Steffen WW113 12-21/3/09

Steffen's visit overlapped with Rebecca's so he picked apples and peaches for jam, helped to paint the old kitchen and make new cupboards and the kitchen bench.

Steffan and Nao came with the girls and I to the Waihao Box for a picnic. It was bitterly cold so it was a short one!

Rebecca WW112 5-14/2/09

Rebecca was here for most of the same time as Jocelyn and Annie, so she did lots of peelig, chopping, boiling and bottling of pears as well as making tomato chutney. We needed to redo the kitchen in the old house so Rebecca helped Wal gut the old kitchen, washed the windows and fixed some of the willow baskets.

Jocelyn & Annie WW109/110 3-8/2/09

Jocelyn and Annie helped out with the preserving. Our beautiful 6 metre pear tree was loaded so they picked, peeled and preserved pears. They also cleaned down the old house, took the tomatoes out of the garden, turned the compost and put down Astro-Turf for weed control.

Derren WW108 22-28/2/09

We had a bit of rain come in the roof with the wind blowing from an unusual direction. Derren helped to fix the roof, did some concreting work, bottled apples and cleaned the wwoofer accommodation.

Soo WW107 8-16/2/09

Soo was our first wwoofer from Malaysia. He helped with weeding and fencing and picked plums to make jam. Soo is pictured making the calendar envelopes with Stefanie and Jessica.

Stefanie & Jessica WW105/106 4-11/2/09

Stephanie and Jessica kindly housesat for us looking after Jess, the dog, etc while we went away for Waitangi weekend. They did some weeding and housework to help out, too.

We enjoyed making some envelopes out of calendars with Ami and Shannah and got a couple of crazy puzzles done.

Alyssa & Stephen WW103/104 2-5/ 1/09

Alyssa and Stephen helped do some fencing and built a cabinet. This cabinat is extra space for preserves and jams.

Simon & Viktor & Niels WW100/101/102 30/1-2/2/09

Simon ,Viktor and Niels were here for the same period as Mike.

Simon and Viktor helped Wal fence the front paddock and to the west of the house. They tidied the last of the wood in the back paddock from when the house was built, cutting and stacking it and putting the last pieces into a bonfire stack.

Niels helped Rusty clear some brush away from the neighbour's fence, tidied the tyres, grubbed out some dock from the paddocks and helped Rusty make a carpool hut at the road end of the drive. Mind you, I don't get to use it very often as I am always running late and the car is usually there already!

Mike WW99 30/1-2/2/09

We need to protect the prchard trees from the sheep so Mike helped to build some protectors for around the trees and moved the watering trough.

Martina WW98 27-28/1/09

Unfortunately, Martina could only stay a day, but she helped pick apricots and apples and cleared a space for the worm farm. Wal has made a dedicated worm farm to receive the compost from the toilet.

Jessica WW97 23-26/1/09

In the notebook Jessica didn't list what she did but wrote 'Thank you for sharing your knowledge and fresh bread"...so I guess she ate lots of bread while she was here!

David WW96 6-9/1/09

David came to join up with his friends David and Stefan. He was cycling so he came a bit later than them. He left in such a hurry he left a nice New Zealand cap behind, which Haldor inherited gratefully.

Haldor and Catherine WW93/94 5-15/1/09

Haldor and Catherine stayed 10 days and quickly became part of the family. Both had a lovely sense of humour and we enjpyed their stay. Haldor was instrumental in helping to set up the solar power as he was an electrician and he helped wire in the battery bank. Solar power at last! Since then we have added two more batteries for a little extra storage capacity.

Catherine did lots of painting, painting, painting....gardenig and weeding. She also played lots with Ami and Shannah and fell in love with the sheep! Catherine is pictured with her 2008 edition of the essential Kiwi souvenir, an Edmonds cookbook, and Rusty has her 1951 version
!
This was their first WWOOF in New Zealand, but they had wwoofed in South America which was really interesting to hear about.

David and Stefan WW92/93 2-9/1/09

David and Stefan helped clean the windows, did some digging, fencing and concreting. The most fun was building a hut for Shannah under the pear tree and making a tree hut for Ami.

They borrowed Wal's fishing rod and went down to the river mouth with a bit of luck on one night. The next night they got rather tangled in the bushes.

Ken for Christmas WW91 21-29/1/09

Ken stayed for a week over Christmas 2008. We had a quiet time with my parents also visiting for a couple of days. Ken wrote he learned about how to be more patient and about commitment to family. Ken helped us screen lots of soil for the garden and did a bit of weeding around trees to help them grow. We were really impressed with Ken's effort to cycle around New Zealand ! On Boxing Day we went to the Waimate Rodeo and enjoyed the show.