Wwoofing in Abel Tasman

I'm On Sunday evening, after about 2 hours of sleep and extreme morning excitement, we were ready to relax in nature, quiet, and darkness. McKee Reserve was exactly what we were looking for. An expanse of campsites (just grassy areas, really) stretched across the coast of Ruby Bay make up the reserve, with plenty of toilets and options for parking. We found a place to park, set up "camp," and realized that it was basically paradise, what with the warm sunshine, the sound of the nearby ocean waves, and the complete lack of sandflies.

Dejan cooked a delicious dinner of sausages and corn, completing the first test run of the camp stove, and we fell asleep almost immediately afterward after looking at the amazing display of stars overhead.

The next day, Monday, we were to arrive at our first wwoofing place, a paddle boarding business in Sandy Bay, just below Abel Tasman National Park. We hung out in a park in a town called Motueka for several hours, having a picnic, slack lining, and enjoying the sunshine we'd been craving for so long while living in rainy Wellington.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Our introduction to Sandy Bay

Finally we decided we'd better get to Sandy Bay before the sun starts setting, so we drove the remaining 30 minutes or so to go meet Daryl, our host for the week. We found him right next to his paddle boards, holding the leash to his mascot, the paddle boarding Jack Russel terrier named Sally. His 72-year-old mother, Francis, was there as well, with her own hyperactive Jack Russel named Shadow. They were immediately super friendly, and his mother handed me the leash for Shadow as she took us over to the houseboat we would soon be living on.

The houseboat was built by Daryl himself, and was still a work in progress. It's basically one big room with kitchen facilities, beds, and a toilet behind a curtain. Dejan and I immediately thought it was awesome, although Francis told us about plenty of people who turned up their noses at it, specifically a pair of French girls who required a hair dryer.

We met the other wwoofer there, Ana Lou, a Dutch girl who had apparently cleaned up the houseboat just hours before, as Francis kept raving about how clean everything was. She gave Ana Lou a warm hug for her efforts, and then hugged Dejan and I as well, saying "I must've hugged half of Europe by now!"

When Daryl returned from bringing his paddle boards to be stored for the night at Old MacDonald's Farm (seriously, that's the real name), he told us that his friend Mitch, the owner of a local kayaking company, was absolutely desperate for some extra help. He asked us if we'd be willing to go work for him instead, since Daryl's work wasn't pressing and Mitch really needed the extra help. We shrugged and said sure, why not? I shamelessly mentioned that I hoped the chance to try paddle boarding was still on the table, since we'd been looking forward to it, and Daryl booked us in for the following morning.

Wwoofing with Independent Guides Sea Kayaking

Daryl took us back to Old MacDonald's Farm, where the kayaking company (Independent Guides Sea Kayaking) was located. It was basically a shelter under which a bunch of kayaks were stored, some tractors and other vehicles, a small building that served as a living room and kitchen, and 5 chickens clucking and pecking about in the grass. We would be sleeping in our car, which we didn't mind.

When we met Mitch, we didn't feel quite as warmly welcomed at first.

"Ah, these are the new slaves! So what skills do you have?" he said as a greeting.

What skills do I have? A million ideas went through my head. I wanted to say something like, "Speaking German; getting along with people; understanding other cultures; making PowerPoints; writing; reading books; saying three specific sentences in Spanish; memorizing for tests and then forgetting them immediately after; complaining; getting colds unnaturally often," but, judging by his dirty blue coveralls and the power tools laying around, I somehow didn't think those were the skills he was interested in. We basically sputtered some answers that essentially meant, "we are a quarter century old and have no skills to show for it."

Although he seemed thoroughly unimpressed by our lack of building, welding, and metalworking abilities, he nonetheless seemed to warm up as the day progressed. I admittedly was put off a bit when he said the messy house/living room/kitchen was messy and needed a "woman's touch," but I did nothing to help such gender stereotyping by volunteering to clean it the next day.... But more on that later.

We then met the other two wwoofers, a Kiwi named Connor (introduced as "Corndog") and an American (from Sioux Falls!) named Axel. Later we also met Connor's sister, Heather, who is the guide for sea kayaking and is the primary paid employee of the business.

