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Enjoy the beautiful sea view from our historic family home in Waiheke Island, New Zealand

Availability

  2024 

 Min stay requested: at least a week

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Details

  • Description

    Description

    Hi workawayers!
    We're looking forward to meeting you :)

    About us: We are a writer and architect with a girl of 13 and boy of nearly 9, who live in a (mostly) renovated old house overlooking the sea on Waiheke Island, just 35 minutes by ferry from downtown Auckland. We are extremely well-travelled (50+ countries) and welcome people of all cultures and outlooks, and workawayers from any country, culture or religion are welcome to enquire about staying with us. We love animals of all kinds and have a friendly dog, two cats, some free-range chickens, + lots of native wildlife inhabiting our garden. And we have a pony grazing a short walk from home - and also recently adopted a young wild Kaimanawa horse who currently lives on our land up north (more about that, later...)

    10 years ago we moved here from Auckland city to enjoy a more fulfilling way of life, and be as sustainable as possible. In the process, we became mostly vegetarian (and sometimes vegan). We grow some of our own vegetables and fruit organically but we don't grow as much as we'd like, so your help is appreciated with that. Climate change has made this harder!

    Our 100-year-old house often needs repairs and maintenance, and we have a big garden so there is usually a project of some kind underway.

    In general, we are looking for either 1 or 2 workawayers to help with a big variety of work such as cleaning/housework, gardening, childcare, painting and possibly building work depending on your skills. We are also interested to host you if you are an experienced horse rider who can teach, to help the kids improve their skills, as we spend 2 hours at our paddock most days with the ponies. (There is a lot of horse talk in our house!)

    For longer stays, we usually prefer people with existing skills such as horseriding/building/carpentry/plumbing/ roofing and gardening/landscape experience (especially those who can use machinery such as mowers and weed trimmers) - so make sure you tell us if you have those skills when you apply.

    Waiheke is a beautiful island with lots of wineries, green spaces, bushwalks and wonderful beaches. Dolphins and orca (killer whales) are sometimes seen around the island (in winter especially) and we have lots of native birds. There is a friendly local community and lots of places to do yoga - in fact Waiheke's main yoga centre is just 5 minutes walk from us :) with fantastic yoga and meditation classes available.

    Our house is a historic old house with a close-up beautiful view over the water at Anzac Bay. We are close to a main bus route, so you can easily explore the island or get to the ferry to go into the city. You won't need a car to explore most of the island. We also have kayaks you can take out on days when the weather is good.

    Your room will be a separate garden studio (with comfy queen size bed) - so you won't be woken by children in the mornings on your days off!

    All meals are included in your stay.
    Dinner is eaten together, while breakfast and lunch is on a 'help yourself to items provided' basis.

    No smokers please. We eat mostly vegetarian and sometimes vegan food for ethical and environmental reasons, with the very occasional bit of fish (around once a month). If you are vegetarian we will eat fully vegetarian food while you are here; if you are vegan we will eat a mixture of vegan and vegetarian food - you might need to make your own vegan option on occasion. (We usually use plant-based milks and yoghurt anyway and usually only sheep cheese, but sometimes use eggs – however, we do not buy commercial eggs but only use eggs from our own happy very free-range hens.)

    We are flexible about workawayer(s) also doing a little part-time paid work in the time you are not helping us, because there is A LOT of casual work available on Waiheke. (Hospitality (cafe/restaurant/barista), vineyard work, gardening, retail, babysitting, cleaning, building.) We can also support you to find a job.

    Also – at the end of 2022 we (with some friends) bought 29 hectares of beautiful ex-farmland north of Auckland – we are planning to regenerate it with native forest and started planting the first trees in May 2023. There are also horses (one is our new ex-wild pony, others belong to someone else) grazing on the land. If you are staying with us for more than 2 weeks, we will probably spend one weekend (2 days) up on the land either camping or staying in a local cabin, planting trees and/or removing weeds. There is already some forest on the land and a stream running through it with a beautiful waterfall.
    If you want to be involved in this eco-restoration project please tell us so we can plan to involve you in it :) If you don't like to work outdoors in nature (and maybe in the rain) then it's probably not for you. (Work/helping times on this project is more on a volunteer basis and will probably be longer than the days at our home, but of course you will be helping to offset your own travel to New Zealand by doing it - so the planet benefits :)

    Workawayers usually stay between 1-4 weeks with us, depending on their skills and the time of year. (Shorter stays in summer, longer in winter. In winter we prefer a 2-week stay.)

    We hope to hear from you soon :)

  • Types of help and learning opportunities

    Types of help and learning opportunities

    Charity Work
    Art Projects
    Help with Eco Projects
    Teaching
    Gardening
    DIY and building projects
    Animal Care
    Babysitting and creative play
    Creating/ Cooking family meals
    Help around the house
    General Maintenance
    House sitting
  • Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    You will experience everyday life in a New Zealand family in a non-city environment, practise your English (if you are a non-native speaker), and learn about a variety of things, such as sustainability, gardening and cooking. Note that we are actively working to reduce our carbon footprint and prefer workawayers who are interested and motivated to be sustainable as possible.

  • Projects involving children

    Projects involving children

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

  • Help

    Help

    For single workawayers, a lot of the help will be gardening and cleaning help, with some cooking, animal care, activities with the kids, and general help around the house. There may be an occasional art project (with the kids or mural to be created). Workawayers experienced with horse-riding are very welcome if you are able to teach (Ludo is learning to rise to the trot, Pia can do low jumps but is not confident in her canter on our pony). (If you are small and light (under 55kg) and an experienced rider, you may also be able to occasionally ride our pony.)
    If you are a couple, additional chores will include more gardening, painting, and possibly building, depending on your skills.

  • Languages spoken

    English: Fluent
    Spanish: Beginner
    French: Beginner
    Italian: Beginner
    Swedish: Beginner

  • Accommodation

    Accommodation

    Your room will be a private, comfortable guest studio in the garden (so you can sleep in on your days off without noise from the kids :-)

  • What else ...

    What else ...

    Workawayers staying with us will get lots of English language experience - especially from our chatty kids, and I have also worked as an English language tutor so can offer you help too. You can also learn about organic gardening, sustainability and cooking.

  • A little more information

    A little more information

    • Internet access

    • Limited internet access

      Limited internet access

    • We have pets

    • We are smokers

    • Can host families

  • Can host digital nomads

    Can host digital nomads

    Happy to have digital nomads stay and help, in between doing their work.

  • Space for parking camper vans

    Space for parking camper vans

    We have space for a campervan (but you don't need to sleep in it! :)

  • How many Workawayers can stay?

    How many Workawayers can stay?

    Two

  • ...

    Hours expected

    up to 5 hours per day, five days a week, but will often be less - especially if you are working in the summer heat.

Host ref number: 111997831815

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Help in my home and garden, close to the centre of Auckland, New Zealand
Creative thinkers welcome to join my projects in Auckland, New Zealand