Live for free in New Zealand
WWOOFing in New Zealand
Do you want to stay in New Zealand for weeks without paying a cent for lodging or food? Want to learn farming and gardening skills from lifelong experts? Do you want to really get know some locals and spend time with them like a family? Ever experienced waking up every morning in a remote countryside in one of the most beautiful places on earth?
Have you heard of WWOOF?
What is WWOOF?
The World Wide Organization of Organic Farmers a.k.a. WWOOF is a network of farmers from across the world. In simplest terms, these farmers will host travelers on their property to work in exchange for food and lodging. WWOOFing in New Zealand is a popular way for travellers to stay in country long-term. Every host has different rules for their farm, but the majority of hosts will have travelers work four hours a day, six days a week. Workers get (at minimum) a bed to sleep in and three home cooked meals per day. These rules can be flexible as well. Some hosts offer the option for travelers to work eight hours a day instead of four to get the following day completely free from work. Others will provide a monetary stipend per day for food instead of providing meals.
How it Works
You will buy a membership online for the specific country you want to visit (in this case, New Zealand). Build out your profile and put a lot of thought into it. These farmers are going to be hosting you in their home, so the more you can tell them about yourself, the better. There will be a space for you to write a lengthy description of who you are and why you are interested in WWOOFing in New Zealand.
In addition to that, you can list skills, interests, and types of work you’re experienced in. The more of these you can think of, the more likely you will find a host that needs someone like you. These don’t have to farm-related skills (we didn’t have any). Musical, construction, teaching, or even computer experience are all things that hosts are interested in. You should also put plenty of pictures of yourself so that hosts can get a very good idea of who you are before they actually meet you.
Looking for WWOOF hosts in New Zealand
Once that’s done, start looking for hosts! The WWOOFing in New Zealand website will provide you a list of hosts in the country you’re looking for. You can search by city and town, or you can use a map that shows you where various hosts are located. We used the map feature the most when looking for place to stay. You can also search hosts by category and work type rather than location. WWOOF hosts should provide plenty of details about what exactly they are looking for. They will describe the type of work they do and the accommodations they provide.
Finding a Match
There is a kind of “application” process when looking for a host. You will see a few parameters listed on each host’s page. Each hosting page will tell you how many people they want, when they want them, and what kind of workers they need. Every host will specify how many people they are willing and able to accommodate. They may only have certain number of beds to offer, or they may not need many workers at that given time. Some hosts will take workers all year around. Others will take on travellers during specific seasons when they need a lot of work done. There are hosts that are looking for specific types of skills as well. For instance, a host may own a horse ranch, or a vineyard. Those types of places usually require workers with previous experience or skills in those areas.
By and large though, mosts hosts mostly need able-bodied young people with a good work ethic. That being said, having farm and gardening experience is a big plus! Your profile page is a bit like a resume. Fill it up with useful information about what you can offer. If you are able to work on one WWOOF farm for a bit, add anything you learned there to your profile. It will help you appeal to the next hosts.
Messaging a WWOOF host
When you have found a host and farm that you would like to stay at, and you meet their criteria, send them a message on the WWOOF website. This message is very important. Think about it as an elevator pitch for why the host should give you a place on their farm. DO NOT write a short, generic message and copy and paste it to every host you reach out to. They aren’t idiots, they can tell instantly if your message is generic or if it’s actually personal. For example, don’t write:
“Hi, I’m Jordan and I’m interested in staying in your farm. Do you have availability?”
Instead, add something in your message that is specific the host’s actual farm. Show them that you have really looked at their page and are drawn to them specifically. Try something like this:
“Hi, my name is Jordan. I’m looking for a place to stay near Queenstown, and I came across your page. Your farm looks beautiful, and all those pictures of other WWOOFers spending time with your family look so fun. Also, I see that you listed organic orchard care as part of your farm work. I’m really interested in learning more about that from you. I would really love to stay at your farm, so please let me know if you have availability soon! Thanks!”
You can include more detail that if you’d like, but I wouldn’t include any less. Make sure that the host knows that you have read their page. They need to know that you want to stay and work with THEM, not just staying there because the location is convenient.
