Volunteer Training at Harmony Farm

Volunteering at
Harmony Farm

Working and Learning:
Conscious Communication with All Beings
Forest Gardening and Permaculture
Earth Building and Eco-Housing
Herbal Medicine
Solar Power
Sustainable Energy Systems
Trail Creation and Maintenance
with
Time off to explore the area
and
Free accommodation in a healthy environment

Your stay in Dunedin, New Zealand, can be a discovery of forest gardening and a time to contemplate in native forest, with the sounds of our creeks and native song-birds to keep you company.

Harmony is for volunteers who like to spend two weeks or more getting to know one special part of the country - southern Native NZ forest, really well.

Harmony's 20 hectares of maturing broadleaf-podocarp forest, which includes mature Totaras, Rimu, Matai, Miro, and many Ground and Tree Ferns, is being developed as a Retreat Centre providing accommodation, and training in earth building, and sustainable forest-gardening. 5 km of trails, ridges, and hill-top views of Blueskin Bay and Mt Cargill, create a quiet, and contemplative environment.

Your accommodation is Danaa an eco-friendly earth and timber building. We also have a firebath for your enjoyment and refreshment. You may also camp in your own spot within one of Harmony's many clearings.

If you like to live close to the land from September to May, would enjoy walking Harmony's 5km of contemplative trails and connecting public tracks, would like to help build with earth, stone, and wood, have an interest in tending organic fruits and veges; and foraging for wild-fruits (in season) you will enjoy staying with us.

We follow the principles of deep ecology, forest-gardening, harmonisation, organic, no-dig, permaculture, sustainability, and ask all the beings of the forest before we make changes to their home and ours.

Staying at Harmony you are living green, sustainable, and with a small footprint. Composting toilet, cob-fire bath, rain and creek water, dining outdoors when the weather is fine, grinding flour on a hand-powered stone mill, and baking your own bread. Keeping healthy with and helping collect herbal medicines and home-grown veges. Sleeping in a cob-earth building - which you can add to. Helping build and maintain trails. Working consciously with devas, elementals, animals, birds, people, and All Beings in the Deep Ecology and Spiritual Ecology way.

We are currently building a cob-earth oven, stove and cob seats in a sheltered out-door dining area in front of Danaa.

Work is for half the days of your stay (two week minimum). If you are keen to be a volunteer please email David, with details of your interests and background, at least a week before you want to start. Check out the rest of our website, , Stories of Communication with All Beings Harmony Farm Blog and Harmony Forest Blog for background on us.

Year Round

If you have any of the following skills we are keen to accomodate and feed you most anytime of the year, but June and July are especially cold and not recommended.
bicycle mechanics to maintain bicycles and install pedal powered systems
builders and carpenters to build cabins and sheds
concreters able to lay foundations for buildings.
drainlayers, driveway, trail, and building drainage, sumps, and waste water
electricians able to work with 12V and 240V wiring
electronics able to lend themselves to solar systems design and management, and to enhance mobile phone reception
fencers to build enclosures to protect trees
foresters to monitor forest, chart and mark locations of significant trees, clearings and views
glaziers to replace broken glass in windows
handy persons experienced in odd jobs, maintenance and repair work
herbalists, drying and storing native and western medicinals
manual labourers able to barrow and carry gravel, and fencing materials to protect trees up trails
orchardists, fruit and nut tree planting, protection, mulching and pruning
organic gardeners, experienced in recognising weeds and herbs or simply keen to take everything out of paths and trails
painters, ceilings, furniture walls and roofs (September to April)
plasterers interested in earth plasters over earth walls, and earth floors (October to April)
plumbers
roofers
signwriters: trail signs and cabin names
stone masons, rock steps and garden edges
track builders and maintainers
web designers
woodsman with chainsaw experience to gather, saw, and stack firewood

September and May

In September and May volunteers are keenly sought to clear, rake and weed trails, uproot invasive weeds, chop and stack firewood.

Internships

Volunteers might also like to consider internships with us if they have at least 8 weeks and want to focus on in-depth research and study in a wide range of subjects listed here.

Bookings

We take volunteers for a minimum of 14 days and you need to book a week in advance. We have indoor accommodation for one person (or a couple), tent sites in the main clearing, and others within the forest, and places to park vehicles, vans, and campervans.

Please let us know your full name, passport number (if you are not a NZ citizen), country of origin, email address, mobile phone number, experience, what you are able to help with, date you wish to arrive, and the date (how long) you plan to stay to. Pleae email if you can - it is the most efficient way of booking with us. It can be up to 4 days before we can read and reply to your messages. You can also text David at: 021-22-0910.

