I just finished a WWOOF stay on a veggie farm on the Great Barrier Island. What a great experience! Even most Kiwis don’t get the chance to visit the Barrier, so I feel very lucky to have spent four weeks there really experiencing island life and getting to know the local people. Our WWOOF hosts, Caity and Gerald, were wonderful. They’re the only people doing commercial agriculture on the island. Our main tasks involved harvesting and preparing all the produce for weekly veggie box deliveries and markets. It was harvest and tourist season at full bloom, with an abundance of beans, strawberries, tomatoes, zucchinis, cucumbers, and more to pick every day. It was hard but satisfying work.

The Barrier is unlike anywhere else I’ve stayed. The island has a small community of about 600 people (except around Christmas/New Year time when it gets inundated with tourists from Auckland), and everybody knows each other. There are only a handful of restaurants and shops, and prices are high since most things need to be imported from the mainland. The island is also off the grid and has limited cell phone and Internet access. We had to learn quickly how to conserve power and live with limited resources. It’s a simple and quiet life, tucked away among beautiful beaches and mountains. It really is a whole other world!

View coming into the Great Barrier on the Sealink ferry

Boats at Port Fitzroy

A whole beach to ourselves

One of my favorite running routes — gorgeous view!

Cows watching me run

My time on the Barrier was extra special because I spent Christmas, New Year, and my birthday there. There were lots of celebrations with other WWOOFers and new friends we made on the island. I got to do some cool stuff in between our long workdays, including beautiful hikes, beach days, and my first fishing trip! One of the best things about living on a small island is you’re never far from a beach or the ocean. The first weekend of the new year was Mussel Fest, an annual party that is basically the Barrier event of the year. It was a blast! Alexa, another American WWOOFer, and I stuffed ourselves silly with all kinds of mussel dishes, followed by 7 hours of dancing and boozing to awesome live music. We met a great group of Aucklanders there and ended up spending the night on their boat at the port. We all skinny dipped in the ocean around midnight. Swimming naked in the ocean looking up at millions of stars in the night sky is an unbelievable feeling!

Perched at the top of the world! Mount Hobson, the highest point on the Great Barrier at 650m.

View of Okiwi and the farm from atop Mount Hobson

Water as pure as gold, on the hike down from Mount Hobson

One of our hikes led to this beautiful secluded waterfall and swimming hole.

Delicious garlic mussels at Mussel Fest

Celebrating my first birthday on the beach!

Gerald showing me awesome caves around Arid Island, off the coast of the Barrier.

Bruce ready to dive for crayfish

Fresh seafood for dinner

My first catch, a big snapper! Speckles thought it smelled delicious.

Two real Kiwi blokes preparing our seafood dinner.

Now I’m back in Auckland and starting a new leg of my journey, pausing WWOOFing for now and just traveling around NZ for the next few weeks. As much as I love farm life, it feels wonderful to take a break from physical labor and put on clean street clothes again. Can’t wait to finally make it to the South Island and see the rest of the country.