More wwoofing in the Bay of Plenty

Not even an hours drive from our old wwoofin place, we came to our new one. The first impression was sadly not so good. We had to cook our own meals and had few ingredients to choose from. The kitchen and bathroom was not very clean. Another wwoofer was there at the same time, he was a French 27 year old and only spoke poor English, which made it hard to have a good conversation.

In the end it would be a lot better than expected. We only had to work four hours per day and we didn’t even have enough work for that, which made it pretty relaxed.

The owner runs a Pinto Horse Farm, trains and breeds show jumpers and lives there with her small dog Chopper. That means, she actually lives with her partner in his house next to this one and we live here with the other wwoofer and the dog.

My work was to handle the three weeks old foal, which means try to get him used to people while talking to him or petting him – you see: hard work – and also try to get him used to halter and being led. After that, I was mouthing and lunging the youngsters, trying to ‘drive’ them on two reins and do some free jumping. I should ride one of the youngsters, but after a small accident, we decided to wait and give her time to get better. My boyfriend was laying carpets and linoleum in the house, repaired some fences and later painted with my help the house, which was more the task of the other wwoofer. I actually forgot the names of the horses as my owner was always talking about the foal, the grey, the chestnut and the coloured (which is the only that I remember: Luna, her sisters horese).

With our co-wwoofer we had a little dispute, because of things as listening to what someone says before saying yes, cleaning the dishes, how he is working and his big drama and cry-baby theatre. And then something bigger happened. It was actually during my work with the youngsters. The owner wanted to take some pictures of them free jumping, so me and her went to both ends to send the horses from one end to the other. A friend of her and my boyfriend were asked to take pictures and film it. The French guy also wanted to take pictures and we didn’t pay much attention to him. I was actually busy enough with the horses. So, it was only when he got hit, that I noticed that he was not, as the other two, behind the fence, but directly behind the obstacle that they had to jump and when one of the horses decided to not jump over the obstacle but do a turn around it, it hit him with a hoof at the head. Everyone was very shocked and we went to see how he was. The owner of the farm had some experience and said she is going to make him a bandage and that it was worse than it looked. But he insisted on going to the hospital, but when the other girl said she is going to drive him and he needs to get all his documents, he didn’t find health incurance neither his passport. We think, he was illegal in the country. Later that day, our host brought us self-made plum wine and wem ade pizza. In the evening, the French guy called us and asked for being fetched from the hospital. Our host was not at home and we both had drunk the entire bottle of wine. I didn’t want to risk my life or my car and neither my drivers licence, which all I needed for some more time. We told him it was better anyway to stay for the night and we would get him the next day. The next day, our host was still gone and therefore we painted the house, which the French guy had already done, but very badly. In the four hours we repainted the complete work of four days of the French guy. He didn’t call and arrived with someone else why we painted. Angrily he asked what we were doing and I answered the work that he should have done right. He vanished into the house, cooked something to eat and then left a big mess. The guy who had brought him – apparently he had been standing with a sign at the street written: I don’t have money, nor documents, someone please has petty – came to fetch him again, but I told him that the French guy would not leave before cleaning up his stuff. But when I also told him that he only said: “I don’t understand you, I don’t understand you” and left.

When our host came back and we told her the story, she was actually very happy to be rid of him as he had only eaten and slept and never worked. She invited us for the evening to eat the crabs that her partner had fished in the sea with him, her and her sister. It was delicious and a very nice, cosy and intimate evening. As we had been so hard-working, she gave us the next day of and lent us her children’s wetsuits and surfboards. We took Chopper with us and went to the beach, alternating surfing and running with the dog. We grew closer to the dog and the host. She came more often to bring food, tell us to stop working, drove us somewhere and lent us all kind of things. One day, we got to use the dingy of her partner and went to a small island another day she wanted to drive us with the horses to the beach, which didn’t work out as the truck broke. From the beginning on, I was allowed to ride her show jumper and went for a ride almost every day. The first time she watched to see, if everything went well and then left me alone saying, she rarely saw someone handle him so well. I was jumping with him in my own and started jumping higher than in my riding lessons at home. He was very trustworthy and had lots of motivation and energy. I normally worked early in the morning and rode in the evening, because it got really hot during the day. The dog stayed more often with us and we took him, wherever we were going, he even started sleeping in our bed.

We were really sad, when we left and were even invited for Christmas with her and her family for the case, we should be in the region during that time. We would really miss her, the horses and especially the dog. It was a valuable experience in all ways. Sadly, we were the last guests of our host, because of her experience with the French guy und two German girls, who had been there directly before us. It happens more and more often that because of few stupid people, hosts decide to stop offering places, which destroys the whole system. At least our host, was more than satisfied with us and our work and had a very good impression of us, which she also said in our recommendation. The Bay of Plenty had meant it literally with us and gave us plenty of everything: wwoofing experience, fun, good food, friends, sun, bad experiences, but mostly good ones.

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