Family-Our Biography

Dorothy Sharp

(nee French) was born in Barking, London on 15 May 1931. She was the youngest of 4 children with a 10 year gap between herself Doreen who after marrying a New Zealander also now lives in New Zealand. Dorothy was trained as a hairdresser and owned her own Salon in Thames, where she came to live with her parents, when they emigrated to New Zealand in 1950. Dorothy met Cliff Sharp, originally from Yorkshire, at the Thames settlers club who she married. She gave birth to 3 children Audrey, Margaret and Clifford. Dorothy is an active contributor to the farm workings and cooks, cleans, washes and works in the family shop in Warkworth. She is the farm 'Grandmother' and organises the wwoofers in the domestic tasks along with caring for the Warkworth shop. She is a great example of how to age actively and well and loves the life of the farm surrounded by nature.

Audrey

was born in Thames, New Zealand on the 5th June 1956. She has several degrees including two Masters, in Politics and Tax law, a diploma of teaching, a degree in Horticulture, training in Permaculture design and English Second Language teaching. She has worked as a teacher for children and adults, in the field of publishing, as a professional photographer, writer and has run several small businesses including cleaning, photography, tax and accountancy. Audrey has travelled to over 40 countries in the world and spent approximately 5 years in Asia, the Pacific, Middle East, Europe, and North and South America. Audrey is passionate about trees and is a practising Wiccan. She has two children, Tamarah and Thomas born since living at Caretaker farm. She currently teaches Taxation Law at the University of Auckland and runs a consultancy business. She organises the outdoor tasks for wwoofers on the farm and is actively engaged in the farm development.

Tamarah

was born on the 12th of November 1990 in the local town, Warkworth. She is dog mad and is breeding Australian Terriers for sale. Tamarah doesn't particularly like farm living and wants to move to the city when she is able to support herself.

Thomas

was born on the farm in Dorothy's living room on the 28th of August 1993. He is a computer nut and spends endless hours playing computer games. Thomas enjoys having the various foreign wwoofers to talk with and play games-anything from cards to football.

Adrian

was born 28 March 1987 and came to live on the farm 5 years ago with his family, Audrey's brother Clifford, his wife Susan and their children Joel, Melissa, Rebecca, Hannah, Sarah and Natasha. Together the family lived on the farm for 12 months and when they moved to the city Adrian stayed behind. Adrian's interests include building, gardening, Art and making music. He is currently working as a Cray fisherman out of local town Leigh. Adrian is always making and creating and has a great workshop which he continues to develop and expand. His practical skills are a great asset to the farm's development and his sense of humour is great with the wwoofers and farm stay guests.