Getting to Harmony

If you are travelling by bus from Christchurch south to Dunedin, ask the driver to let you off at Leith Saddle, on State Highway One at the intersection of Waitati Valley Road, Pigeon Flat Road, and Leith Valley Roads (see below for maps) This is 13.5km north of Dunedin, and it means you don't go into Dunedin if you are coming from the north. It is a 2.5km walk downhill to Harmony from the dropoff point.

Passenger Transport operate a bus three times a day between Palmerston and Dunedin and will also stop at Leith Saddle on its way to/from Dunedin. Their timetable is Mon - Fri (not public holidays) as follows:
From Waitati to Dunedin (via Leith Saddle) 8am, 12 noon, 5pm. From Dunedin to Leith Saddle. 8:45am, 3:30pm, 5:20pm. The bus accepts the Go-Card that all the inner city buses accept. Go-Cards give a 10% discount, and may be purchased for a minimum of $20 of travel from any city bus.

Maps

Wises Map or Google Harmony Farm, 239 Waitati Valley Rd at Google Maps NZ. Our GPS co-ordinates are: Lattitude: 45¡ 47' 13.7" or 45.78273 Longitude: 170¡ 30' 22.5" or 170.52107.

Contact us

Your hosts are David and Lorraine.
David Baillie & Lorraine Burlingham

Don't include spaces in email address.
Mobile: 0211-22-0910
Harmony Farm
239 Waitati Valley Rd
RD2 Waitati 9085
New Zealand www.gemstonetherapy.info

Volunteer Appraisals:

Laura May 15, 2009
"Thankyou for letting me share this lovely space you have here - the forest is beautiful and the gardens and cabins, great, very inspiring! I'm very glad I have stayed here". It turned out the Laura (pictured) and Beth (not liking her picture taken) had not met but shared the same home town in England.
Beth May 15 2009
"All the above (Laura's comments)! This was very much the place I needed to come to ... I look forward to following you progress with building etc on-line, Thankyou, Love and Peace"

Laura McPhun May 31, 2004
"Thankyou so much for allowing Michael and I to come to your farm. it was a great experience ... Anyways thanks again for the wonderful food, company, and experience. It was great"

Caroline Lowry, May 5th, 2003
A wonderful place to lose (and find) yourself. Very healing. Great to meet you David you're inspiring and have given me food for thought."

Lauren Saurer and Brian Hursh, April 30th, 2003
"Thanks for a wonderful week at Harmony Farm. We loved walking the trails, having a bush bath and pulling out the last fences. Can't wait to come back some day and see the evolution of this great place. Shundahai (Peace and Harmony with all Creation)."

Elad Rosen, 25 March 2003 (on right)
"Record Breaker!! Thankyou, David and Lorraine for this place. A true "Home away from Home" I had a great time here getting my hands and feet dirty and my mind clear! Good luck with everything and take care! Much love"
Verona Bass, March 22, 2003 (on left)
"My mark will be upon this space in New Zealand, which has been special to me. If the signs last, I shall be grateful to have contributed something useful. Contemplation, Compassion, Gratitude etc. Indeed!" Verona was our much appreciated first trail sign writer.

Mayu Sader, Dec 10, 2002

Mayu was our very first WWOOF Volunteer. She says:

"I had a very good time here ... lots of fun. I enjoyed outdoor life. Thankyou! I'd like to come back and to see the garden some day." Our first accomodation was the blue tarpaulin covered bender (rear right) that we called the Temple. In it Mayu met many possums running up the poles at night.

The clearing is "Connection". When we arrived it was all grass. So here we are in the much thinking and contemplation phase of permaculture - the beginning. Where will the paths and drives go, how will buildings define where they need to be, where will the central buildings be about which the gardens will flow, will they collect water to feed the gardens and people. Where is the sun and warmth, and how will veges, herbs, fruits, bushes, and trees be affected by wind. How will we bring all together. Mayu has much to contemplate upon as gardens take the lead and begin to manifest form.

Mayu brought green soy and other seeds, beautifully cared for in packets carried all the way from Japan. Unfortunately none grew in those early days of bringing first energies to the gardens. Slowly different flowers and vegetables established. Usually in the first year one or two would survive with the first few herb elementals in attendance, the following year they would spread their seed, and that seed was naturalised, much of it would germinate.

The plants, animals, and those that look after them were now ready to arrive in greater numbers and the first were not so lonely. Devas arrived to co-ordinate the songs and play of the elementals and the entity Harmony began to form as a place for All Beings. We observed and discovered which plants thrived in the conditions, kale and calendula were among the first to self-seed everywhere. Self-heal flourished without the grass around it, and as paths formed landcress decided that every bit of gravel path was its domain. Now we are in the company of many and love it.

© 2009 Harmony Farm.