Join my son and me in beautiful South Wairarapa, New Zealand, and help a busy TV director juggle land, work and parenthood.

Details

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  Description

  Hello travellers! We are looking for someone to help us on the land and around the house.
  
  My 17-year-old son and I live in Ruakokoputuna, a gorgeous wine-growing valley in South Wairarapa – 90 km north of NZ’s capital city, Wellington. We are surrounded by farmland and magnificent limestone river and cave systems. The word famous Patuna Chasm is a few minutes away – one of the most beautiful walks I've ever experienced. Not far away is the rugged South Wairarapa coast with quaint fishing villages and wild beaches. We have hot, dry summers and frosty winters.
  
  Our nearest town is Martinborough, a renowned wine village where some of the world’s best pinot noir is produced. In summer the village hums with music, art and food/wine festivals. Year-round there are fantastic vineyards cafes and bars to enjoy.
  
  We live 15km from Martinborough village, on a 5 hectare lifestyle block, with some bush, and paddocks where our neighbours’ sheep, cattle and horses graze. It’s not a farm but we do grow fruit and vegetables, gather firewood and mow lawns. There’s plenty of room to roam and get away from it all but we're close enough to town to have easy access to movies, bars, the library and shops.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  While you are here you will have plenty of time to explore this area and use the car when you need it. As a professional writer and former teacher I may be able to help you with your English if that's what you're looking for, and I will certainly be able to suggest all sorts of wonderful places or people for you to visit depending on your interests. If you love the outdoors you will find much here to enjoy.
  
  I run two small businesses - one making television documentaries and the other making hand-made clothing and homewares. I'm not a bad cook and gardener so if any of these things interest you you will have opportunities to learn those skills!
  
  Here is what one recent volunteer says about us:
  
  "I can not speak highly enough of my experience here!
  
  The house is a beautiful farmhouse in the middle of nature. It has a nice garden full of vegetables and flowers, and a little river behind the house. I had my own beautiful blue room which was very spacious, has a huge comfortable bed and a window to the sun side of the house. Of course I was also allowed to use the Wifi and the Netflix account as also enjoy food or snacks that I would write on the shopping list to buy! For me as someone who enjoys farmlife, nature, and a little bit of quiet it was like heaven!
  
  Roz, who is the Mum and chef is also a Movie Director, her son is lovely and really fun, the cuddly black cat Mr Sirius Black and our always happy and excited dog Jazz who will love everyone that spends some time with her.
  
  I can also not say it enough but my host family here was amazing! From the first day they gave me the feeling how welcome I was here and always tried to make our life together easy going and supported me to see more of New Zealand as also have time to myself. She offered many times help with the planing of my trips to Wellington, the South Island or visits with my family in Australia, she also offered to help me organize a trip in the close by Glowworm Caves, or find a place to do horse riding in my free time, I got my own car for the time being here as well.
  
  The work I did here was fun to do as well, Archie is a very fun and happy child which has great ideas and dreams and is smart as well. The work was always very relaxed and easy.
  
  A BIG bonus point was also the incredible nice food - fresh and healthy meals, with a big variety between Asian, European, Mexican and other food dishes, I enjoyed myself very much! Many vegetables are from our own garden, the fresh bread and cakes are home baked and even the Yogurt is something we make here regularly by our self!
  
  It was a great experience to meet such wonderful people and live in such a beautiful area of New Zealand! I am very sad that I had to leave and I will miss my host family here very much! If I could come back for another year I would do so in an instant!"

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  Help

  I am looking for a general helper in the house and garden, and a companion for my teenage son. I travel a lot for work so, although he is independant and capable, I prefer the peace of mind of having another trusted adult around when I'm not here. How that works in detail will depend on my work commitments and what you're most comfortable doing. You will have plenty of free time when he’s at school.
  
  For this reason I'm more interested in volunteers who are keen to stay at least a month, preferably longer, so we can build the rapport and trust needed for you to become part of the family in this way.
  
  Other things I'd like help with include
  * help in the garden, orchard and farmland, including mowing with a ride-on mower, weed-eating with a line trimmer, weeding and pruning (depending on your skills and interests),
  * cutting and splitting firewood (depending on your skills and interests),
  * help around the house,
  * home-improvement projects
  * helping care for our gorgeous dog and cat.
  * grocery shopping,
  
  How this works will partly be determined by your skills and interests.
  
  It is important to me that you are clean, tidy, helpful and considerate and that you are good to share a home with. You’ll be treated with kindness and respect and encouraged to explore the area and enjoy your time off.
  
  There is also the option of your having use of my second car for doing things for me but also, by arrangement, for your own use to enjoy and explore this lovely area.
  
  ***BUT it is important that you are a licensed, careful and experienced driver.*** Our road is steep, windy and unsealed in some places but safe enough if you are a good driver. I am happy to spend time with you helping you get your confidence on our road. (And – by the way – we drive on the left here!)

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent
  French: Beginner

  This host offers a language exchange
  This host has indicated that they are interested in sharing their own language or learning a new language.
  You can contact them directly for more information.
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  Accommodation

  We live in an early 20th century wooden house in the “arts and crafts” style. It’s comfortable and homely but not fancy! If you're not in a campervan, you will have your own nice double room and free access to the house and grounds just like any member of the family. There is one shared bathroom. We have WiFi and landline but there is no cell signal here. We find internet-based apps such as WhatsApp very useful and some later-model phones are wifi-calling capable.
  
  Of course we will provide your food. I'm a pretty good cook and I enjoy cooking but you’ll be welcome to cook if you enjoy doing so. We grow a lot of our own fruit and vegetables and favour natural, healthy food. we do eat meat, fish and dairy but not every day. We eat well!
  
  My son is an intelligent, kind and enquiring teenager who is learning to become more of an independant adult. He cooks better than he cleans! He is an excellent conversationalist and is good at looking after himself.
  
  We enjoy sharing our evenings with you, listening to music, watching movies, playing board games and solving the world's problems but if you prefer to go out or hang out in your room in privacy that's fine too.
  
  * Many of our lovely volunteers have written glowing reviews you can read on the Workaway site. And twice we've had volunteers who have loved it here so much each of them stayed for almost two years!! Of course we do not expect you to stay that long (!) but we do look forward to welcoming you into our home and making sure you have a very happy time here. All our volunteers so far have gone on to other interesting lives but have remained in touch as friends.

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  What else ...

  It's a quiet, rural area and can seem a bit remote, but you will have easy access to the lovely South Wairarapa and Wellington so life here can be as tranquil or as busy as you want to make it!

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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 data and our wifi is not bad. I manage to run a film production business from home which includes transferring large files.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  You are very welcome to park your campervan here and use that as a bedroom but share the rest of the house and facilities with us. There's lots of room and the ground is always hard and dry enough for vehicles.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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  Hours expected

  Maximum 25 hours per week, often less

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