Mimiwhangata Coastal Park
Album photoWhat's happening? Wanting to try something else? After nine months of wwoofing, we switch from couch surfing last week to volunteering now! Sometimes you don't really see the difference: working time and number of meals offered vary. But, in the end, we can check off some "kiwi must-do" in a record time...
Mimiwhangata [pronounced MimiFangata, it's Maori], is very remote ( but we quite like lost places, without phone coverage or internet, half an hour away from any village). A double of Freddy Mercury welcomes us, Chris Moretti (descendant of Italian migrants) and his wife Nadeane and his youngest son, Ben, 11 years old. We're warned from the beginning: 'Here, it's a farm, you're not going to cuddle birds!' Like in a wwoofing, we help to prepare the veggie garden for the new season: weeding, compost and mulch. Ben offers to be our guide on his 300 hectares peninsula. On the agenda: hunting and fishing.
Highlights :
- Sea fishing : we didn't catch much but about twenty dolphins came to say hello three times, they like scratching themselves on the rocks from the bay. We also learn how to fish urchins with bare hands (beware of spines) and how to eat them straight away. To reach the fishing spot, you need to cross a series of paddocks, go over a hill and traipse on rocks, carrying all the fishing gear supervised by half a dozen of shag families. We come back home with two small but delicious mullets.
- River fishing : we tease the eel hidden under a big rock in the river. The bait is a piece of sheep heart, previously cut.
Butchery learning exchange : we're taught how to skin and butcher (do you remember your biology lessons?) a sheep. We're not very good but Jack, the dog, isn't too fussy.
Possum hunting : we're talking again about these animals every Kiwi hates. Imported from Australia they multiply endlessly in New Zealand. For the survival of native forests, Ben lays traps and we help him the next day to pluck the fur (it's a bit gruesome).
Rabbit hunting : Ben hunts rabbits with a riffle but also with a bow and arrows. They are as invasive as possums but, when he found a cute baby bunny rabbit, he nurtured it.
The topography of the farm is quite steep so it's easier to spread fertilisers with a plane. The pilot could be from the RAF: take-off and landing from the top of the hill and refill in 2'; then surgical strike. In a few hours, about fifty tonnes of Superphosphate are spread on the hills. It's what we can call efficiency isn't it?!
Other "must-do" accomplished :
- Sheep shearing : there were only 16 and we shore only half a sheep. We must have been too slow, it's an art! :)
In the skin of a DOC Ranger : driving the company vehicle on the hills but also washing it and the camping toilets :)
Go and see a rugby match : Northland vs Otago. Pompom girls, mascots, supporters more or less enthusiastic. In spite of some impressive actions, Northland lost 36 to 54 (Eoan warned us :) )
Country golf with Ben in the paddock next to the house. We learn how to improve our swing by aiming holes dug by excited bulls. By the way, when we help to move these bulls, we could notice their strength. They can jump a fence as easily as a goat, but without the grace.
The end is getting closer, only 250kms from Cape Reinga, Rerenga Wairua where the souls of the dead are leaving for another world in Maori belief.