When WWOOFing, the host provides you with all the needed tools/equipment to do the job. So that ranges from pruning shears, shovels, baskets, rakes, or whatever else might be required to do work. That often includes gloves, especially when working outside. Much like most people’s houses, these gloves are often various sizes and various states of decay. My hosts have all provided the gloves necessary, and they’ve done the job, but it’s something I figured I might want to look into myself. 10 minutes and $8 later, I found a pair I really really liked:

Protects my hands, water resistant and rubberized grip, much better tactile feedback and maneuverability AND I look good while wearing them. What’s not to like? Once I had finished the pressure washing, they came in VERY handy.

This is what the ‘choko‘ fruit vine does – it grows everywhere. Including up trees, which it then suffocates. The fruit itself is edible, and apparently similar to a potato. However, my hosts consider them a pest as they grow and spread rapidly – this is just a single year’s growth. This is what a choko fruit looks like:

4 hours later, I was still cleaning up the chokos. They really proliferate quickly.

While working I was glad to be in NZ and not Australia doing this kind of thing – pretty sure a terrifying giant spider or friendly snake would have been waiting in the vines to inject me with poison and eat my face. While there are still a few spiders here and there in the vines, they were neither terrifyingly huge nor poisonous. The wasp that stung me in the neck though, that was rather painful. But at least I reconfirmed I not allergic to them, the old fashioned way.