“Booking” your stay WWOOF
WWOOFing in New Zealand is not like a hotel service or an Airbnb. There are many elements that factor in to when hosts need workers. A lot of it has to do with what kind of work the host needs done and if it is seasonal. WWOOF hosting is actually quite casual. You’ll find that reflected in how far out you are able to “book” a stay.
I put “book” in quotations because dates for staying on a WWOOF farm are often not set in stone. You might be planning your trip for six months from now and want to message hosts. It’s not necessarily a bad thing to reach out to hosts that far out, but don’t expect them to give you hard answer. For most hosts, one to three months out is generally when a host can positively tell you whether they can host you or not. Otherwise, they will say, “We might be able to take you. Check back with us in a few months”, or “Call us when you arrive in New Zealand.”
As you can imagine, this will make planning difficult if you are person who would like to have everything planned out beforehand. It also means that WWOOFing in New Zealand. is not as useful to short-term travellers. However, if you’re planning on being in New Zealand for a while and just want to travel at your own leisure, WWOOFing can be perfect for you. There are so many hosts out there that you will almost always be one available for you, even last minute. Seasonality will effect this of course – there will likely be more available hosts in September than there are in January.
WWOOF accommodations
Accomodations for WWOOFing in New Zealand can vary widely. No two farms are alike, and neither are the places you stay while you are there. Typically though, there are two options: you will stay in a room inside of the host’s house, or you will stay in a guesthouse or nearby hut. The host should provide many details on where exactly you’ll be staying, and usually some pictures. If they don’t provide pictures, you may want to ask for them.
Be sure to read the accommodation description very carefully. There are some host farms out there with ROUGH accommodations. Some just provide a place to put a tent. You might be using an outhouse, and hot water is likely going to be limited. Give some thought to what kind of comfort level you want. You’ll likely be staying there for a few weeks so you’ll want to know what you’re in for.
WWOOF farms are not Airbnb’s. Even if you’re staying in guest house, accommodations will not be luxurious. It all depends on your preference of where you want to live and sleep at night. Not to say that many of these rooms are not comfortable, but don’t expect a hotel.
Types of Experiences and Work for WWOOFing in New Zealand
Something great about WWOOFing in New Zealand is the wealth of options available to you. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of farms in New Zealand that are looking for workers at any given time. You might be looking for a place to stay near one of New Zealand’s cities like Wellington or Queenstown.
There are tons of options right around these cities that will give you the chance to work and explore without spending a penny on lodging. Or maybe you want to stay out on a sheep farm by the coast a few hours from nowhere. There are plenty of those too. We recommend doing both! Do you want a family dynamic where you have dinner at the table every night with a host family of six? Do you want a host that lets you be as flexible as you want and will make your meals to go so you can go out and explore?
This really is a fun part of WWOOFing in New Zealand. It’s like choosing a workshop for a skills combined with cultural immersion. If you want to go to a place and get to know its people well, working among them is really one of the best ways to do it. We learned more about what it means to live in New Zealand than we ever would have if we didn’t WWOOF during our time there. In addition to all this, we learned skills from true expert farmers and gardeners. If things like milking cows, herding sheep, growing new crops and trees, and small scale handiwork are work opportunities that sound interesting to you, you can go learn them in the most beautiful place on Earth.
WWOOFing in New Zealand is a Job
Your host won’t limit your duties to farm or gardening work only. You will likely spend time weeding, hauling brush or trash, digging a hole, or cleaning up junk. When I say work, I mean it. While a big part of WWOOFing in New Zealand is cultural exchange and finding a family away from home, being a WWOOFer is a job. Your hosts are paying for your food and energy needs, and in return they expect you to make up for that in 4-5 hours a day of hard work. Some days are easier than others. Some farms are easier than other. But don’t expect it to be fun all the time.
WWOOFing in New Zealand: Free Time vs Work Time
A huge benefit of WWOOFing in New Zealand is the “work-life” balance structure. Most hosts require something like 25-30 work hours per week. Usually that means 4 or 5 hours of work each day with one day off per week. You are free to use the rest of your time exploring the area that you’re in. I want to give you full details on when those working hours are required and how you can maximize your free time each day.
Work Schedule Flexibility
Like I said above, you are expected to work 4-5 hours a day while WWOOFing in New Zealand. The work contained during that time are considered your labor. When that’s done, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have no other duties for the rest of the day. Most hosts also require you to help upkeep the parts of the house that you use, and you will often be expected to help cook dinner and/or clean it up. Be sure to factor in that time as you plan out afternoon activities.
