Waiheke rundown

Whoopsee! As some of you may have predicted I've been rather slack with this but trying to catch up now.

From 12th to 20th Feb Kim and I were on Waiheke Island wwoofing. We were meant to be wwoofing with a lady called Rosie - a jewellery designer and event organiser (right up my street eh?). We were collected by the boat from a lovely chap called Marco, who was juggling by the quayside and took us off to Rosie's in a sunshine yellow van.

When we arrived at Rosie's place, a gorgeous house on stilts at tree level with a massive mediterranean style space inside, we had a cup of tea and a chat and did some hula hooping, which was all v fun! Then Rosie sent us off with an empty baby buggy to by her a new printer. Quirky but fine. Then Anneke, a german wwoofer arrives out of the blue, fresh from Germany and v disorientated. At this point we are told that Kim and I will be staying down the road in her friend Kim's sleep out (like a summer house/guest room affair) and . Anneke will stay in the house and do childcare for Rosie's three granddaughters. Kim will do wwoofing hours for Kim the man, and I will do event stuff for Rosie. All a bit disjointed but we were up for going with the flow. Kim came to collect us in his van to lug all our luggage round to his. A SUPER nice guy, really kind and welcoming and fair. His teenage son and daughter were also really sweet. The sleepout was basically the size of the double bed it contained with 2 chest of drawers crammed in for good measure, and although clean was cralwing with mozzies and spiders. So we spent out first evening massacring the bugs, putting up my double mozzie net and making home as best we could.

The wwoofing work at Rosie's was rather random and disjointed and the first morning I just napped for 3 hours while they took the children to the park and supermarket. But in the afternoon I did a craft workshop with the children making masks which was quite fun. Kim meanwhile was making plum chutney and cleaning Kim's van, all well so far. We had our dinner at Rosie's- a bit crowded with her family there but nice. Then I drove Rosie's battered old ford camper full of women down to Charley Farley's bar at Onetangi beach where we enjoyed a mad irish trio and the stars outside.

The next day I got up at 6:30 to drive Rosie and a few helpers to the weekly market. It as pissing down but we managed to get the stage space in the hall as Rosie's stall and set it up nicely. The market was very cute and quirky with lots of homemade organic produce ranging from face creams to feijoas ( a lovely fruit like a cross between a pear and a kiwi in taste). It was a long morning and my stomach was a bit dodgy, but interesting to see how to run a market stall and the kind of set up you need. Rosie has done it all her life. In acknowledgement of my extra ours Rosie let me grab some jewellery making materials from her massive stockpiles, which was cool.

That night we had been long invited to join them at a private beach party which we were really looking forward to. After an afternoon at the beach we had showered and dressed up and were ready to go. We got a call from Rosie saying they were eating that minute and that there wasn't room for us to go with them to the party in the van so we'd have to make other arrangements. A bit put out at this change of tune, we rushed round to eat and negotiated about the van, but it all seemed hectic and a bit moody so we decided to leave them to it rather then go where we weren't really wanted. We wound up getting a pricy bottle of wine from a restaurant and heading back to Kim's place. Kim took pity on us wilting wallflowers and drove us into the main village of Oneroa to a great bar called the Skinny Sardine, where he bought us a glass of wine and left us to have a good night, heading home to hang out with his kids. We ended up having a whale of a time and met a super friendly Aucklander, Lotus- everyone's best friend. Then we met a hilarious young hen party who were really sweet and welcoming. Chatted to various randomers including a gang of 3 funny young boys who shared our cab home and shared their JD and coke with us.

The next day we felt rough as the proverbial but better for a night out letting loose. We decided we wanted to Wwoof for Kim as wanted to be in the same place and not toing and froing as Rosie willed it. So I let Rosie know and although she was keen for Kim and I to move in there, we eventually got our own way and stayed put. We spent the morning making plum jam and cleaning the house a bit, and had a lovely lunch. We headed down to Onetangi beach on the bus, full of the joys, and had a lovely afternoon there with Shannon and Hannah, Kim's mates who were over from Auckland. We enjoyed a bit of the chilled out Jam Night at one of the beach cafes then Kim picked us up and we cooked an awesome roast dinner and stuffed ourselves.

The next day the hard work began and we were 'weeding' for Kim. This consisted of tearing out and battling through a crazy tangle of Jasmine and Wandering Jew (like privet I think?). The Jamsine has ridiculously tough vines which wrap around everything, and the garden had clearly been running amok for years before Kim moved there. We were fully kitted out in overalls and sweating like crazy, such hard work. That afternoon we drove Rosie into Oneroa and we checked out the little music museum and art gallery there and had a wander round the shops.

The next day we had to do some 'creative project with Rosie' but what we ended up doing was a tiny bit of gardening, tidying and washing up, then an hour and half waiting on the couch, then an hour or so driving her to the beach (nudie of course) and chilling there while she swam. So odd but not hard work!

The next day we were due to leave for Auckland. We did a hard morning's work, then showered and packed out bags and Kim drove us to the ferry. We were happy to be moving on from the slightly wierd and wonderful island of Waiheke and looking forward to the next leg of our adventure!! We dozed on the ferry, exhausted from a hard but fun week.

I'll write some more soon I promise and get up to speed xxx