The Karuna Falls Communtiy...wwoofing

Under the bright Auckland afternoon sun, surrounded again by pavement and buildings, we said goodbye to Sandra and Daniel at the city center train station. Our group was beginning to disperse -- Felix was also left behind in Whangarie to stay with fellow artists.

Cat, Katie, Katie and I carried on, making our way from the city and hit the highway for a five hour drive of mountains, valleys, coastline and reggae music. We arrived at Karuna Falls, a solar powered ecovillage in Coromandel where Katie and I were to wwoof for the long weekend, by 7 p.m.

Cat and Katie were dropping us off and continuing onward to visit friends, but darkness was settling in and after our long hours spent in “G” – our nickname for our car – they decided to stay in Karuna.

Fifteen houses were tucked in among native bush in the side of hills, but no human life could be found. We walked around the wet gravel roads, knocking on doors to announce our presence, until finally we found Ron, a recent community member. Ron showed us to the community house, a central building with couches, kitchen and library, and to the guest cabin, where we found more couches, heaps of mattresses and a fireplace.

We made ourselves comfortable, cooked pasta by candlelight, lit the fire and read stories a loud from Cat’s book on Canadian short stories “Mugged by a Mouse.”

Our wwoof host, Stephanie, was running late and we communicated via texting until she arrived after 10 p.m.

Stephanie invited Cat and Katie to stay on as wwoofers – in addition to Adrien a Frenchman she was also hosting – and all of us spent Friday to Monday working on gardens, eating good food, celebrating Katie’s 21st birthday and further bonding ourselves together.

I enjoyed my time in the community more than any other weekend yet.

Canadian Katie and I zipped our sleeping bags together and shared a pile of queen-sized mattresses. And after the first night Adrien joined our party in the guest house. (The first night he stayed in another cabin.) At night we all read from our journals, poems and stories, all huddled around the fire place.

Everyone in the community was kind and interesting – they are all in their late 50s, most of grown children who are off exploring the world, they are were the front runners on environmentalism, some working on the Green Peace Rainbow Warrior ship. Men and women who chose composts toilets and solar energy before sustainability was a trend.

Saturday night Stephanie hosted Katie’s birthday party and half a dozen community members brought musical instruments and wine to the festivities. A bit tipsy, I watched everyone sing “Rainbow Warrior” and “Hotel California” through a candle light haze. The house was warm from dancing and later we stepped into the cool night to return to our cabin, guided only by starlight.