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Marveling Manawaru

Abby Braun
Sep 11, 2018
8 min read

My second WWOOFing experience took me to a very charming little village called Manawaru which is on the outskirts of Te Aroha in the North Island of New Zealand. The tiny town is nestled along the Kaimai Mountain Range and is about an hour drive northeast of Hamilton and 30 minutes north of Matamata (where the Hobbiton movie set resides).

After my first WWOOFing experience on Waiheke Island, I took a bus from Auckland to Morrinsville where my amazing hosts - who I will refer to as V and R - picked me up. From the moment I first met V & R, I knew I was going to love this next experience. Immediately upon meeting them I felt so welcomed, comfortable, and even a part of the family :). I arrived at their beautiful home and was greeted with a hug by a darling four year-old who I came to be buddies with. She and her seven year-old brother made me feel so loved and welcomed. I love how children can be so accepting and make me feel a sense of belonging.

V showed me around their homestead and right away explained what we would be doing and what I would be helping with. I appreciated how organized she was and how she typed out her daily schedule, expectations, and things to do in the area. As a WWOOFer, it's really nice to know what is expected of you and what the daily schedule looks like.

V & R are a part of the Permaculture Community which I have learned so much about! When I first heard the term "permaculture" I thought it had something to do with planting things in frozen ground (HAHA). Only later did I realize that I was mistaking permaCULTURE for permaFROST. Haha embarrassing... Anywho, as I understand it, permaculture is a lifestyle in which a family tries to have a mindful relationship with the environment as they produce their own organic food. They will then use the community aspect to trade things with other families. For example V & R currently don't have any cows, so they get their milk from another family that raises dairy cows. In return V & R may exchange things from their garden or perhaps help the other family clean out their cow barn one day. They also have a very resourceful mindset in which everything has a purpose and nothing should go to waste. V & R are currently working toward being 100% self-sustainable by raising/growing all they need for food! They also are a zero waste household. I respect them so much for this and it has been such a joy living with them and learning from them. This is a very shortened and basic explanation of what permaculture is, but I find it to be quite a cool and interesting idea! If you would like to learn more about permaculture, I found this resource.

Now to get into the fun part - what I have been doing for the past week.

We worked for about 4 hours every day. And every day I had afternoon chores that I would accomplish. These included collecting the firewood and bringing it to the house, gathering eggs from the hen-house, cleaning up after supper,

putting the compost in the compost bin, and my personal favorite - feeding their two baby goats!!

Bottle feeding the baby goats Cornbeef "Corny" and Chick. Haha the kids named them :b

Day 1: Monday Sept. 3rd

Today we went to a friend of V's to muck out a calf barn to use the manure for fertilizer for the garden. While we were there, I got to hold and play with some piglets which was really fun. We shoveled out the calf shavings and put them into reused feed sacks to transport them back to our garden. I can honestly say that I love working on the farm. It's something I've always wanted to do. I love being able to be outside all the time, be surrounded by animals, use your own body to work hard, and earn your own food source.

When we got back to the house, we picked two buckets of limes off their lime tree. We washed them, cut them, and V taught me how to make pickled limes and lime chutney.

The start of lime chutney (above) and pickled limes (used in Indian dishes)

These may look like lemons, but these type of limes are yellow!

We also squeezed lime juice to make lime cordial. Cordial is a sweet bottled fruit concentrate that can be added to carbonated water or the like to make a tasty drink. It's delicious. I love working with V. She is very easy and fun to talk to and she is really good about explaining and teaching me what we are doing. She also showed me how she makes fresh bread - which she does every day!

Day 2: Tuesday Sept. 4th

Today we started the very rainy day off by taking the kids to school and I got to see A's kindy (what they call preschool in New Zealand). We then drove to Matamata and took the two fur-babies to get haircuts.

The fur-babies before the haircuts :D

We did a bit of shopping which was nice because I was able to get a few more WARM work clothes and a hat which I very much needed because of the powerful sun here. After V treated me to a cup of coffee, we picked up the pups, bought some compost and headed home. When we got home, we picked a few buckets of tangelos, cut and squeezed them, and made more cordial. I have always enjoyed cutting citrus so I loved this job. Plus I got a lovely fresh squeezed glass of tangelo juice :).

Tangelo Tree Fresh squeezed tangelo juice

We had lunch and afterward V taught me how to cure bacon (which is actually super super easy) and we brewed beer! Such a fun day! I absolutely love how much I am learning, especially all the things I'm learning how to make on my own.

Home-brewed beer! Curing bacon!

