PROJECTS

The Sustainable Living Centre began in 1986 as the Golden Bay Community Gardens to serve the community in organic food production, education and community building. They lease over one hectare of Maori freehold land owned by its customary owners. They acknowledge the Owners of this land, the direct descendants of Rameka Te Ketu and Meri Mataiawa, who belong to the iwi of Ngati Tama.

Their vision is a world where communities of people are deeply connected to nature and each other, life is sustainable, and food is healthy. They promote regenerative organic practices and sustainable living through sharing knowledge and resources and providing facilities for community connection.

The Sustainable Living Centre works to create a local food hub, regenerative market garden, garden allotments, supply garden resources, offer education programmes and info hub, community events, venue hire, pop-up cafes, volunteer opportunities, and aim to support community enterprises.

They are situated in Takaka, very close to the centre of this small but very buzzing and diverse town in beautiful Mohua/Golden Bay. The scenery in Golden Bay is one of the most spectacular in Aotearoa/New Zealand as its so diverse. From golden sand beaches and turquoise waters to mighty mountains with spectacular walking tracks through the high terrain in the Southern Alps, to the wild and vast natural landscape of the Golden Bay west coast with its endless sand dunes and wild life. The ocean is warm in summer and the rivers with their scenic swimming holes very refreshing and clean. It is truly paradise! They are a positive and passionate bunch of people dedicated to making life better for all being on the planet. They love to give volunteers local knowledge to find the best places, events and festivals in Mohua/Golden Bay. There is always an event, festival or gathering happening, so there’s plenty to explore and do. They also have a great network and connections with other volunteer exchange hosts and communities to find other places to stay after your stay with them if you want to stay longer in Golden Bay.

• Work is mostly physical in the gardens, working alongside our Garden Coordinator, Max. Golden Bay gets pretty hot in Summer: ranging from 25-35 ºC. We tend to start early in the morning during Summer to avoid the midday heat and love to cool down in the nearby swim spots.
• We have a number of buildings that are rented out for community events, so we share a weekly cleaning rota to make sure they are welcoming.
• In Spring, you can expect to be getting garden beds ready to sow, propagate and plant seedlings, and (of course) weeding.
• In Summer, you can expect to be tending plants, sowing salads, weeding, and lots of watering.
• In Autumn, you can expect to be getting beds ready to sow, propagate and plant seedlings, and a large amount of harvesting from our Orchard.

What they offer:

• Accommodation – in either our Earth building/Cabins. Or you may choose to stay in your van.
  • The Earth building is a shared attic above our volunteer lounge space (with a fireplace and books etc.).
  • The cabins are two single accommodations (without electricity) and look out onto our beautiful gardens.
  • We have a basic kitchen with a fridge, cooker with oven, and some food processing equipment. We have a washing machine on-site. And access to WiFi.

• Food – we have a budget that will be shared between the volunteers for dry goods. Our freezer is stocked with harvest from last year, and as fruit and veg come into season you will have access to fantastic regeneratively-grown food. We encourage slowing down, by buying pulses and spending time to make nourishing food. You will be cooking your own meals, and we will share a community lunch once a week.

• Access to bikes – We have a few bikes to get to town (~5mins cycling) and to the nearby beaches (~25mins).
• Knowledge – Each week we aim to give you some dedicated teaching time. This can cover: ⁠
  • Propagation – how to sow seeds effectively & water; Foraging in Aotearoa – harvesting healthy weeds to eat and use in the garden; Composting – how to build and flip composts; Feeding the soil – JMS, foliar feeds, comfrey & nettle teas; OR Preserving – if available – kimchi/relishes/pickles/drying herbs/drying fruit; OR Earth building – if tutor is available/working on Earth buildings.

What they expect from you:

• 20 hours/week of focused and enthusiastic work – Although we are a community garden, we also function as a commercial market garden, and so we need some things to be done quickly and efficiently. We love to teach and understand that you are learning as you go, but we hope that you will give as much as you can.
•  We ask that once during your stay, you commit to checking the seedling watering and re-stocking the stall. This only takes an hour each day, and we will reduce your hours in the week to make up for this.
• Functions and events – Most Summer stays will involve a Community Event, we would love you to help make these happen and will give you time off or delicious treats to make sure that the energy exchange feels fair.

• Please read our policies before signing up for our program, we are a drug and alcohol-free zone due to being a family-focused educational centre.

• We will review how things are going (for you and us) after one week, and if it’s not working out we may ask you to leave (we hope not!).

Cancelling your stay:

We understand that things change when you’re travelling, but we really love to know this well in advance. We hope that you give us about 2 weeks’ notice if you are planning on changing your dates.