Rigid Schedule
Work is assigned differently with each host. Some hosts will expect you to meet with them at a designated time in the morning. From there, you will do all of the day’s work alongside the host and at their direction. This is usually the case for types of work that require more expertise, like working with livestock. You will be assisting the farmer rather than doing all the work on your own. In this structure, you will have set hours each day that you can expect to be working. The host will likely keep track of the hours you have worked.
Lots of Kiwis take a break called “Smoko” at exactly 10am. It’s a weirdly big deal for them, so if you’re working alongside your host you’ll be taking Smoko with them. It usually goes for about half an hour. The break is usually deducted from your total working time.
Flexible schedule
Other hosts do things differently. For instance, if your work includes more gardening, you will may have a more flexible schedule. You will still need to meet the host in the morning to go over what needs to be done. After that, however, the host may leave it up to you as to when you would like to get the day’s work done. In this scenario, the host is trusting you to put in the amount of hours that they ask of you.
This kind of schedule is beneficial if you have an activity you would like to do in the morning. You have the flexibility to work around things you may have planned already. However, some workers can get a little lazy with this type of schedule. They sleep in and don’t start working until 10 or 11am. They end up working during a large chunk of the afternoon, which leaves them with little time to go out exploring that day. If you don’t have any plans for the morning, I’d recommend getting started early. It will help you get the most out of each day while you’re WWOOFing in New Zealand.
Ask Your Host
This time can often be moved around if you ask. If there is not pressing that needs to be done on a certain day, you can ask your host if you can double up on hours one day to get the next day off. If you want to go somewhere overnight while WWOOFing, you can pair that extra day off with your weekly day off to get a whole weekend. However, sometimes there are important tasks that need to be done at certain times. If that’s the case, the host may be less willing to give this kind of flexibility with hours. Talk to your host before you begin to see what options are available. They know you are there to travel and explore, and they want you to be able to do that as much as possible.
Free Time
Free time is of course the fun part. Use it to travel, hike, shop, or whatever else you would like to do in the corner of the world you’re living at. It’s why your WWOOFing and why you wanted to travel in the first place.
In our experience, we used our time on farms as a rest from travel. We did most of our true exploring while road tripping, so we could spend as much time as we wanted at the places we went to. When we got to our farms, we still did some exploring in the afternoons. But we often used spent those afternoons resting, reading, or doing little hikes on the on the farm property itself. It was wonderful to stay in the same place and live as a part of a family for a while.
Transport while WWOOFing in New Zealand
If you don’t have a car in New Zealand, your ability to leave the farm is very limited. Your host will often offer to pick you up at the beginning of your trip and drop you off at the end. In the between time, however, you will likely only be able to get a ride from you host if they are already planning on going into town. If there is public transportation nearby, you can use that. Unfortunately, these farms are usually somewhat remote you won’t have public transportation access.
This is when it can be very helpful to make friends with other travellers staying on the farm. If there are a group of WWOOFers working on a farm, one of them often has a vehicle and will drive you around. Kenna and I did this for others since we had a car. If we were going anywhere, we would ask our fellow WWOOFer if she wanted to come. It’s a great way to bond with others and make friends. Even if you do have a car, an afternoon-length of time still limits you to only traveling the areas near your farm. We always ate dinner at the farms, which meant our window for exploring was from about 1pm to 7pm each day.
If you don’t have a car, one way to get around transportation limitations is to go to a big farm. One of the farms we stayed on was three hours from the closest town. However, the farm sat on 1,000 acres of New Zealand coastline. We never left the property during our two week stay. We spent all of our free time exploring the farm itself, which was magnificent.
Using WWOOF Hosts as a Resource
If you want to really get to know the locals, there is no better way than WWOOFing. Your hosts will be true Kiwis, and there is a significant amount of cultural exchange that happens when you WWOOF. A huge benefit to this is that you can use your host as a travel guide. When you first arrive at a farm, the host will give you a list of all the places and activities you can experience nearby while staying at their farm.
