Farm stays in Australia and New Zealand

How to find agriturism opportunities—the chance to stay on a working farm—in Oceania

Farm stays in...
Australia
New Zealand

GeneralHere are resources to find agritourism (farm stay) opportunities in Australia and New Zealand.

Farm stays in AUSTRALIA

Australia Tourism Commission (www.australia.com) - At Australia's official tourism Web site, in the Accommodation search section, you can specify "farmstay." The site lists 303 al across Australia.

Agritourism Australia (agritourismaustralia.com.au) - Listings of Aussie farm stays in Queensland, plus some in Victoria and Western Australia.

Farm stays in NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Tourism (www.newzealand.com) - The official tourism website has a "Farmstays" option in its Accommodations section listing 101 Kiwi farm stays.

True NZ (www.truenz.co.nz/farmstays) - Lists about 70 farm stays across New Zealand.

GENERAL farm stay catalogs

Agrisport (www.agrisport.com) - It's very much a homemade site, and far from the best organized around, but it's loaded with links once you drill down. These are not only to specific guest farms and dude ranches, but to other outdoors and agritourism links as well, all grouped by country or state. One annoying factor: you have to open a site in a new window to see what its actual url is (otherwise every page is masked as "agrisort.com").

Earthfoot (www.earthfoot.org) - Under "Homestays" you'll find some one each for New Zealand, Australia, and Samoa.

Organic Places to Stay (www.organicholidays.co.uk) - OK, nearly two-thirds of the listings here are lodgings that happen to offer organic food. The other third, however, are B&Bs, rental cottages, or homestays on working organic farms. There are listings all over the world, with seven in New Zealand and one in Oz.

Agritourism World (www.agritourismworld.com) - Ladies and gentlemen, behold: a list of thousands of farm stays around the world... in alphabetical order by name. Not even sure why I bother including this sits, since the results are nearly random—a farm B&B in rural Pennsylvania wedged between one in Italy and another in Belize. How useful is that? Still, if you just want to roll the virtual dice when it comes to location, you'll find plenty of agriturismi here.

WWOOF: The World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (www.wwoof.org) - If you really want to get your hands dirty, sign up with this collection of volunteer organizations in 50 countries around the world, from Australia to Korea, Ghana to the US, Italy to Nepal (plus "independent" members—countries with only a handful of opportunities). Each is devoted to supporting and helping teach about organic and environmentally sound farming techniques. You join the WOOF chapter in the country where you'd like to work (for roughly $10 to $40), it sends you a list of farms that would appreciate a helping hand in exchange for room and board. You must be willing to put in six hours of work six days a week to see how the farming half lives in a variety of nations.