Moho Farmstay

My name is Riaan and I am originally from South Africa. I have lived on the Big Island, Hawaii for 20 years now and am married to my lovely wife Lisa. We run a vacation rental business, renting out 4 bedrooms and have a small farm set up, with wide variety of fruit trees and pineapple plants.

With the exception of the volunteers working on the farm, they are treated like guests. We make available our cabin, which is also featured on Air BnB as a vacation rental. We are flexible with our hours and when the work gets done and appreciate any contribution to making our place look more beautiful. The cabin comes with my daughters indoor/outdoor cat. My daughter, Chanel is currently teaching English in Spain.

All experiences

Come help me and enjoy Hawaii :)

Painting & Decorating Building & Repairing Gardening

Kurtistown, United States

Reviews

3.5
(7 reviews)7

Staff & Host

3.5

Hours & Tasks

4.0

Hostel

4.5

Learning & Fun

3.5

United States

1

Host made me felt belittled, disparaged and provoked, making me feel confused and helpless, and I felt uncomfortable with no apology or communication (or acting very defensive when attempted), being hostile with me and other volunteers’ presence for less than 5 minutes. Didn’t feel welcomed or respected, hours don’t align for the amount of days off on their page (for solo), really upsetting, pulled weeds the entire time, definitely needs work on communication skills , no collaborative experience whatsoever. Breakfast is not everyday (cook for you 1x week), middle of nowhere, must Uber or bus

6 months ago

Riaan replied

From the start, I picked up 3 people arriving from World Packers on the same day. Two were a couple and the other a single person. All 3 made friends on the ride home. I took them for a little sightseeing to show them the beaches in Hilo and Liliuokalani the Japanese garden. Then I took them grocery shopping to pick out whatever they wanted to have for their breakfasts, which I paid for, and they bought their own other foods. The first 2 ½ weeks went well. There was a time when I needed to get one of the other helpers to take over Abigail's task because I wasn’t satisfied with the result. At this time, I needed to explain to the other helper why I needed her to take over and this helper (friend) perceived this as badmouthing Abigail. I only found out after Abigail left that she left her glasses at home in California, which might have explained why she was unable to identify/find this particular weed we wanted to eradicate.
2 days before the 3 week point, in the evening I was sitting with my family at the table and all 3 girls were talking and laughing together for 20 minutes on the barstools next to the table. I had a long hard day and in the moment I spoke, I was very frustrated. I asked them to please take their party somewhere else because I could not hear my son talking to me. I explained that I could not handle Abigail’s high pitch laughter any longer. We have been doing vacation rental for almost 10 years and I have never had a reason to react this way. They were not being considerate of others. In hindsight, I know I could have handled the situation better. One of the other helpers came back inside and with all of my family still at the table confronted me about how I handled the situation. At this time, I apologized and said that I would also apologize to Abigail when I see her. Unfortunately, Abigail left without notice, a week before her agreed departure date and I did not see her again. I feel the situation became blown up by her friend.
Besides taking her to buy breakfast items, during the stay, we asked if there was anything my wife could pick up for her. She asked for more cereal and milk, which we supplied. Abigail must have perceived that we would cook/prepare breakfast for her daily which was not the arrangement.
In regards to the Uber and bus comment, we on numerous occasions offered rides that they declined. My wife and mother did take her into town on a couple occasions, and we put Abigail and the other two helpers in touch with our neighbor, from whom they rented a car on two occasions.
Abigail came to a farm stay, and didn’t have any farm or maintenance related skills, so pulling weeds was the only job I had for her, while the other helpers were painting, weed whacking, mowing and doing cleaning related work. It seemed this wasn’t what she expected, but she did try her best. I did thank her for hard days work on several occasions.
Most of the time, I entrusted them to do the work without me even being at home. I trusted them to keep track of their own time. In addition, I was flexible in regards to them asking for time off as long as they got their hours done.

United States

2

This experience was good but I felt like the only reason I had fun was because of the friends I made outside of the property. It’s hard to find transportation unless you use the bus or make friends. I enjoyed the work I did and I thought the property was beautiful.

7 months ago

Riaan replied

We offered rides on numerous occasions, which the volunteers declined. Even picked them up from the airport and offering a ride back. Also took them for a quick sightseeing drive when they arrived.

United States

2

I had an amazing time, but not because of the hosts. I was able to connect to the more authentic side of Hawaii. Transportation is an obstacle & nothing is within walking distance. Vast majority of the work was pulling weeds. The cabin was pretty good. There were multiple concerns with the hosts. Privacy issues, talking inappropriately about other travelers, moving groceries around, etc. Riaan made one of the travelers feel so uncomfortable that she left early. It wouldn't have been worth it if I hadn't made friends with locals. Nonetheless, thank you for hosting me at your beautiful property.

7 months ago

Riaan replied

I honestly feel, after the disrespectful behaviour from the 3 volunteers, incident in the kitchen area, the entire volunteer experience went sour for all parties involved. This incident happened after 2 weeks, when the volunteers started to slack down substantially in there efforts to make a valuable contribution. Simikar to what you would call a go slow, as is known in a job environment. After trying to endure it for more than 20 minutes, I had little choice but to ask them to move their party to another part of the house in considerationof me and my family trying to relax and having dinner in the kitchen. In my opinion the volunteer that left one week early, was mainly because of the person not being used to and capable of manual labor and used this incident as an escape code. In addition, the main reason I had to share my observations with one of the volunteers about the quality of the other volunteers work, was because of me having to ask her to redo or take over the duties of the other volunteers tasks, because it has not been carried out satisfactorily. Going searching on property, knocking on a volunteers room door and eventually opening the door (not stepping inside the room at all, only to see the volunteer lying on the bed with eyes closed as if sleeping or pretending too)out of concern for the volunteers safety, whilst the volunteer informed me that they will be working , I seriously do not think is a privacy issue. In addition once these volunteers connected with a new made friend, they declined all offers of transportation from household members and started focusing more on having late night excursions and focusing less on the work requirements at hand.

United States

5

Kind and honest people who are happy to help you get to know the area. Easy to talk to and plan out a work schedule with and more than fair about anything that comes up. Couldn’t have asked for a better host.

10 months ago

United States

5

This experience was the best Worldpackers exchange scenario I could have hoped for! This was my first Worldpackers experience and it blew my expectations out of the water! Lisa and Riann are so kind, accommodating and helpful! They turned us towards many of our favorite adventures we will cherish forever! I could not think of any way to improve this experience as it was already so enriching! The work was fair, the house was beautiful, the cabin was cozy, and their animals SOOOOO SWEET (especially Twitch)!!! You will NOT be disappointed with this beautiful stay on the Big Island!!!

10 months ago

Perfect for you if you're looking for

Business

Contact with nature

Rural

Contact with animals