ideas on a career break

Hello everyone,

I am just getting started with planning for a 6 month career break and don’t have any RTW traveling friends to ask questions of, so I’m putting it out here. I like my job and am not quitting, just taking unpaid leave and I’m looking to get something useful out of this (which is also necessary to get approval for the leave). I do agricultural research, but it’s very removed from actual farming and mostly involves computers. I heard about WWOOF and HelpX and thought hey, I could do that! My idea is to spend several weeks to a month on a couple of different working farms. Since New Zealand is at the top of my list, and appears to have lots of this kind of opportunity, I’m thinking of three months there. Other potential destinations (for both travel and agriculture) would be Australia, South Africa/Namibia, Italy, Turkey, India, and some Pacific Island (has anyone been to New Caledonia?) on the way back to the US via Hawaii to visit friends. Yes, I realize this will not be cheap. :)

So, for the questions – any suggestions on where I should go? Experiences with the short term farm work? Am I nuts? I’d like to be able to learn something and so would want to have hosts who want to share their experiences and aren’t just interested in the cheap labor. And I am not looking to make money (too old for a WHV anyway).

Relevant info: I’m an early 30’s female and will be traveling alone, although I expect to be able to convince a friend or two to join me for a short bit, and I plan to leave around September 2008. I’ve done fieldwork and lots of gardening and love it. I’ve also traveled quite a bit and don’t care for big cities – I did Beijing, Shanghai, Bangkok and Mexico City all last year on my own and had some good experiences but that was really enough. I’m much more interested in the natural attractions (and ancient civilizations). My favorite country so far is Madagascar, followed by Belize.

Thank you!