Enjoy amazing views over the Waikato region, learn about horses and animals and help with gardening in Te Pahu, NZ

Infos

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  Description

  We are an (almost) retired couple living on a 10 acre lifestyle block on the slopes of Mt Pirongia in the Waikato. We have animals: 3 horses, 3 steers, 3 sheep, 4 chickens, and 2 dogs. We are developing our property towards self-sufficiency and have an orchard and largish vegetable gardens. We also produce our own eggs and beef. We also have an ornamental garden that we are developing towards being low maintenance.
  We are very enthusiastic about horses and animal training and would be happy to share our knowledge with anyone who is interested.
  Recently we have begun a new hobby, which is to process (card, spin, and dye) our own wool. We would be happy to help you learn to spin if you are interested.
  From our elevated position we have amazing views over the Waikato region. Our location is a good tourist base being relatively close to many tourist sites, such as the Waitomo caves, Raglan beach, and Hobbiton. Mt Pirongia also has a number of reserves and many popular walking tracks, some within walking distance from our home. We absolutely love the privacy and autonomy our place provides.

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  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Projets artistiques

  Jardinage

  Bricolage et construction

  S’occuper des animaux

  Aide à la maison

  Entretien général

  Aide informatique/internet

  Home sitting
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  Objectifs de développement durable de l’ONU que cet hôte essaie d'atteindre

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  Qu'est-ce que c'est ?
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  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  We have a very mixed background. I am German and my partner is New Zealander. Both of us are (were) academics and have lived overseas for long periods of time including the UK, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, and Australia. We are broad minded and very interested in other cultures and different ways of doing things. We like to cook and are interested in different cuisines. Given our lifestyle, apart from gardening we are also into preserving (pickling, jam making etc.), bee-keeping, and making products out of bees wax. Our local community is very much a dairy farming community with good old fashioned Kiwi values of helping each other out and being neighbourly. Pirongia has a monthly craft market, and the local community organises fun events from time to time, such as a the annual tractor race.

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  Aide

  Both of us have recently had health issues / injuries which means that we are not currently able to do some of the heavier gardening tasks. This includes pruning fruit trees, cutting out some weed trees, flax bushes, and agapanthus, and digging out some small tree-roots. We would also like help with some more creative / productive gardening tasks though such as planting potatoes, growing new plants from cuttings, and landscaping (building a small step).

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  Langues

  Langues parlées
  Allemand: Courant
  Anglais: Courant
  Français: Débutant
  Maori: Débutant

  Cet hôte propose un échange linguistique
  I would really love the opportunity to practice Te Reo Maori and chat in German.
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  Hébergement

  We have a comfortable 3-bedroom house with a modern kitchen, underfloor heating, and two living areas. The guest accommodation we can offer is a double bedroom with its own en-suite and a separate toilet.
  The guest accommodation and our own bedroom are at opposite ends of the house with the shared living spaces in between, offering a lot of privacy.
  We enjoy cooking healthy, wholesome food, much of which is produced on our property. Our own food includes beef, eggs, fruit (turned into our own jam and marmalade) and vegetables as well as our own honey. We are very happy for our guests to contribute to the cooking though and would love to learn about the cuisine of other cultures.
  We generally have just two meals a day: a late breakfast and a good dinner. We will provide you with what you need to prepare your own lunch though.
  We also love a good cup of coffee and have a nice espresso machine, though we also keep a good supply of various herb teas, green tea, and good old English Breakfast tea.

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  Autres infos...

  We live in a rural area, which means that we are not close to public transport. We can offer the loan of an e-bike though as well as the occasional lift into town (Hamilton or Te Awamutu) or to one of the many beautiful local walking tracks. Cycling is also popular in the area with some excellent cycle tracks nearby (e.g. along the Waikato river, some of the local lakes and Cambridge). Te Awamutu has a beautiful old cinema that is definitely worth a visit. It is one of the oldest cinemas in NZ and operated by a charitable trust.
  We love to stay home and enjoy our animals, music, board- and card games. You are welcome to join us any time.
  We are only a 3-hour drive away from Mt Ruapehu (and its ski fields) Lake Taupo, and the Tongariro National Park. Rotorua is just over a one hours drive away. Auckland is also only 1 1/2 hours away with a number of public transport options (train and bus) from Hamilton.
  Raglan, a cute small surfing town with its beautiful black iron sand surf beach and cute small shops, cafes and bars is just a 40 minute drive away.

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  Informations complémentaires

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    Accès Internet

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    Accès Internet limité

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    Nous avons des animaux

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    Nous sommes fumeurs

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    Familles bienvenues

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  Possibilité d’accueillir les digital nomads

  There are times when I work from home and need bandwidth for video calls. So, some flexibility is required. Our internet connection can be slow.

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  Espace pour garer des vans

  There is plenty of space to park camper vans and plug them into a power source.

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  Possibilité d'accueillir les animaux

  Any pets (and small children) would have to get along with our two very friendly but large dogs. They would also have to be safe around our farm animals.

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  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Deux

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