WWoOF Opportunities for guest workers ('WWoOFer's') at
AMBER HOUSE - at the centre!™
Bed and Breakfast Guest House (B&B) in Nelson city centre, New Zealand

1. Amber House is wooden and always needs painting (grin) so we have vacancies the year round. But, please don't waste our time (and yours) by firing off an e-mail to us at
   WWoOF[at]AmberHouse[dot]info
   before you've thought long and hard about what to write!
   As an absolute minimum, your very first contact with us needs to tell us truthfully and precisely:
   a) Your full legal name and residential address (we have young children and we will check out who is going to be sleeping in their home)
   b) Your contact LANDLINE telephone number (it's too expensive for us to phone a mobile unless that mobile is registered in either Canada or the USA...)
   c) The precise date and time you will arrive and the approximate date you plan to leave (we can always make arrangements to extend your stay if we get on great, but the walls are not elastic so we do need to do some forward planning)
   Obviously the more information you include (such as a photo or CV) the more likely we are to give you an instant and favourable decision.
2. We try and grow as much of our own food organically as we can but the small size of our section and the demands of our many guests mean that much has to to be bought in. There is a very good "Green Grocer" just round the corner!
3. We can host a maximum of two single WWoOFers (or a couple since all our rooms have at least one Queen size bed and usually at least one other bed.) All our rooms have free WiFi, en-suite showers and wash hand basins and private toilets. All are double glazed and most are air-conditioned with Satellite TV and DVD players.
   Maximum length of stay is usually one year and the minimum depends on your personality and/or or skills but we would need convincing that it is worthwhile for both you and us if you plan on less than 3 weeks.
4. We require slightly less work than most hosts participating in the WWoOF scheme.
   You will be expected to work 21 hours a week (or about 3 hours a day) for your accommodation, local and national phone calls, wireless internet access and breakfast. You can choose to work another 9 hours a week (or about 77 minutes per day) if you wish to eat with the family at midday and in the evenings (which we prefer).
   If you come as a couple, then the requirement is a combined 30 hours (or 40 hours if you require full board) per week spread between the two of you as you choose.
5. Anne (aged 11) and Adam (aged 10) live at Amber House but there are no other pets.
6. We have lots of painting to do and you might want to learn how to look after our guests - especially if you have Japanese or Italian...
7. NO SMOKING! Because of young children, smoking is *not* allowed inside or outside of Amber House. If you flout this policy and do smoke at Amber House, then you will be charged appropriate cleaning and loss of income charges together with liquidate damages if an explosion (either of Liquid Petroleum Gas [LPG] or the children's parents) results.
8. You can help yourselves freely to walnuts (we've the oldest English Walnut tree in the South Island), ANZAC biscuits, cakes, breads (and other baked products depending on what Mila has been cooking), coffee, tea (perhaps organic Castlereigh, Darjeeling, Camomile, Lemon & Ginger, cranberry, raspberry & elderflower or caffeine-free herbal), fruit juice (typically orange but sometimes pineapple or boysenberry), spring water, cocoa, milo, hot chocolate, milk, breakfast cereals (muesli, ricepops, cornflakes, weetbix, etc), honeys, marmalades, jams, butters (dairy and peanut), chutneys, marmite or vegemite and cook in the verandah kitchen and eat and drink there any time. Please do not take stuff away to your car or eat in your bedroom.
9. We will STORE your BAGGAGE FREE (but at your risk, not ours) until you return (if you are visiting the Abel Tasman National Park or touring the South Island, perhaps).
10. DAMAGE will be charged - plus the costs associated with inappropriate behaviour or deliberate or reckless acts or omissions.
11. ABC Queensland, Al Jazeera (in English), BBC World, BVN (in Dutch), Central China TV9 (in English), Deutsche Welle (in German and English), Maori TV (in English and Maori), TV5 Monde (in French), etc, colour television via geostationary satellite. We can provide bicycles and if you can drive a manual gearchange beautifully and pay for the diesel, use one of our vehicles.
12. CHECK-IN is only by prior arrangement - usually between 14:00 to 21:30hrs on the day of arrival - other times by prior agreement.
    B&B's in New Zealand do not have desk clerks on duty round-the-clock to await your arrival, so it is vital that the family knows what time to expect you. We have daily family affairs to attend to, but will have re-arranged our schedule to accommodate your mutually agreed check-in time — so your arrival time is extremely important! If this time changes either way by 30 minutes, please notify us as soon as you are aware of the change. Otherwise, we probably won't be here to greet you.
    If your arrival time is very unpredictable we can arrange to have your keys left in a digital key safe to the right of Amber House's front door.
    It's really important that you now send us the phone number of the mobile phone you will be carrying on the day you arrive (and keep it switched on) so we can update each other with any last minute developments. (You usually won't pay any international roaming charges to RECEIVE text/SMS messages in New Zealand even if your cell phone is registered overseas...)
13. We very much prefer you to make a booking on-line as if you were a paying guest so that we have your personal details on file in our database.
    If you enter the `magic word' WWoOFer (upper and lower case sensitive) in the `Voucher Code' field of the Beds24.com on-line booking engine then it will calculate a 50% discount.
    Most WWoOFers book the "Overflow" room type since that is the cheapest if you do not fulfil your part of the deal, but you are welcome to book a more expensive room if you choose.
    Your stay is free if you meet your obligations and provide the necessary notice before you leave - if not, you are legally obliged to pay us the discounted amount for your stay.
    One reason we prefer you book on-line and provide your card details is that this makes it easier to check your bona fides (otherwise we will need copies of your passport and you will need to pay us in cash for the first 3 weeks of your reservation when you arrive). [VISA or MasterCard details are required to confirm a booking, but we do not debit cards prior to the agreed arrival date. We ourselves will obtain pre-authorisation or merely hold card details pending your arrival and with you, the cardholder's explicit agreement that the quoted card details used to confirm the booking will be passed to our agents to be debited to settle the account if there are any outstanding unpaid charges after the agreed departure date. In this event, and if no other form of payment is forthcoming, a card surcharge of 10% together with any administrative and collection costs will apply.]
14. For each CANCELLATION or change of date required there will always be an administration charge of $6 levied by Amber House Limited [as distinct from your Agent]. There will be no additional cancellation charges levied by Amber House Limited [as distinct from your Agent] if 31 days or more notice is given to Amber House Limited *OR* we can replace your reservation with another WWoOFer.
    If we can not replace your reservation, these cancellation charges will apply in addition to the administration charge of $6:-
    10% of the original agreed payment will also still be required if only 14 to 30 days notice is given;
    30% payment if 6 to 13 days notice is given;
    50% payment if 3 to 5 days notice is given;
    70% payment if 1 to 2 days notice is given;
    85% payment if less than 24 hours notice is given.
    110% payment is contractually required if you simply don't show up within 2 hours of your advised arrival time without any prior notice to us at all
    [and without reasonable excuse - since we will be worried you've had an accident and may be phoning the police and hospitals and postponing our usual bed-time!]
    We strongly recommend WWoOFers take out travel insurance to protect themselves against any unexpected changes to their travel plans and we trust you will understand that we are unable to carry losses on your behalf.