Help us in the garden in Waihi, New Zealand

Details

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  Description

  PLEASE NOTE: We can only accept Workaway guests in the New Zealand winter (July and August) when it is off season for our B&B.
  
  We are a recently retired couple and we live 1km outside of Waihi town on a 1.2 hectare (4 acre) property with a stream running through it and a pretty waterfall. We have spent around 15 years (in the weekends) developing a small native forest, ponds and wetlands, orchards, flower gardens and extensive organic vegetable gardens on our land. We live in a newly built 3 bedroom house and we have a barn which is our B&B but which we use for friends in the off season and would like to use it for workaway guests. We love to cook and we are comfortable with all cultures. We speak English, of course, and Japanese fluently and little bits of other languages. Much of the food we eat comes directly from our land and our hens provide us with eggs all year. The garden is a beautiful place to work and play in and there are many wonderful beaches, walks, and cycle tracks very close by. The Waihi Gold Mine pit is also very close to our place.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We can teach Japanese language and Japanese written script (kanji), ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) , cooking, seed-raising and general gardening skills, care of hens etc. The area we live in has strong gold-mining history and in fact the stream that runs through our property was the first place gold was found in Waihi.

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  Projects involving children

  This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.

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  Help

  Our garden is very large and we really need help to keep it well maintained. We also have many new projects we would like to do so we would love some help with general gardening tasks (weeding, pruning, planting etc). If you have building skills that would be a real bonus as we often need to build plant frames, garden edging, extensions to our hen house etc. As long as you are quite fit and strong the gardening will not be difficult for you and there are plenty of different tasks to choose from but it is a country garden so the work is more difficult than in a small city garden.

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent
  Japanese: Fluent
  Italian: Beginner

  This host offers a language exchange
  We are language teachers and are interested in the study of linguistics. We enjoy interacting with non-native English speakers
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  Accommodation

  We have an accommodation which sleeps 4 people. We are happy to cook for our guests and we can cater for vegetarians. We are also happy to share cooking if our guest would prefer.

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  What else ...

  We have extensive knowledge of our local area and it has beaches, mountains, gorges, gold mining history, antique and collectables shops, lots of cafes and restaurants and there is a reasonably large city 1 hour away by car. We like hiking and can take you on some of the lovely walks in the area.
  There is not much public transport in our small town but buses do go to and from the main cities like Auckland and Tauranga. We have an electric bicycle which we can make available for our guests.

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Can host digital nomads

  We have unlimited wifi in both our B & B and our house and have basic computer repair skills.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  We have space for a large motorhome to park for an extended length of time. We are happy to share facilities and to cook for anyone using a motorhome

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  Hours expected

  Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week

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