Well Miss, it's not a necessity, you can rent one, but doing a lot of digging can be hard on the back, a small rototiller like a Mantis(just a suggestion not an endorsement) will till the top 12" of soil, which is good and since you said that you'll be in a Temperate Rainforest area your soil will probbly need very little amendments. You can usually tell how healthy the growing area will be by the number of macrolife, such as lots of worms!. Worms are a great barometer of health. You can also test the water holding capacity of your soil by digging a hole, not too big, about the size of a large coffee can, and if you have a large coffee can handy, put the can in the hole and put the soil around it, then take about enough water to fill the can and dump it in the can. Watch the water and see how long it takes for the water to drain out of the can. The rate of dispersion will give a good indicator of how well your soil drains. 20 minutes very good, 1/2 hour slow but okay, 1 hour not too good more than 1 hour poor drainage. Give it a try and see how fast the water drains out. If slow just add some perlite or decomposed pine needles or small bark chips. But again, if you like handy garden tools a small tiller always comes in handy
