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Published: December 12th 2008
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right - left: Matthias, Kate, me, Kirsty, Monica, Adam, Mel, Sascia SUN - alll day on the internet!!! i also booked my week off, up to bay of islands next week, how exciting! also said goodbye to charlotte today :*( we cried in a hug, booo!! going to miss her so much!
team this week = Bruse (leader), me, Adam, Sascia, Kate J (welsh one), Matthias, Kirsty 18 uk(down south), Mel 43 Bournemouth and Monica 27 Madrid. most of the work done this week was helping maintain various tracks that will all eventually join up to become one massive trace from the top of NZ to the very bottom!
MON - pouring rain all day, really really heavy so did no work when we got there, instead we settled into our cabins (we are staying in a campsite so have 3 separate cabins, rubbish as all the food is in Bruce's and we are all split up, oh well, at least its just for sleeping really)
TUES - beautiful weather today, massive contrast from yesterday! shame it was so hot actually due to the wokr we were doing but we survived! in the morning we did track clearing, there really wasn't much to do so turned into a fairly
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me and my log nice walk, oh we also put poles in the ground to mark the track as a footpath. just before lunch, me and kate volunteered to go off with Noel (67yr old guy who helps maintain the tracks with his dog, Sparky, he's as fit a s a fiddle, way fitter than me and kate combined - ran his last marathon when he was 65, just before a heart op!!!) we were helping replace a whole load of track markers which had been mindlessly vandilised. we almost died! he went off up a seriously steep hill at a hell of a pace and barely broke a sweat when me and kate were dieing near the bottom! he went off to fix a style that had been damaged and we went to replace all the markers. i couldn'tmmer a nail in to save my life (im terrible at it but also manuka is a very hard wood and the nails were shit) but by the end of it kate had taught me how and i did 6 nails!!! so proud of me!! haha. got back to the site at about 6.15pm, knackered and starving but we had a good day.
WEDS
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"YOU SHALL NOT PASS" thats a lord of the rings quote for those who dont know, shame on you if you dont - track clearing, nice and relaxing in the sun after yesterday! we finished at about 2pm as we had to find another track, stopped at a cafe on the way, got an amazing ginger thing and saw an awesome rain storm across the valley. when we eventually got to the track it was too late to work so we turned round and came home, essentially we just went for a tiki tour to the wopwops (scenic route to the middle of nowhere).
THURS - fab day to day, basically two really nice bush walks, we were meant to be track clearing but they didnt really need it 😊 first place was Matapouri, good tramp, then off to Kauri Mountain, beautiful views and a good laugh! me and adam almost pissed ourselves several times, mainly at sascia :D (i almost did literally as i was dieing for the toilet anyway!) went to Whangeri falls on the way back to the site, got some good pics.
FRI - hmmm, work consisted of 'checking' a track in the rain sitting in the van 😊 good times. can't believe im on my half way through friday already 😞 gutted, when we got
back to auckland i went to the office to get my half time $150 and was given a feedback form, felt like i was leaving! then to the house to sort out my stuff for the week off. was in the kitchen and heard someone ask monica if i or adam was around, go out to see whats going on and Steffi and Lara are standing in the hall way!!!! squeal, run, hug! havnt seen them since waitomo caves as they are now ex-vols travelling! brilliant surprise :D about an hour later was chatting to Sarah (love her, like an older sister i never had) and hear people asking is anyone wa sin, Charlotte and Taz turn up aswell!! oh happy reunion times!!!! turns out charlotte had been in whangeri the whole time we were there! shame we didnt know that before. into auckland for drinks, crossing the road and who do i see but karl and then kate, back from the south island!! run, hug, get out of the road! ahhh, mind boggling, i dont know whos going and whos coming back!
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