In addition to this, your host can give you all kinds of useful information about how to travel effectively in their country and new places to check out. A major highlight of our New Zealand trip was canoeing the Whanganui River for three days. We had never heard of it until our one of our North Island hosts recommended it to us. You should ask you hosts for ideas of things to do or places to go in their country. They will give you the types of places that travel website can’t tell you about. Your host also likely knows more WWOOF hosts in other parts of the country and can refer you to them.
Home Away From Home
In addition to all these benefits, a good WWOOF host can kind of be a home base for you. You can WWOOF for while, go travel for a few weeks, and then come back to your host. If your plans go sideways or you completely run out of money and have nowhere to stay, call your WWOOF host. They love travellers and are usually generous and kind people. They want to help you and will be there for you if you ever get in a bad place.
How long can you WWOOF in New Zealand?
Every host has a preference for how long they would like you to stay. Almost all of them have a minimum length of stay listed. It takes a few days for WWOOFers to get into the rhythm of the farm and learn how things work, so usually the hosts wants workers to stay for a while. Usually the absolute minimum stay is one week, though two or three weeks minimum are the most common.
Once you reach the minimum stay mark, length of stay is often up to you. If you and your host get along, they may let you stay for however long you want. I’ve heard of WWOOFers staying at one farm for many months at a time. In fact, for many WWOOF farms that is the norm. We were short-term WWOOFers, but if you are interested in WWOOFing for long periods of time that is certainly a possibility for you.
Our Experiences WWOOFing in New Zealand
In this section, I’ll briefly summarize our WWOOFing stays in New Zealand so you can get an idea of our experience. We stayed with four hosts in New Zealand, two in the North Island and two in the South. Overall, we spent about six weeks on farms, which amounted to roughly half of our time in New Zealand. We kept a pattern of WWOOFing for a week or two, road tripping for a little while, and WWOOFing again.
Coromandel
The first was in the Coromandel Peninsula. Our hosts were a large family who we had a ton of fun with. We spent a lot of nights playing games with them or watching movies. The accomodation was a cozy guest cabin that had enough bunks to hold seven people total, though we were the only WWOOFers there at the time. The cabin had shower with hot water, and a wood-fire stove to keep us warm. We ate three great meals a day with the host family. We spent most of our working hours gardening and clearing the land, though we also did some work with their cattle. In our free time, we explored the nearby beaches, including sites like Cathedral Cove, Hot Water Beach, Hahei Beach, and New Chums Beach.
Lake Taupo
Our second WWOOF stay was in a tiny town called Omori on the shores of Lake Taupo. Tongariro National Park lies just south of the lake. We chose to stay at this farm because we wanted to explore Tongariro while we were there. At this location, we stayed in bedroom at the host’s house. They provided food but we prepared our own meals for breakfast and lunch. We made dinner for them one night as well. We did work here was not exactly farm related. Our host owned a large lodge on the property and we did some interior cleaning there. We also painted a wooden playset and washed solar panels. During our stay in Omori, we went skydiving over Lake Taupo, checked out some local hot springs which included a natural “hot-tub” style pool, and went on an amazing hike in Tongariro called Tama Lakes.
Golden Bay
Our third WWOOF experience was perhaps our most unique and probably our favorite. The farm is situated on the north-western coast of the South Island. The property included 1,000 acres of stunning beaches, hills, brush, natural caves, and labyrinthian stone formations. It was truly one of the most amazing places Kenna and I had ever been, and through WWOOF, we were able to live there for two weeks. The farm was primarily a sheep farm, but we spent most of our time in the garden. We did have the opportunity to do some very memorable sheep work including mustering and penning. Because the farm was so remote, we spent our free time exploring the property itself. The food we ate came straight off of the land we worked. Our hosts were an older couple who became very dear to us. We stayed in a bedroom in their home.
Christchurch
Our final New Zealand WWOOF experience was in Christchurch, South Island. This WWOOF was a last minute booking for us, as our flight ended up moving up a few weeks. The farm was located in a small community just outside the city of Christchurch. It was a hobby farm, meaning that our hosts did not necessarily work the farm full time. Most of the work we did was gardening, though we also had daily animal care duties. All three meals per day were provided for us. We stayed in a tiny cabin in our host’s backyard. This farm served as a perfect place for us to sell our car (our hosts helped us tremendously with that process), get rid of any stuff we didn’t need, and in general prepare for the next stage of our travels beyond New Zealand.
