Coromandel Peninsula accommodation, New Zealand

You can reduce your travel carbon footprint by participating in our voluntary, Plant a Tree project, this is part of our Kiwi Green Certification. We support the local community by encouraging our guests to visit local attractions, eat in local restaurants and buy local produce. We also encourage our guests to use public transport especially the ferry from Auckland – travel by water is super efficient or local services.

We employ one local person from Whitianga as a full time staff member. Christine is a local character, bio dynamic gardener, mosaic specialist, lives the ‘coromandel lifestyle’ has a lively sense of humour. The rest of the staff are wwoofas and all contractors are local. We use local services. Whitianga is 12 kms away and most of our contractors come from there.

We buy local produce from the wilderland organic stall, and other local roadside stalls and use this for all our meals. Most of the food comes from within 15kms; herbs, plums, apples, oranges, artichokes are grown onsite, there are 3 growers with roadside stalls that we purchase the remainder of fresh veges & fruit. Fish & shellfish is sourced from the peninsular, sadly we are not allowed to catch fish and sell it to our guests, we must buy from licensed sellers, guests can catch the fish however and we’ll cook – the very best way. In NZ we have fantastic fish & shellfish, snapper is a white fish very mild and fabo. We encourage our visitors to try the snapper. NZ lamb is also a favourite. Our water is “grown onsite” and we are enormously proud of it.

We undertake conservation of the surrounding beautiful water and forest by composting, recycling, chemical free business practises, developing native plant nursery so that all visitors will have the opportunity to plant a tree during their stay. We encourage visitors to spend time in this incredible landscape, without a camera, we cannot make real changes to behaviour when we are disconnected from the land.

We are continually clearing vigorous weeds, ie jasmine clears NZ native bush (really vigorous in this climate), we support Kiwi conservation, our dog goes to Kiwi aversion training, all dogs are tied up at night, no cats allowed on property. We use no chemicals ie cleaning products, soaps, shampoos, weedspray etc as all ends up in the water table. Our bio-cycle septic system uses a twin tank system, converts waste into water, put into garden with filtering plants, the septic man that pumps out biannually has an amazing system converting to fertilizer which we have tested and is excellent quality. We trap opossoms to prevent poison drops. We are very lucky to have an abundance of good water all year.

We recycle food-compost, paper, bottles, plastic and tins. Most of the property was built before we came, however it is all built from sustainable timbers and 60-70% is toxic free. Water is our great luxury and we collect rain and spring water. We use Eco bulbs in lights where we can, the house is passive solar.