We explored the campground, the Old MacDonald Farm Holiday Park, which is huge and has horses and llamas and other animals in it or nearby. When we returned, Mitch had two shots of whiskey honey liqueur poured. He insisted we drink them, so we shrugged and succumbed to peer pressure. Beers followed all around after that, as well as the rest of the group drinking more of the whiskey. Dejan and I, having expected an experience more like the quiet wwoofing I had done earlier in the year, were a bit shocked but participated nonetheless.

Before we knew it, we were wandering along the road back to the houseboat to hang out with Daryl and Ana Lou. Daryl poured his home-brewed beer all around, insisting we finish it all once he had opened the bottle. I cautiously tried a sip and subtly placed my drink back on the counter, not wanting to suffer from a headache the next day. Dejan chatted with Daryl about his paddle boarding business while I petted Sally the dog, feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the socialization. It's been a while.

We left before too long, being used to early bedtimes, and somehow found our way along the pitch black road back to our car, Dejan without his phone and me with a phone at 10% battery life but without any useful numbers in case we got lost. But luck (or our good memory) was on our side and we made it back alive, craning our necks to watch the stars the whole way.

Paddle boarding and working

We woke up early-ish the next morning to go paddle boarding with Daryl. He gave us the whole spiel on how to do it, then got into the water with us, Sally standing rigidly on the paddle board with him. It was harder than I'd expected; I could barely balance as the waves tossed my board around, but I managed to stay on. Dejan was a natural, of course. Overall it was lots of fun, and thanks to our wwoofing setup it was totally free!

When we returned to our "home," we already owed Mitch some work for the free paddle boarding we had just done. We got started on cleaning -- Dejan took the outside while I decided to tackle the atrociously filthy little house. I spent three hours disinfecting every surface, organizing clutter into neat piles, and massacring spiders. The ground, previously covered in wood chips, dirt, and cat food (an 18-year-old cat lived in the house as well), looked spotless after a thorough vacuuming. Well, as spotless as a floor like that can be. I really earned my keep that day.

(To my horror, the house had returned to its previously messy state the following day, what with new dirty dishes and more dirt being tracked in. I threw up my hands and reminded myself why I never clean.)

My life's curse

That evening, my throat started feeling scratchy and my nose was stuffed up. I naturally assumed I would have respiratory problems forever from all the dust and dirt that had been flying about as I cleaned the little house, but the next morning I realized my mistake: I simply had come down with a cold. ANOTHER cold. 

I'm a prime example for why they call it the "common" cold. Specifically, it's the "every 36.7 days cold" because that's officially the average of how often I get them. I did the math. But never mind my bitterness; the point is that I didn't do any work the next day (Wednesday) because I felt too sick. I spent the day lying in bed in the van, feeling sorry for myself.

Luckily, I felt well enough the next day to get back to work. Dejan and I were assigned the job of sanding the kayak paddles. It's a job that sounds easy but most certainly is NOT. My fingers are still sore from the job. We did it by hand before lunch, getting only two paddles done, but then after that Mitch showed us how to use the machine to sand more efficiently (albeit less perfectly). We managed to get a grand total of seven paddles done, after about eight hours of work. Connor rewarded us with a beer afterwards.

Reaping the rewards

The next morning we had officially worked enough to get a free day of sea kayaking. For some reason I was expecting it to be exactly like all the kayaking I had done in lakes previously; it wasn't. With sea kayaking, a wave could actually capsize your kayak. The back paddler also uses pedals to steer the rudder, rather than everything being done with paddles. We had a great ol' time exploring the coastal waters of Abel Tasman National Park, which is basically the "thing to do" there. The weather was sunny and warm, so we had a fun 6 hours of island hopping and exploring the different beaches along the coast. Lots of people do multi-day kayaking trips along the Abel Tasman coast -- maybe one day when we have more equipment and less sickness we'll come back and do that.

Our return to paradise

Once we returned from our kayaking adventure we said our thank-yous and goodbyes and headed back to the McKee Reserve for another night of camping. The caretaker welcomed us back, not at all surprised that we had returned. "Everyone comes back," he said, smiling. "You'll come back again too."

He was right; after a day spent in a town called Richmond, where we slack lined, sunbathed, and played soccer, we ended up driving straight back to McKee Reserve for another night. Seriously, people, if you're ever in New Zealand, you've got to stay at McKee.

The road to Richmond

Richmond, New Zealand (not to be confused with Richmond, MN).

So, that brings us to today! In a couple hours we'll drive to Murchison, the location for our next wwoofing destination with a woman named Jenny. That's all we know for now; stay tuned!