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Published: March 5th 2007
I soon began to realise that life at Koru Creek was a rare experience and the living was easy. As well as working in the garden I also helped out with the horse business. Just after New Year we prepared for the annual Gala Day at the local village and spent the day giving pony rides. After being cooked in the sun we took the horses and ourselves to the estuary for a swim in an attempt to cool off. For the next week we had beautiful weather and made the most of the local beaches where I even attempted boogie boarding and became a professional at getting dumped into the sand with no grace at all. I even had my first oyster experience as I was shown by Grazi how to collect them off the rocks and neck them raw, cheap I suppose but I did have visions of suffering horrendous shellfish poisoning! Having survived I lived to see the heavens open and it began to pour so much so I was forced to abandon my tipi and seek shelter in another tent.
Unfazed by the torrents of water Dino decided to set up a giant water slide in the
back paddock with a load of tarp and even more washing up liquid. Exellent fun but I did have some gnarly bruises when it was over. For the next week the rain stopped most work so we’d go to the beach to play softball and cook huge roast dinners as way of entertainment.
The night before a week long horse camp was due to start the rain stopped and Amber arrived. Amber was another wwoofer who had helped at a previous camp, an American who worked as a children’s camp director in Alaska. We had three girls stay the week and it was a great reminder of why I do not wish to work with children anymore. We had a week of bitching, arguing and tears, even for two experienced childcare workers it was a nightmare and by the Thursday Anna, Amber and myself hid in the hole (cool store) eating the girls ice creams as they certainly didn’t deserve them and spent the evening on a sugar high. Finally Friday came and camp was over and the girls went home. In celebration we took to the beach once more and went to see the Mcnaughts comet which was blazing
through the southern sky, amazing!
Me and Amber decided to take a road trip to the west coast in preparation for camp again the following week (ouch). We drove to the Kauri forests to take in the massive trees before getting the car ferry over to Kohukohu and on to Kawakawa to see the famous toilet built by an Austrian artist, Hundertwasser, using local recycled materials.
And so back to Koru Creek for another week long camp, this time thankfully the girls got on better with no major upsets! I even got to paint a horse. At the end of camp I was given a voucher to go snorkelling by one of the girl’s mothers, maybe I can work with kids after all. . . . . . .
During camp a friend of Amber’s, Kristina, arrived from the states so all three of us drove up north for Waitangi Day, a commemoration of the treaty signed by the Maori and Pakeha but still a bone of contention on both sides. We stayed in Russell and got the ferry over to Paihia and walked up to Waitangi. Unfortunately the sea was too rough for the Waka's (Maori war canoe) to
be paddled out but we did get to see an inpromptu Haka dance. The rain would not let up so we drove on up to Keri Keri and decided to go to the tiny local cinema to shelter for a few hours. We were hoping to go further north but floods had taken out the main bridge so instead I drove back to Koru Creek to take up my snorkelling opportunity on the Poor Knights Island. As promised it was absolutely fantastic and the storms had even pushed all the fish into to shelter so i swam through schools of hundreds of fish. After it really was good bye to Koru Creek. I will miss the place and friends i made terribly but it's time to move on.
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jarrad
non-member comment
pic 2
your bum looks big in that !! hope all is well and glad your enjoying yourself see you soon JAL