My working holiday visa in New Zealand came with the luxury of earning actual, hard New Zealand dollars that I was able to pump back into exploring this eye-wateringly beautiful yet ££££££ country. Besides cycling my way through the various backpacker jobs typical of the New Zealand working holiday visa, some of my favourite experiences during my year in the country were those spent volunteering. Particularly memorable was my time spent volunteering at a vegan animal sanctuary.
In exchange for a day of frolicking under the sun on Urupukapuka Island in the Bay of Islands, I was filmed and photographed for some new promo material. This meant that my first ever attempt at stand up paddle boarding was captured by a roving camera team zigzagging around me on a motorboat. I also volunteered with the Canterbury Coastguard which generally consisted of righting capsized catamarans and pointing tipsy kayakers in the direction of the mainland.
My stint volunteering at an animal sanctuary was down in Milton, in the deepest depths of the South Island. There I spent my days shovelling crisp autumnal leaves, providing PA services to five extremely demanding (but utterly adorable) whippets, and tucking four giant pigs in under their blankets at night.
This post is what it was like volunteering at a vegan animal sanctuary.
Table of Contents
Volunteering at a Vegan Animal Sanctuary in New Zealand
I organised my week of volunteering through my Workaway subscription. If you’re not already familiar with Workaway, this is a type of work exchange platform. Volunteers are expected to give around 5 hours of work per day (5 days a week) in exchange for lodgings and (usually) food.
By volunteering at a vegan animal sanctuary I exchanged my time for some of the best food I’ve ever eaten (all plant-based and homemade) and a warm bed. Which after spending the past eight months living in my camper van, was an absolute treat.
The Where: Milton, Southland New Zealand
The animal sanctuary I volunteered at is located in Milton, in New Zealand’s dreamy Southland. This is a small township of 2,000 inhabitants, located on State Highway 1, around one hour’s drive from Dunedin. I drove down to Milton from Ashburton, where I’d spent the past month working on the potato harvest (one of those classic New Zealand backpacker jobs).
Unless you’re a Kiwi born and bred, you’ve probably never heard of either of these towns.
Milton is famous for two things:
– Its neighbourhood prison, the Otago Corrections Facility.
– Some whale fossils strategically places on the sole hill in the area.
Meanwhile, Ashburton is known for:
– Backpackers harvesting potatoes.
The Who: Animals
The animal sanctuary is spread across the grounds of a country manor which is a 10-minute drive from Milton township. Surrounded by farming paddocks and plains, the property feels extremely remote – this is rural New Zealand at its best.
Residents of the animal sanctuary at the time of my stay included:
- Four large pigs.
- Two horses (one friendly, one not).
- One pony who thought she was a sheep.
- A couple of sheep who knew they were sheep.
- Several million chickens.
- Donald, the ferocious turkey.
- One whippet / Staffy cross.
- Two whippet pups.
- Two elderly whippets (father and uncle to said pups).
- One cat that only made an appearance when his stomach was empty.
As volunteers, we were there to serve the animals. The owner of the sanctuary had rescued all these farm animals from horrific backgrounds. During the day, she and her husband work full-time so she relies on the support of volunteers to keep the animals fed, cleaned, and watered, and the premises maintained.
The What: Duties
The woman who runs the sanctuary would rise early and oversee the first round of chores before she left for work. At the same time, she would usually whip up some delicious home-baked goods and leave them out for us. As someone with zero capacity for multi-tasking, this impressed me every morning.
Once the house was empty, we volunteers would come down and breakfast on vegan pancakes and fresh coffee with homemade nut milk before getting on with our own chores.
Stomach primed, my main duties were:
- Shovelling up the horse, sheep, and pig poo from the meadows.
- Clearing the garden of the autumn leaves and debris and taking care of general gardening needs.
- Walking the dogs in the surrounding countryside.
- Feeding the chickens.
- Cleaning the communal areas in the house.
- Being chased around the yard by Donald. It turned out that he had a fear of sweeping brushes. Every time we crossed the garden, we had to arm ourselves with a broom to ward off his attacks.
- Lighting the log fire and keeping it going throughout the afternoon. Combined with my rustic country house sits, I became a pro at lighting fires by the end of my time in New Zealand.
- And, my personal favourite, tucking the pigs into their blankets at night. These four pigs would make their own way to bed once the sun had set. At around 9 pm, I would bundle up in my woollies and creep out with a lantern and drape thick blankets over the sleeping beauties.
Usually, once we had lunch we were able to relax and spend the afternoon enjoying the house and grounds. With the vast majority of Workaway placements, it’s standard to slope off-site once your daily volunteer duties are finished. Due to the nature of the animal sanctuary, one of us always needed to stay on the property to keep an eye on things, tend the fire, and entertain the pups.
My afternoons were generally spent lolling in front of the roaring fire, re-reading Lord of the Rings, drinking tea, and nursing the whippets. After spending the past eight months living in my camper van, it was as much a sanctuary for myself as it was for the animals.
Veganism
I followed a plant based diet during my time volunteering at a vegan animal sanctuary in New Zealand. The sanctuary owner welcomes non-vegan volunteers but obviously doesn’t permit her volunteers to eat meat anywhere on the premises. All her meals are vegan (which she makes herself and are out-of-this-world delicious) and one of the highlights for me was learning about vegan alternatives.
I’m not vegan myself, although I do tend to follow a fairly vegan diet without thinking about it. Meat, I can do without and rarely consume. Fish, dairy, and eggs are a whole other story, although the more I read about the industries, the more inclination I feel to give it all up completely. It always feels hypocritical to consider myself an animal lover yet support how the animals are treated. For now, I’m more focused on limiting my intake and shopping as ethically as possible rather than going totally vegan (which I know sounds even more hypocritical to the vegans out there).
Since this volunteer placement, I’ve fallen addicted to sprinkling nutritional yeast on pretty much every savoury meal I make. I also love making my own vegan pancakes, scones, and muffins and wouldn’t dream of preparing these dishes with dairy products since learning the alternative recipes.
The sanctuary owner is very open to sharing her experiences and knowledge on veganism however she doesn’t try to ‘convert’ non vegans.
Workaway: Yay or Nay?
This was my third experience with a Workaway, having previously taken part in a couple while living in Vietnam.
Although my time at the vegan animal sanctuary in New Zealand was limited in terms of exploring the local area, I knew this before I signed up for the place and I was content to spend the entire week relaxing in the gorgeous farmland. After back-to-back work contracts that were physically demanding and a burst of intense travel around the South Island in my camper van, by this point I was more in need of a comfortable bed and access to a hot bath than more sights. Plus, it was a joy to spend my days caring for the animals and land, gardening, and tucking into the incredible food.
If you want to volunteer abroad, I also recommend checking out HelpX which is same-same but different. Both function in the same way and match volunteers with placements.
The opportunities are diverse, with help around the house and teaching English being two of the most common opportunities. But if you want to work with animals there are usually a few listings at ranches, conservation initiatives and in my case, the vegan animal sanctuary.
One of the main differences between the two is that HelpX offers both a free and a paid subscription. Workaway doesn’t have a free membership but they do have both a single and couple subscription to chose from which is handy if you are travelling with a partner.
Once we’re released from the pandemic and travel is back on the table, I’m looking forward to volunteering with more animal based initiatives.
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