For supper I had liver for the first time and actually liked it! I've never wanted to try liver because every time I've been exposed to it I absolutely hate the smell, but when V made it it actually smelled good! I also tried feijoas which is a classic New Zealand fruit that has a very interesting flavor. Very hard to describe unless you taste it for yourself.

Day 3: Wednesday Sept. 5

Today the sun finally came out and we were able to work outside which was really nice. I spent most of the day shoveling out the compost and moving it in preparation for tearing out the compost bin and relocating it. In the evening, I spent a lot of time FINALLY starting to apply for jobs in the South Island. I have been putting this off for a while since I despise the application process. It has also taken a while to figure out where exactly I want to settle down for a few months. It's nice to have a "home base" per say at V & R's where I have a routine and can set aside time to apply for jobs in the evening.

Beautiful sunset in Manawaru, New Zealand (The sun sets at 6:00 pm currently)

Day 4: Thursday Sept. 6

Today we finished the lime chutney that was salting for a few days and it was absolutely delicious! It's a jelly-like substance which has a bit of a spicy kick. We got outside and V showed me how to sheet mulch which is putting layers of cardboard, fertilizer (manure), compost, and hay on the garden beds. We also weeded and did a few other odd jobs. After picking up the kids from school, V dropped me off at Te Aroha hot pools where I got to have a nice soak in the hot pool which is fed by a natural soda spring and geyser.

Day 5: Friday Sept. 7

Today was a gorgeous day. It's finally starting to feel like spring! We did more sheet mulching today and then V and I worked on tearing out the compost fence which took a lot of shoveling, a crowbar, and a lot of brute force :). Girl power - heck yea!! After tearing it out we then relocated it and put it back together again. We were pretty proud of the result, seeing as how we did it all ourselves. After we were done working, V dropped me off near the mountain to hike the Wairongamai trail. The Wairongamai trail follows an abandoned gold mining operation and is really cool! My favorite part was hiking up Butler's Incline which was a railroad track incline. Very steep and exhausting to get it up, but it was so worth it!

Seemed like railroad tracks to nowhere.. challenge accepted :)

My view of the tracks from part way up. It was pretty steep! I only fell once.. when I was trying to take a video of me trekking up the steepness I might add. Haha don't try that at home kids.

View from the top of my hike :)

Day 6: Saturday Sept. 8

Since it was Saturday I got to sleep in a bit which was really nice. R had the day off and I helped him put up a fence.

Digging a hole for a fence post

After laboring outside, I got cleaned up for V & R's annual curry night. V taught me how to make homemade flatbread (tortillas) which was such a fun job! I made the dough, kneaded it, rolled them out very thin, and then cooked them on the stove. I really enjoyed doing this and now I can make homemade tortillas without a recipe :)

Rolling out the tortillas The finished product - Homemade tortillas!!

Curry night was really fun. I ate like a king, feasting on about 13 different types of curry. I got to meet a bunch of local Kiwis and chat with them. One in particular marked up my map and told me all the good places to go in the South Island. So I will definitely make use of that in the future. This is why I love what I'm doing. I love having the opportunity to meet people who actually call New Zealand home. There is so much wisdom to be gained from them.

Day 7: Sunday Sept. 9

Since there is not much opportunity to go to church, I watched an awesome Time of Grace entitled "Don't Take the Bait" which I would really recommend listening to. I know I really needed it. The link is here. We took the day off as a family and hiked Karangahake Gorge which is a beautiful hike through a gorge. The trail leads across a bridge to the window walk which takes you through old gold mining tunnels which you need a flashlight to get through. It was awesome! The windows were little holes in the rock that you could look through to see the gorge down below.

Looking down at the gorge from the tunnels.

One of the "windows" through the old gold mining tunnels.

After the window walk we took a snack break and then continued on to a 1 km long old railroad tunnel which was really cool to walk through!

Day 8: Monday Sept. 10

Today was a spectacular day! I woke up earlier than normal and went with V and her daughter to Te Aroha Mountain to hike to the Whakapipi Lookout. We hiked together to the lookout which took us about 40 minutes, took a break to enjoy the beautiful view, and then I continued up the rest of the mountain by myself. There is something so powerful about trekking a mountain. It's such a high when you get to the top and see this incredible view, looking down and seeing how far you've come. It reminds me of the feeling I used to get when I would run cross country races. It may be hard and exhausting going, but when you get to the top, all of that fades away as you are captivated by the great beauty that surrounds you. I think I'm turning into a mountain trekking junkie. I can't wait to hike more mountains in New Zealand.

Even though Mt. Te Aroha is one of New Zealand's smallest mountains at 3,123 feet, I can still say this was the first New Zealand mountain I've climbed :)