that run in front of the cottages into a small river that is in front of the main house. Other attractions include the animals and Kayaking on the river.

Since we are here in the summer the apartment is usually busy on the weekends with guests so we are living in the house with the owners, Willem and Betty and their children. We have a nice tower to ourselves but share a bathroom with the 4 children. Scott is the oldest, 20, Anna, 17, Sara 14, and Julia 11 are all home right now because it is their summer break but they will be going back to school in the next couple of weeks. It makes for a crowded but very fun house.

We arrived last Wednesday evening and got settled and started work the next morning. They have us doing Gorse removal right now on a hillside they plan to fence off for the two goats they have now and for the two sheep they plan to get soon (more on the animals later courtesy of Kari). Willem, Betty and the three girls went on a boat trip this weekend and left us in charge of their house and business (I guess they got to trust us very quickly). So we have been taking care of guests, paying the cleaning lady, answering phones (although it has not rung once) and feeding the animals for the last three days. Scott has been working so he comes back in the evenings for dinner and movie watching. Other than that we have had all the time we want to play in the river, kayak and jump off the rope swing.

Patrick