We are a family of four: Charlotte and Ben and our two little boys
Gabriel aged 2 and Camilo aged 1.

We live in a busy but happy home in Avondale Auckland, a central west suburb about 15 mins from the CBD (a bit longer if you're on public transport). We have a small but cosy house which includes (luckily for you) a spare room which we like to fill with visitors and friends.

Our house is full of cooking, music, laughter and some tears too. If you'd like to get to know us we'd love to meet you - mi casa es tu casa. Please read our profile and find out if we have something in common. Also obviously we have children, so this absolutely must be something you want to be a part of.

Our boys are good kids - polite and easy going. They are still kids and will sometimes play up and have tantrums, but nothing out of the ordinary. They love visitors and will want to be your new best friend! However, we recommend you bring earplugs in case they have a bad night and cry a bit.

A couple of things -please read!
* We don't take last minute requests - by that I mean anything less than a week out.
* We don't take anyone who hasn't made it clear they've read our profile
* We get about 4-5 requests a day right now, so we can't take everyone. Apologies if we are all full up or need a break from visitors.
* Only come if you like playing with kids, otherwise you will not have a great time!
* If you come for longer than a few nights, we'd like you to contribute a bit by cooking a meal, or helping us out in some way.

Also please note we're away Jan 15- Feb 1 so we cant hose during this time.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing has given us some great friendships. We've had a few awesome couchsurfers who've come and stayed then become good friends, popping in when they passed through Auckland to see us and our boys. We had a lovely French girl who came to stay and didn't leave! She lived with us on and off for two years and although she's back in France now we asked her to be Camilo's Godmother. So as you see, couchsurfing really IS amazing!

We love travelling and opening new doors to different ideas and cultures, hearing stories and getting new food ideas. We've made pisco sours with our Chilean couchsurfers, made cointreau from scratch with another, and many more great memories that I can't list here.

Maybe this is a good place to say however, that we can't accept all the requests we get. We are seriously crazy-busy people and we also go away on lots of weekends away and sometimes we just need a break. So we can only host a few times a month.

Also, if someone makes a request and appear to not have read our profile, we will have to say no. We have two kids so we have to know any visitors are up for the challenge!

Interests

the ENVIRONMENT and sustainability -yip we're greenies.

politics and what is going on in the world.

music - this is big one. We like to keep up with the music scene, we listen to a lot of spotify and read reviews etc We try to get to gigs as much as we can.

gardening/cooking/reusing stuff

Speaking Spanish (both Charlotte and Ben speak) and French (just Charlotte). We'd love more chances to use our language skills.

Community involvement- Charlotte helps out a refugee family and collects stuff for a womens refuge, and helps out with the local farmers market.

children - child development and nurturing creativity in children. Charlotte goes with the boys to Playcentre, which we can tell you more about.

DIY - fixing up our house: building, painting, sanding etc. We own it so we are constantly working on it.

Aotearoa/New Zealand -and its history, politics, music, culture, language.

Books- see the list below

outdoor stuff- we've done a fair bit of tramping before kids and now we

Latin America - We lived in Mexico and Chile so these places and the rest of the continent has a special pull for us. Ben is also really into LatinAmerican music

• culture
• books
• diy
• environment
• dining
• cooking
• wine
• red wine
• walking
• gardening
• politics
• traveling
• painting
• music
• outdoor activities
• emergency services
• history

Music, Movies, and Books

These books are favourites of one or both of us:

100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Charlotte's fav book of alltime
Daugther of Fortune - Isabel Allende
Kafka on the Shore - Hakuri Murakami. (we heard him speaklast year - amazing)
Atomised - Houellebeq is insane but really compelling
and many more...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

We took part in a simulated border crossing of the US/Mexican border. It involved walking for 5 hours across a mountain range, being chased by police into a barn, and even having (fake) shots fired at us by the (fake) US border patrol.

Teach, Learn, Share

Our house be perfect for someone who is interested in gardening, cooking, raising kids, community engagement, DIY house stuff, politics that kind of thing. Show up with a bottle of red wine and we'll be happy. nothing better than good conversations once our kids are in bed!

If you have any skills in building or other house maintenance stuff we'd love to hear from you. Also, if you are keen on gardening this is another area we're always looking for extra help.

What I Can Share with Hosts

We have a small three bedroom house and as both our boys are now in the same room, we can host couchsurfers again.

If you would like to stay for only a few nights that's fine. If you'd like to stay a bit longer we ask that you contribute in some way to our house: maybe cooking a bit, helping us with the cleaning, helping us in the garden or something like that. But don't worry, we won't put you to work like woofers.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bolivia, Cambodia, Canada, China, Colombia, Fiji, Guatemala, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Laos, Peru, Samoa, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Viet Nam, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Countries I’ve Lived In

Chile, France, Mexico, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States

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