“Take the weekend to travel and explore!”

General Impression

Overall Rating:    7 / 10

The host organization wasn't very organized but they took good care of the volunteers and offered help wherever they could. One thing I found frustrating about the organization that I couldn't really find somewhere else to fit is the amount of food waste produced. They let you grocery shop Mondays with the whole volunteer group which I think is really great because you get what you want but they also deliver groceries on Friday for the weekend which even though you send a list is often more than what you need and a ton of things you already have in the house. It was great that I was well fed but with an organization focused on conservation the amount of food waste didn't sit well with me. Multiple volunteers agreed with me that it would make more sense to just go shopping on each Friday. [Thanks for this feedback. We will work on more efficient means of providing food for volunteers.]

Country

I had already been in New Zealand for 4 months prior to volunteering so it wasn't incredibly new to me. But I found my entire time in New Zealand super enjoyable. People are incredibly helpful, coming from the US there are a lot of cultural similarities. And I appreciated learning more about NZ environmental work from the perspective of volunteering.

Project & Staff

There was some miscommunication with the office over who would be volunteering for what weeks and an incident where a staff member snapped at a fellow volunteer. Following the miscommunication with the office, the staff was helpful in getting me where I needed to be when I had to make new plans which was frustrating. However, they were able to drop me where I needed to be multiple times which saved me money on transport and that was very appreciated. I enjoyed the work we did in the field and the variety of work I had throughout my time volunteering.

Tips

Don't worry too much about the logistics, the local team will be very willing to work with you about leaving early (I left on Thur instead of Fri), going on a weekend trip, etc.

Be flexible, stuff might change at the last minute and you have to be ready to go with it an adjust.

Take the weekend to travel and explore!
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