Ngawiwi Farm

15/01/2026

SAVE A TREE... STAY FOR FREE

Single room sleep out or multiple RV spots with water and power, minimum stay is one week, maximum three weeks stay. No meals but fresh sourdough bread everyday!

Volunteering means that working hours are all up to you and your own motivation as I try and create a less transactional understanding. This is not a for-profit enterprise.

12/01/2026

It's been a while since I've updated this page... you guessed it, I need some helping hands again!

10/08/2020

Woofers needed on a 30 hectares rural property 15 minutes out of Nelson.
I am a 43 year old man with a conservation project and a sheep farm. The job involves fencing, w**d control and property maintenance. Great opportunity for learning the basics of farming, native New Zealand plants identification and care. I also like to share my knowledge on many other things: Te Reo, eco-building, and philosophy.
You will be working 4 days a week, 4 hours per day. The accomodation consists of a fully equiped caravan with heaps of privacy and beautiful views on the Nelson Bay. A full breakfast is provided every day and all other meals are on you. Other perks include bicycles, kayaks, a spa pool and a beer here and there.
There are 3 dogs, 4 chooks and 30 sheep on the property – animal lovers prefered!

13/02/2018

Native Tree of the Week: Kahikatea

They are the oldest member of the ancient Podocarp family and have been around for more than 160 million years. Kahikatea is sometimes called dinosaur trees because they existed alongside the dinosaurs during the Jurassic period. They support whole ecosystems on their trunks and branches. A scientist once found 28 different plants living on one tree. They love fertile swampy ground which is why the best Kahikatea forests are found on the wet West Coast.

Dacrycarpus dacrydioides is a coniferous tree endemic to New Zealand. The tree grows to a height of 55 m with a trunk exceeding one m in diameter and is buttressed at the base and lives for over 500 years. It is dominant in lowland forest and wetlands throughout the North and South Islands. The leaves are spirally arranged on young plants, they are awl-shaped 3 to 8 mm long and twisted at the base to lay spread to the sides of the shoot in a flat plane; on mature trees, they are scale-like, 1 to 3 mm long, and placed all around the shoot. The cones are highly modified with the cone scales swelling at maturity into an orange to red, fleshy aril with a single apical seed 3 to 5 mm in diameter. The seeds are dispersed by birds which eat the fleshy scale and pass the seeds in their droppings.
Before extensive logging trees of 80 m height were known and a specimen at Pirongia Forest Reserve is the tallest native tree in New Zealand at 80.1 m. Until recently the tree was more likely to be referred to by the misleading name "white pine" despite it is not being a pine.

The Maori name kahikatea is now more widely used than kahika, katea, Like many other species in the family Podocarpaceae, the classification of kahikatea has changed over time, having also been placed in the genera Podocarpus and Nageia.
The wood was tough, easy to work but not durable in weather and prone to attack by wood-boring insects. Since the wood does not impart an odour and is clean and lightweight, Kahikatea was used to make boxes for the exporting of butter when the refrigerated export became feasible from Australia and New Zealand in the 1880s. The butter was exported in 56 lb slabs, and kahikatea became less common as the export industry grew. When treated it was used for scaffold planks, weatherboards, fascia boards, mouldings, window sashes, feature panelling and in boat building.

For Maori, the kahikatea had many uses. The fleshy aril or koroi was an important food resource and was served at feasts in great amounts. The constructed the waka (canoe) with it. Soot obtained from burning the heartwood supplied a pigment for traditional tattooing (ta moko). The wood was also favoured for making bird spears.

19/12/2017

08/12/2017

Native Plant of the Week:Kawakawa

One of my favorites!

is a small, densely branched, aromatic tree with large heart-shaped fleshy leaves growing up to 5 metres.
It has tiny flowers which are on upright catkin-like spikes and occur on separate male & female plants.

The fruit which is only on female trees (2 to 5 cm) long is a whole lot of little fruit clustered on a central stem, green at first but changing to orange when ripe The seed in the soft, orange spikes that are a favoured food of many birds in late summer and are dispersed by them.

The root, fruit, seeds and especially the leaves of the Kawakawa plant were favourite medicinal remedies of the New Zealand Maori. In fact, the kawakawa is one of the only plants still used by the Maori people today. Externally, Kawa Kawa was used for healing cuts and wounds, as an ingredient in vapour baths, and also as an insect repellent. Internally, it was found to be effective as a blood purifier in cases of eczema, boils, cuts, wounds, rheumatism, neuralgia, ringworm, itching sore feet, and all forms of kidney and skin ailments. The leaves were chewed to alleviate a toothache. The bruised leaves drew pus from boils and skin infections. A drink made from the leaves helped stomach problems and rheumatics when rubbed on joints. The leaf, if dried and burnt is an insect repellent. The name Kawakawa in Maori refers to the bitter taste of the leaves.

27/11/2017

Native Plant of the Week: Kaikomako

Kaikomako is a small dioecious tree which grows to a height of 10metres and is found in lowland forests and forest margins, often on stream banks. It is a canopy tree with a slender trunk. Like many young trees in New Zealand Kaikomako has a juvenile growth form very different to the adult. The juvenile plant is shrubby with wide angled, spreading, intertangled branches (divaricating) and small leaves.
Each juvenile leaf has three to five lobes pointing forward, with the lower part of the leaf tapering to a short leaf stalk. These leaves lose the distinctive shape (duck foot) of their juvenile years, becoming larger, with many rounded teeth. Juvenile leaves are smaller (7-15mm x 5-10mm) than the thick, leathery adult leaves (2-10cm x 1-4cm).
Eventually one stem will predominate, growing upwards and developing the larger adult leaves. Many trees have the juvenile leaves lower down and adult leaves above. When growing in the open, Kaikomako will reach 2-3m before making an abrupt change to adult form. It will reach a mature heigth of 8m.
Panicles of scented small white flowers appear as the tree matures. They are fragrant, creamy white flowers with five petals growing in panicles 4-8cm long, when the tree is in full flower (November to February) they almost obscure the foliage. Functional male and female flowers are borne on separate plants and are wind pollinated.
Later shiny black drupe, 8-9mm long on female tree appear mid summer and through to autumn. They are favourite food of bellbird and korimako.
In Taranaki Kaikomako is sometimes attacked by black fungus that occurs on beech trees.
The wood of this tree was used by the Maori for starting fires. A sharp pointed stick was rubbed vigorously along a groove in a dry piece of Pata shrub or Mahoe tree to make fire.

21/11/2017

Sunset from the top boundary