Our First HelpX Experience

We decided on doing the HelpX program (short for “Help Exchange”) when arriving to New Zealand because we thought it would be a good way to meet some real-life Kiwis (and getting food and accommodation at no cost was a huge bonus, too). If you haven’t heard of HelpX, it’s a program similar to WWOOF and Workaway that connects hosts to “helpers” in exchange for lodging (we will go into more detail on this in a separate post). We ended up choosing Nat’s place as our first location because she had lots of animals, great reviews, and was one of the only HelpX hosts that was generous enough to let us stay with them so close to the New Year. So it was fortunate that our first HelpX was probably la crème de la crème of all HelpX locations, hosted by Nat, one of the sweetest and most genuine people I’ve met. She had infinite stories to tell about her farm animals and her cooking was phenomenal.

[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6na8CCWFK4&w=854&h=480]

Stefan and I had been planning on arriving to New Zealand on the night of January 2nd, but due to one of the passengers requiring medical attention 2 hours into our flight, we arrived at 6 am on January 3rd — 8 hours later than we expected. This meant that instead of having a restful night’s sleep in our AirBNB before meeting Nat, we had a hurried shower and a quick nap before meeting her.

Once we got to the house, we received a tour of it, our cottage, and the farm. After growing up in Australia, Nat decided to move to New Zealand and even though her parents were against the idea, they eventually ended up living in the house right next to them! It makes sense, after seeing how peaceful life can be at Nat’s place.

In fact, I was still very much entertaining naptime’s visit when Nat showed up at our door, but she was kind and knew all too well the stages of a newcomers’ jet lag. She even let us have the day off work, something partly motivated by my yawning in the backseat of the car and partly by her hand getting smashed with a sledgehammer when a previous helper insisted on working through his jet lag the day of his arrival.

In order to give you a snapshot of our time as helpers for Nat, we will describe the hosts (Nat and her family), the location (Nat’s farm), the work (mostly weeding), and what we learned from our stay. We will also included a short interview with Nat herself about what her tips are for New Zealand newcomers.

The Hosts

Nat was kind enough to let us stay at her place for the first week of the year, even though it was close to the holidays and her extended family had been staying there as well. It’s one thing to host a couple, but to host it while also tending to 6 other people is extremely generous. We had some great times with her family and even showed her little cousin a cute mystery game we’d previously played called ‘Detective Grimoire’. We loved all their different accents – Nat was from Australia, her UK-born and New Zealand-raised husband brought a Kiwi one to the table, and their cousins had fun English accents (Stockport and Manchester, specifically). We LOVED hearing the little kids pronounce words like ‘gun’ and ‘mum’ such that they rhymed with ‘own’ and ‘ohm’!

One of my favorite things about our stay at Nat’s place was her cooking. Each night after a hard day’s work, we would come over to the kitchen and Nat would be cooking up something yummy, like lamb and potatoes or fried squid with coleslaw. It was no surprise when I found out that Nat had not only hosted a Master Chef winner at her property, but had even been admitted as a contestant herself – she was that good!

It turned out that not only was Nat a fab cook, but she also had her own column in the local newspaper. Her main topics were the farm animals that she has cared for over years and it sounds like she had quite the following of readers! Many of her articles talked about the life stories (like Caspar the friendly goat’s death and his mourning goat soulmate) and surprising characteristics of of her farm animals (like her kune kune Bella who aggressively attacked and killed one of her chooks) — as shown below.

The Property

Nat’s place was made up of her family’s house, a cottage (where we slept), a shed for all the farm tools, and acres upon acres of land for all her farm animals and vegetable/fruit/herb gardens. Her animals included two fluffy dogs, Milo and Akira, a small orange parrot named Joey, two pigs named Thelma and Louise, 5 ‘chooks’ (chickens) and 1 rooster named Rupert, two lizards (one of which had two missing legs and named Taylor Swift), along with several goats and cows.

As previously mentioned, we had our own cottage where we had our own space, but Nat also made us feel at home by letting us raid the kitchen for food anytime we wanted. We felt like having our own place separate from Nat’s house was really nice since it gave her family some space and we didn’t feel like we were intruding on their limited time together.

The Work

Most of the work at this HelpX involved weeding, which ended up being pretty gratifying. Stefan and I love podcasts so we would put on our earphones and listen to our favorite episodes and just sit for hours pulling stuff out of the ground. Nat gave us a list of tasks to complete throughout the week — it started out with weeding in the chicken coop and the pig pen, and then on to the vegetable garden, followed by the pool and reptile garden. It became a little routine for us:

• 8:30 am – wake up, drink a café latte and eat an egg boiled to perfection (thanks to her coffee machine and singing egg timer which gives the tune of “Killing Me Softly” once it is soft-boiled – I NEED to get me one of those!)
• 9:30 am – begin work
• ~1:30 pm – end work and have lunch
• 3-6 pm – have some time to ourselves
• 6 pm – eat dinner provided by Nat

On one occasion, Stefan and I worked a double shift (8 hours) instead of the normal 4-hours so we could have the following day to go to the ASB Classic in Auckland. Nat dropped us off at the nearest train station and we went into the city from there. It seems that most HelpX hosts are flexible with the work schedule as long as you complete your hours – just be sure to communicate your plans with them in advance!

Things We Learned

Although we might not have learned any marketable skills (and likely won’t at any HelpX we do), we still came out with more knowledge about New Zealand life, culture, plants, and animals. The main thing we learned, particularly because we did it so often, was weeding and identifying different plants. The thistle plant was one of our most difficult to handle since it has large thorns, but Stefan came up with an effective and ouch-free way of taking them out by pulling the base away with a fork and cutting with a knife near the roots.

Interview with Nat

*Note: some of these answers have been edited for brevity and clarity

Were there any culture shocks when arriving to New Zealand?

Not really. New Zealanders are chill and so similar to Australians.

Do you have any movie or book recommendations for travelers to read before coming to NZ?

• Lord of the Rings

• Boy (Taika Waititi)

• Hunt for the Wilderpeople

• Whale Rider

Are there any hikes or fave places you would recommend to travelers?

• Abel Tasman National Park – which is at the top of the south island and is a 3-day hiking tour

• The Coromandel – which is south of Auckland and is full of beautiful beaches

Knowing your love of cooking, how about any restaurants that you would recommend?

Every town will have its own great restaurants, but here are some places in Auckland that I would recommend:

• SIDART – a high-end restaurant with Indian flavors

• Paris Butter – a French-inspired restaurant

• The Grove – New Zealand food with a French twist

• Amano – an Italian-inspired bakery and restaurant

• Grasshopper – a Thai restaurant and bar

• Mai Thai – a Thai restaurant

For NZ newcomers, are there tips on NZ culture and etiquette that they should be aware of?

New Zealand is really easy-going and not as politically correct as other countries may be. But I would recommend not to use any derogatory language towards the NZ natives and be aware of certain customs. For example, the ‘Pakeha’ (New Zealanders from European descent) are not allowed into ‘Marae’ (Māori meeting grounds). Also, you should be clean and careful not to leave rubbish everywhere.

What are your favorite things about NZ?

New Zealand is unspoiled, diverse, stunning, and a wonderful place to feed your soul.

How can people not living in NZ live a more Kiwi life?

Relax, don’t overanalyze or overcomplicate things. Keep things simple. And above all: love and respect one another.

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