Wednesday I wake up feeling drained but better, which is a relief, no idea what came over me, may be it the tiredness catching up, and I have been fighting a cold off for the last week, or a virus from the children….or none/ a combination of all! Anyhows I have dry toast with mashed banana for breakfast just in case and head off to Kinde for my last day of work. Kinde was quiet today and we went to a different spot, which was great fun getting to…a very steep slope through the forest, and I was in charge of the buggy which is used to load everything in (no children luckily) so I skied down the slope with the buggy leading the way. It was great fun, and apparently they had never taken the ... read more

Not to achy from yesterday’s run which is good and headed to kinde from 8.45am for the nature discovery morning. Back to the forest again with the kids, we had a great time, and walked the whole perimeter of the forest, taking down all the wooden signs which we screwed into posts from yesterday. I had an afternoon of serious planning, working out roughly my plan, how many days in each place, booking my bus pass and reading up on places etc. In the evening, one of the ladies in the hostel, Anna mentioned that the film ‘The Impossible’ was playing at the cute little cinema here tomorrow evening, so we made a plan that I would cook dinner tomorrow for us both, as she was out all day, and then we would go to the ... read more

I have been looking forward to today since I arrived in Te Anau, and excited about visiting Milford Sound since I first started reading about New Zealand. But first some information for you all – Milford Sound is the smallest of the 14 ‘sounds’ in fiordland. However, the ‘sounds’ aren’t sounds at all, but Fjords – hence the name fiordland. The difference being in the way they are created. Fjords are created by glaciers – the weight of the ice carving out big ‘v’ shaped valleys in the cliffs. Sounds are created by rivers – moving water, which does not have the same power and weight as ice and forms shallower carvings. Therefore the ‘sounds’ in the fiordland were all incorrectly named, when this was realised, to rectify this, the whole area was named ‘fiordland’. You ... read more

Again a limited lie in due to people trailing in and out of the dorm, but overall it is a very productive day – getting the blog up to date, emails and doing some more work on some bits which may help the ‘kids restore the kelper’ project I am working on. Chatting to some other people in the hostel whilst working, and one of them (who was English) decided he was going to cook a roast dinner this evening, so a group of us went in on it – something yummy to look forward to later. In the afternoon I headed to DOC (Department of Conservation) here, and picked up the pool car which had been allocated to me. When I got in the car I found it was an automatic – never driven one ... read more

I am up and ready an tad early, but I have time for a leisurely breakfast and stroll down by the lake before heading to the school. After a briefing with the 4 other parent helpers, we head to the class, get organised and head in convoy (via car) to the control gates to start the walk. The walk to where we are camping takes around 2hrs 15minutes with the children, and we stop on the way at Broad Beach for a sit down and a snack, and to admire the views. Chatting to all the children on the way, they are very amusing, but a good bunch of children. I am quite surprised that only one or two children out of all 27 moan about being tierd or blisters etc…even though some of them are ... read more