Rural farm with lovely family near Greymouth, New Zealand

Details

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  Description

  We live on a large (1000ha) farm with deer, beef cows and sheep. Our closest village is Ikamatua. It is a 35 minute drive to Greymouth which is the main town on the west coast.
  
  We can host one work away person. We do not host more than one person. The next space is from October 20th to October 27th. Then we have space in November.
  
  Ben is getting some medical treatment in Greymouth which makes him really tired on the appointment day which happens once a month. We also have serious allergies to bee stings for Hayley and Ben. We have multiple epi pens and I can manage them in a emergency(it will be life threatening).
  
  Ben works on the farm full time. Taking care of all the animals and at times driving the tractors too.
  You do not need a car, I can collect you from Greymouth. Length of stay we prefer is between 7-14 nights, In your first email let me know dates that might work for you and I will check my calender and I will confirm if I can book those dates in. If you do have a strength like using a sewing machine or building or something else we maybe able to learn from each other. While i have workaway people staying one job i do get them to do is all the dishes. Rachel will be at home with kids most of the time and you can help to. The busiest time of day for me is 4-6pm. Sometimes you may take the girls for a bike ride or do craft with the girls or gardening. Rachel usually makes dinner and sometimes we do a meal together. Rachel work depends on weather. I typically work 3 or 4 days a week working as a gardener.
  Other things might be helping hang out washing or doing art and craft with girls. I usually get help in the afternoon and help with after school and once dinner dishes are done- you are all done for the day.
  
  There is a river, caves and mountains in the distance. It is beautiful lovely and quiet.
  
  Most of the time we are able to take last minute workaways like arriving in a few days time.
  
  We live in the West Coast region, famous for scenery, walks and many photo opportunities nearby. West Coast and many towns in it were busy at the start of last century with gold mining and coal mining. I have a bike It is OK, just does not have suspension. We have a farm dog puppy that loves cuddles it was born in early October.
  
  We have two adventourous girls that like to give things a try. We like it when they try things like playing a ukele or climbing trees. They have mountain bikes and a small 2 wheeler motorbike. The girls are nearly 12 and 10 years old. (April 2024)
  
  We have 5 working sheep dogs and one working dog pup. They all live outside in kennels. We have one cat and one horse.
  
  We do live in the country you can see the mountains and animals in the paddocks. We go to the biggest town on the coast (Greymouth) once or twice a week. It is a advantage if you have your own car then you have more freedom when you have time off.
  
  My husband Ben works on the farm. There is some fun times like shearing or yard work and watching the dogs work. September and October there will be thousands of lambs running around. You can walk and see and experience some but we just can not always have you helping. Some jobs like cutting velvet from a stag is very dangerous.
  
  We have made lifetime friends with some of the lovely people we have met through workaway. We want you to come and experience New Zealand family life. See all the things that make where we live special. Like our girls goes to a rural school. There is about 60 students in the school - kids range from 5 -12 years old.
  
  If I am being completely honest we are looking for someone we can talk and laugh with. Someone to share family experiences with. In the past we have had a few people stay that in their spare time they go into their room for most of the day and shut the door. Or they sit at the dining table for 10 hours looking into their laptop. So we ask that you interact with our family as we want to learn and share experience with you too. Your spare time is yours to do with what you want but just if you sit down with us a couple of times a day and have a cup of tea and a chat is great. Vegeterians are welcome to stay but please remember to respect that we are farmers and this is how we earn our money. I have had vegetarians stay for 3 weeks and been really happy with the food we serve. We take care of our animals the best we can.
  
  If you have an allergy please let me know.
  
  You are welcome to use our internet. You can skype home or friends we just ask that you do not do it for hours a day as we do have a limit on how much internet data we have. Rural broadband if you live in the country is expensive for about 100GB each month.
  
  Also English level needs to be good enough for you to be able to understand a couple of young girls talking to you lots. Not looking for perfect English but we need to keep you safe on farm so there might be particular things we might say like - never walk into a paddock with deer in it. I think it must be challenging learning the english languauge especially with lots of NZ slang words. We just like to hear "I do not understand" if you are not sure if we are explaining.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Gardening

  Animal Care

  Babysitting and creative play

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance

  Help with Computers/ Internet
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Life on how farmers live. We care for our animals so much. Hope you will learn the kiwi ingueniuty. Rachel can teach you how to cook some of my favourite dishes for dinner. There is a lot to learn by just watching the dogs muster the sheep. What is the life cycle of a lamb? How old do they live for? There are many questions.
  
  Why do you need to shear a sheep? The main reason is for animal health. Some are shorn twice a year. They get really hot during summer. In summer is the worst time for flies. Flies are attracted to the sheeps rear end and can cause issues if not treated correctly. And you do not want really long wool on the sheep before they give birth in Spring time. They can get cast (get a itchy back and start scratching their back and never be able to get up again and potentially die if the farmer does not observe them closely. The second major factor is when you take the wool off the sheep they are cold therefore eat more grass and grow bigger faster. This means they can go to market and either sold in NZ, Europe or America.

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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

  Looking for a relaxed friendly person to help out with childcare and some housework. We always feed you very well. Being farmers we eat mostly lamb and beef but at times we have venesion or pork. Vegetarians are welcome. We like vegetables and get them once a week. In out pantry we always have eggs, beans, rice, loads of veges that have longer shelf life like potatoes, pumpkin, kumara and things like that. Many vegeterians have been really happy with what food they get. Some even take away the salad recipes. My salad recipes do not often have lettuce I usually roast vegetables and put with isralei cous cous and a onion jam dressing is one example. We are farmers so we do eat meat from our farm 5 days a week.
  
  At the house it is poor cellphone reception but through our wifi you can easily get email.

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  Languages spoken

  English: Fluent

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  Accommodation

  You will have your own bedroom in our farm house. It has a single bed. It has loads of books and magazines to read. We have a 4 bedroom farm house.

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  What else ...

  Walks, so many scenic walks. Some of my favourites are coal creek falls, or Point Elizabeth track.
  There is caving near Greymouth - you need to be on a guided tour or you could get lost in kilometres of caves. The beaches are beautiful but wild. If you let me know your interests I can help plan some of your free time. Trout fishing nearby is a option if you apply for fishing licence.

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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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  Space for parking camper vans

  There is plenty of farm paddock near the house. You would park the campervan on a flat paddock within 5 minutes of house. The campsite would be different each time we accepted a workaway as it depends where the sheep or cows are in the paddock.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  One

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  Hours expected

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

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