01 02 03 Amanda in Waste-Free Land: The Latest Waste Free Adventures: WWOOFing, Eco Day & Go Green Expo 04 05 15 16 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 31 32 33

The Latest Waste Free Adventures: WWOOFing, Eco Day & Go Green Expo

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Our accommodation during our WWOOF stay
Yet again I have been busy up to all sorts of sustainable adventures, so I thought I'd share a bit of a photo journal of the more interesting things I have done in the past few weekends. 


The weekend following WOMAD was a long weekend (Easter) so Callan and I seized the opportunity to get out of Auckland and went on our first WWOOFing experience. WWOOF is a volunteer exchange programme, it stands for Willing Workers on Organic Farms, and is often used by foreign travelers looking for a cultural experience as well as being accommodated and fed. Although we didn't stay on a farm and we were only a few hours away we still had a really interesting experience. We stayed with a lovely family in Whangamata and helped out in their ice cream van. We had some great conversations, I helped the household learn how to properly sort their waste and also blew their minds with aquafaba and got them back in to kombucha after a failed previous attempt.
We were also shown the community garden, which was quite impressive, I loved the creative upcycling in the garden. The WWOOF household is set near the bush so they were having rodent problems with their compost system (sandwich eating possums!), Callan and I problem solved this and suggested a worm farm which they will get back up and running. In the meantime though they plan on taking their compost to the compost facilities at the community garden.

Whangamata Community Gardens







During the following week we went to the New Lynn Night Market (Thursday) which was launching the Vegan Village. Unfortunately for us but fortunately for the small businesses it was very popular and they subsequently sold out on food by the time we arrived!

The following weekend was Eco Day in New Lynn also, hosted by Ecomatters whom I previously have volunteered for. Eco Day was a great success, Callan and I went to the Eco House workshop, which was run by an expert from Auckland Council. Council offers a free 2 hour consultation for advice on building and renovating your own Eco home. Next up was a panel discussion on "Why Waste Matters" although there was a small audience turn out it was a passionate and interested group. The panel included a representative from Ecomatters, Auckland Council, Community Recycling Network, Matthew Luxon from Envision and Rubbish Free and Hone Pene from TAT Upcycle. The panel, along with the audience had some really great discussions about waste education and incentives, community and jobs and upcycling. 

Eco Day


Kiwi Reusables

TAT Upcycle

TAT Upcycle



ELF solar pedal bike




The following weekend we went to a cave gig/jam, which was the 4th one in the series and which I did not take photos, mainly because it was so mesmerizing and the lighting is awful. We also went and saw Hunt For The Wilderpeople at a very packed out cinema.  

Almost caught up now.... That brings us to last weekend. Callan and I spent most of Saturday brewing/distilling/fermenting. On Sunday we went to the Go Green Expo, we were very kindly given tickets by NZ Eco Chick, who I also had the pleasure of (very briefly) meeting. Madeleine was working the Essence of Light stand selling menstrual cups and cloth. It was one of the busiest stands, there were hoards of intrigued ladies! One of the other interesting things I spotted at this year's expo was a solar power share where people without solar panels can use the excess solar power from those with panels. It was also good to see Globlets being used by Organic Mechanic to reduce waste. 

However the expo this year had less seminars than the year before, and although they had 3 waste streams (compost, recycling and landfill) it was really badly sorted as many people didn't know what went where. Most of the food stalls were using compostable packaging, however a lot of the samples were coming in small plastic containers, and weren't being recycled.  

Go Green Expo


Greencane toilet paper (we use this brand)


House of Dumplings come plastic free at Farro Fresh

EV Blue electric car




Hungry Bins

Organic Mechanic kombucha & Globlets (with compostable straws)

Conscious Consumers

Meals in Steel
After the Go Green Expo we went and saw Where to Invade Next, by Michael Moore. It was a very interesting documentary, I definitely recommend it to any one interested in social issues/social well-being.

That concludes my past month, and hopefully explains why I haven't been blogging as much (aside from working full time, I do try and keep a social life as well...)! If you wish to keep more up to date with my waste free adventures, follow me on instagram I post there more regularly.

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