Profile information
Host rating
100 %
Last replied
10 Apr 2024
Reply rate
94.7 %
Usually responds within 7 days
Feedback
14
Email verified
Badges (2)
Details
Description
Our place is a beautiful, peaceful seaside house and established garden on the amazing Otago Peninsula, in the township of Portobello.
We are passionate about gardening and the simple life - working toward our goals slowly as we bring up our daughter Daisy (8) and our little boy Raffy, (4)
Aidan is a Youth Worker, and Bella is a Photographer. Both of us work part time, so that we can have lots of time with the kids and enjoy life!
We love to cook homegrown food, surf, hike, go diving and spearfishing, garden, socialise around the fire with friends, and enjoy learning new things and comedy!
Around us are some of the most wild and beautiful coastlines of New Zealand, habitated by Albatrosses, Fur Seals, Sealions and Penguins. We are 25 minutes from Dunedin City, which is a beautiful drive away.
Great sightseeing options around Otago are abundant, and you'll have an awesome base to start from!
We have been HelpX hosts for 7 years, and absolutely love hosting travellers - we have made so many wonderful new friends this way, and love to hear stories about your home countries and travels!
We’re looking forward to meeting many more friends through Workaway :)
Types of help and learning opportunities
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Babysitting and creative play
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
We are both super social people, and love sharing our lives with others!
Aidan has a wealth of world travel under his belt, and can give tips for the remainder of your travels, as well as letting you know all the secret spots to see around Otago Peninsula. He’s also an avid surfer and spear fisher and can take you out if you are too.
If you are interested in cooking, look no further than here - Aidan loves to share his knowledge about baking sourdough, making kombucha, and cooking in general!
Bella can teach you about photography, how to use your camera, give tips about the area, and can share gardening and plant knowledge and get you excited about setting up your own garden.
She also knows all the good walking tracks around the Peninsula and can point you in the right direction if you’re keen on a hike.
Both of us love to hear about your travels - it lets us travel vicariously! And we love hearing about life in your home countries!
Projects involving children
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Help
Life with two small children is busy, and our garden is out of control! We are looking for 4 hours of work a day to help get it back to it’s former glory :)
Most of the work we have is weeding, pruning, planting and harvesting. We have large vegetable gardens, and in summer, most of our food is homegrown! Aidan was a chef until a few years ago, so he makes great use of the garden produce.
When it’s raining, we have a few indoor jobs such as window cleaning, organising spaces etc, so you won’t always be outside.
We’re super flexible with hours - you decide when you’d like to work, and if you want to work more one day, and have the next day off, that works fine with us!
Our kids will quickly become your new best friends - so you’ll need to be comfortable with children! Daisy absolutely loves helpers, and enjoys playing and talking when she gets home from school. Raffy is at kindy full time, and he enjoys having new people to entertain too!
As part of the family, we’d love it if you’d help out with the clean up after dinner, and to help keep the house generally tidy :) In return, you’ll have free access to the pantry and we will cook you yummy dinners every evening.
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
French: Beginner
Accommodation
You’ll have your own large, private room with a very comfortable queen sized bed and couches, in the bottom story of our house, which opens onto the expansive, lovely garden. The bathroom is shared.
We are just up the road from the water’s edge, and if you’re keen, you can swim in the harbour!
We cook for you every evening, and you’re welcome to help yourselves to whatever you’d like for breakfast and lunch.
What else ...
Portobello is a small village, and only has a pub, cafe, and a small grocery store.
Being 25 minutes from the nearest town, and with a limited public transport service, it’s best if you have your own car.
As we have young kids, it’s hard to get to emails! So if we don’t reply within a week, please consider this a ‘no’ at this time. Thanks!!
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
Unlimited fibre internet and your own lounge :)
Space for parking camper vans
Roadside parking
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
Hours expected
Maximum 4 hours a day, 5 days a week
Feedback (7)
We had lots of fun taking them surfing, exploring, and foraging together, and in turn they did so much around the property for us -… read more
We had such a great couple of weeks together. Alli immediately slotted into family life and the kids LOVED her - they were very upset when she left! Always teaching them new things, showing them cool stuff, and ready for games and stories whenever they wanted.
Alli helped so much in… read more
From the moment she walked in, I knew she was going to be an awesome addition to our family and she immediately got to playing with the kids while I made dinner.
Erika stayed for a week and a half, and during that time she helped us with lots of organising, (she’s a master clothes and linen folder),… read more
Feedback
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Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)
Cultural exchange:
(5.0)
Communication:
(5.0)
We had lots of fun taking them surfing, exploring, and foraging together, and in turn they did so much around the property for us -… read more
We had such a great couple of weeks together. Alli immediately slotted into family life and the kids LOVED her - they were very upset when she left! Always teaching them new things, showing them cool stuff, and ready for games and stories whenever they wanted.
Alli helped so much in… read more
From the moment she walked in, I knew she was going to be an awesome addition to our family and she immediately got to playing with the kids while I made dinner.
Erika stayed for a week and a half, and during that time she helped us with lots of organising, (she’s a master clothes and linen folder),… read more
Super polite and thoughtful….engaging, patient and fun with our kids! Courteous around the house and did some great work in the garden and around the house for us.
Would recommend he come stay with you! Ngã mihi nui Jake.🙏🙏
While staying with us, they helped with weeding, mulching, compost building, rat poison laying (Clement is a pro at this!!), general house chores, cooking, hedge pruning, firewood collection, planting and childcare, and were fantastic at all of it,… read more
Worked in their garden was very interesting, we… read more
If you host these two, be prepared to make some great new friends and have loads of laughs!
Suzie and Dan stayed with us for two weeks, and were so incredibly helpful. Not only did they completely transform our garden (weeding, eliminating convolvulus and buttercup, planting, loading… read more
We did a… read more
