The Last Supper

After two weeks of wwoofing at Belmont Park Retreat Laura and I have moved on and thankfully so. It was all great until the second week, when we started noticing that the place we were in definitely wasn’t normal.

The woman who was hosting us is a herbalist and has her own business. She managed to share with us on numerous occasions things like how she can read people and know what they are feeling and how she just knows what will be on her kids exams so she just tells them what to study. How drinking pasteurized milk is one of the worst things you can do and that drinking two raw eggs a day is really healthy.

I also had to sit through an hour of her and her business partner swearing that the only way to cure thyroid problems is to eat ground up pig thyroid then a lecture on all the benefits of bone broth. After that I was questioned as to why my mother never fed me bone broth, or why she herself hadn’t been brought up on it.

Homemade yoghurt

This is not normal!

Things just kept getting weirder and weirder. The number of patronizing comments that were directed at us was ridiculous. But somehow despite all these things I managed to stick it out (for two whole weeks!). By the time the weekend came we thought we had made it, after all we only had two days left. But boy were we wrong!

Saturday morning she set us to work collecting and transporting bark from one side of the property to the other as well as raking, collecting and transporting wet leaves to use as mulch. Let me tell you wheelbarrows are difficult to maneuver up and down steep hills and steps. Once we had finished we went in to make some lunch. Mid way through our lunch she came storming in and started yelling at us for not pulling up the weeds properly and for not putting them in the proper places in the yard.

Basically we could do NOTHING right in the garden. Which she made very clear Sunday morning when she told us that she wanted us to do housework because we’d probably be better at that and anyways, she told us, she had found two guys that were going to come to do some “proper” garden work. Just a slightly sexist comment to make.

Naturally by that night we were feeling very frustrated at how incompetent she was making us feel. However this wasn’t even close to being the worst of it. Sunday night, our last supper, feeling relieved that our work had been done we thought that getting through dinner couldn’t be bad at all compared to what we had endured. But once again we were very, very wrong!

Taking a few steps back for a second, when we first arrived at her house I mentioned that I was vegan to which she replied “I don’t like vegans” and she told me that I may be required to make some of my own meals which I told her right away that I had absolutely no problem doing.

Anyways back to Sunday night, as we sat down to dinner, which was a nut loaf with egg, not exactly a vegan friendly meal. I politely asked for the salad and passed up having some of the nut loaf. When she realized that I wasn’t planning on eating it she lost it. She said to me (in a VERY vicious tone) “ Are you seriously not going to eat that? You are going to be very limited in life and miss out on so many things if you continue on this diet. Your behavior is socially unacceptable and anyways those eggs aren’t even fertilized.”

First off what do the eggs being fertilized have anything to do with it?

Also thank you for telling me what my life will be like.

Ironically later on in the meal the topic of fluoride in water was brought up by her son and she immediately emphasized that fluoride should be removed from all water because “EVERY PERSON SHOULD HAVE A CHOICE OF WHAT GOES INTO THEIR BODY”

Hmmm ya don’t say?

She ignored me for the rest of the night as well as the next morning on the drive into the city.

All in all she was extremely close minded, a bully and a very inconsiderate person (even Laura agrees and she is a psychologist).

So Monday morning we left.. on our way to the next wwoofing place.. the infamous Michael, a wwoof host that both Laura and I have had our eye on for weeks. He runs a raw juice bar and distributes superfoods. He’s interested in running and swimming and runs a yoga and massage place. Sounds ideal right? Well apparently there was a lot he wasn’t telling us... Stay tuned for our slightly interesting but VERY uncomfortable visit to Paraparaumu. 

The top of the Belmont Trig hike

Shoveling out the compost bins

The sheep watching you everywhere you go