Area: Bay of Plenty

My husband & I have 3 adult children no longer living at home. We have hosted exchange students for the last 5 years and currently have a boy from Japan. We have a house by the beach and 30 acres of land further up the coast going inland. This piece of land needs weed control and some fencing. It is our lifestyle block and we run some sheep and cattle on it. Our son & his fiance are getting married in March on this land and we could do with a hand to tidy it up.There is a lovely little batch on the land which has no electricity but a wood stove. It also has a flush toilet, shower with hot water, sleeping and cooking facilities. We stay there from time to time but it can be difficult to reach when it has been raining. We live in a an old 4bedroom villa which we are still renovating. My husband buys possum fur but is also a builder/handyman. I am a nurse working at the local health centre. I do shift work and sometimes work night duty which means I sleep in the daytime. The internet can be accessed by wireless broadband. We have 3 dogs and 2 cats. The dogs live outside but the cats like to snuggle up with the humans. We are non smokers and would only want non smokers please.

Area: Victoria

We have three young children and both my husband and I work outside the family home. I am an Osteopath and my husband is a vet. We live on 5 acres in the heart of the Yarra Valley tourist region, 1 hour from melbourne city. We have a beautiful home with a large flower, native and vegitable patch. Animals are a large part of our home, dogs, cats, horse and chickens. We are a very welcoming family who love meeting people from all over the world.

Area: 189,000 acres

We are a family operated business running brahman breeders in the Gulf of Carpentaria and a fattening operation including sheep near Longreach Central Queensland. We are a young friendly couple who have travelled overseas and know the value of staying with locals and learning the interesting ways of life. There is much to see and do in our part of QLD with beautiful wildlife & vast countryside.

Area: Asturias

Janet and John live in Asturias. We are now at the end of our fifth year of so called retirement here and love it. This is definitely not the Costas! We live in Valdes in Asturias….. a county of rugged coasts with super ( but often stony) beaches. The interior (where we live at 270 meters high in the hills and 30 minutes from the nearest beach) is largely mixed forest of sweet chestnut, oak, ash and beech with plantations of northern pine and eucalyptus. The valley bottoms and tops are mainly green pasture for cattle grazing or silage with flatter fields with maize for cattle. It is beautiful – a lake district without the lakes and without the crowds. Weather – This is green Spain so we have clouds and rain. The temperature is higher than the south of England – a greater noticeable difference in the back part of the year. When we bought our house we wanted a house with some land to grow veggies on. We ended up with two houses (one “the barn” had no floor and was only home to spiders and cobwebs – we called it the barn because it was the oldest and still had the cattle feeding stalls), a traditional Horeo, 5 fincas (fields - one with a small maize mill – not functioning) and two Montes (bits of hillside with lots of trees on.) Thank goodness three of our neighbours keep most of the fields clean by grazing cattle, sheep and growing grass, so I am left with only the finca (6500 m2 )below the house to look after. We have six chickens and two dogs (and a cat that adopted us). During the year we grow most of our own vegetables. John does most of the work on the land while Janet writes and directs two musical shows a year for her group of performers back in England

Area: puerto viejo, limon

We are currently chillin' in Puerto Viejo, Limon, Costa Rica. We are managing this awesome little hostel and we are looking for fellow friends to help us out. We have some single rooms that we would like you to live in while you are visiting us and help us out around the place. We would be doing things such as painting, cleaning rooms, helping out in the kitchen (we are starting a new resturant), gathering coconuts, receptioning, and the obvious making new friends from around the world, and chillin' on the beach....Let us know what you think, we would love to have you!