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Published: October 26th 2008
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view of Auckland Central from Devonport SUN - Devonport outing with Mike, Karl and Kate. was fun, beautiful day, walked up to the top of Mount Victoria and then North Head, spectacular views of surrounding area and Auckland over the sea😊 Up North Head there were old tunnels from the war where the army had a military base, was fun creeping up on each other in the dark! When we got the ferry back to auckland we went to the Diwali festival on the quayside, packed but had a good curry 😊 walked down to the station afterwards to go back to mount albert and say goodbye to mike (again) :*(
This week we were working in Hunua with Bruce - brill team leader - very tough work as we were laying bait stations in the bush all week and top speed, got alot fitter this week!!! team was me, kate, karl, katie, wanda, charlotte, richard north wales, kate 19 north wales and meryl 27 holland.
MON - set out traps for possums on a bait track today. carried round big wooden trap boxes through a roughly cut bush track, was tiring work but fun as we were scrambling through the bush up and down
steep hills. in the end it turned out that my trap wasnt needed so i had carried it all the way around for nothing, oh well, was a good challenge anyway. had alone time after food, as hunua park is in the middle of nowhere and the moon wasnt out i could se so many stars 😊 was beautiful, lay on Cossey dam wall and looked at them for ages - til i got freezing anyway.
TUES - 10.7km walking today :O and half of that with a load (trap boxes) was totally knackered as we were walking so fast up steep hills without much flat or downwardness. found out i was on the list for the 3 hour hike project up to waitawheter (no idea how to spell it) but i cant because of my hips 😞 am going to tawharanui again though so good times aswell 😊 surprisingly my hip hasnt played up at all this week although tues it did make itself known a bit but nothing compared to rangitoto which crippled me! fun at night time as me, katie, wanda, kate and karl were running around in the dark scaring each other...yes we're all very
mature...
WEDS - again another extremely tough day - more so in the morning - we were checking bait lines throguh bush tracks, first team i was on was with kate and she was pounding through the forest at breakneck speed, i almost died!! after lunch (major shit happened at lunch time but ill get onto that in a bit) was on karls team, we went slower, not down to his choice but because us 3 (me wanda and katie) arent as fit as him but also the track we checked was a mental terrain, scrambling up sheer hills holding onto roots to get up, swinging across cliff faces via roots and sliding down sheer hills :D so much fun!! after that we marched back to the van through the bush at the end of the day with everyone. ok, so at lunch time (we had lunch at the house as we were near enough) Bruce walks into the room and tells me kate and karl that we are to be shipped off to the south island next weekend for our remaining time here (14 weeks) to start a new cvnz project in Punakaiki (where the pancake rocks are)
which is in the middle of nowhere (eg $10 to get a bus to greymouth - nearest 'town') We obviously kicked off at that because we were told we were going - no choice - its not what we signed up for -south island not north - its 14 weeks in the middle of nowhere, no notice of it, we're settled in auckland and have plans up here...the list goes on. argh!!
THURS - we were cutting tracks in the bush today so work was alot slower as we were making a track through dense bush, got a bit boring as i was one of the ones at te back which meant everyone beforeme had cut the track and i basically hadnt much to do, ah well, a nice break from our charging round from the previous days i suppose. we walked back to the house through a bait line rather than the footpath, funfunfun and when we got back it was chucking it down with rain so we sat out in the rain, was brilliant 😊 shower and off to cleavdon (nearby town) for a treat. on the way back fiona called bruce to update us on the
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view of Rangitoto from Devonport south island stuff. turns out she wasnt in the office that day (shes the one who deals with the volunteers) and she had also kicked off at the way we were treated, she was disgusted - as were we. so now its changed a bit to us having a choice about going down for a few weeks rather than being told to for the remaining time here 😊 good news but still not out of the woods yet. great fun back at the house as we all played cards the final game we played was ass - like donkey but we had to grab spoons - so much fun and who ever would have thought after a week doing the work that we did i would get an injusry from a card game, a spoon gouged out my finger!! hehe
FRI - packed and cleaned the house, i had the worlds most rubbish hoover so what would have taken 20mins actually took me 1.5hours!! argh!! then back to auckland, bruce dropped us 3 at the office to discuss the south island with fiona and martin (project manager). if we went down we would still be going next weekend but
only for 4 weeks, we'd be driven down in the van (22hours +) and flown back up to auckland in time for our week off. there would be 2 projects, one in punakaiki weeding a new nursery and putting up furniture for a new vol house and the other close by an already established local project which would be with locals (the punakaki one would only be us as the team) so kates almost def not going because she has plans with her friend whos in nz at the moment and she needs to find out when hes up here, karls def going and im almost def not because although it would be a pretty amazing thing, the very first vols down there in a spectacular place, i want to travel that bit rather than work it plus my bday is in the middle of it and i would prefer to be with more people and not in the middle of nowhere for it. such a difficult decsion though!! help!! so thats that then, we have to have decided by mon morning. back to acb, not in aroom with everyone else but am with other vols who i dont know
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mushroom vents and Mike (the grassy 'hill' is actually the roof of a building) too well, but i love adam so tis fine 😊 walk into the other's room and whos there but DAVE!!! yaya!! hes back here til thurs then hes off home 😞 oh, bumped into mike and linda and philippa asweell!! so goodbyes and tears for nothing last week! south island looks amazing from linda and philippas pics 😊 had a massive vege burger (almost as big as my head) then out to globe bar for free drinks 😊 proper goodbye to linda and philippa this time as they're going home on sat 😞
SAT - internet all mrning, argh! still hardly anything done!! then off to foodtown with mike and his new van before saying goodbye to him for a while :*( i say a while because hes travelling nz for a year wth his van and i plan to meet up with him again 😊 then off to moko inc with dave to sort out a date for my tattoo 😊 beltin place, the tattooist is brilliant, mental and so funny! hes also really good as he does mauri tats off the top of his head, eg i went in not knowing what i want, he asks what
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Mike, Kate and Karl im up to here and comes up wih the idea of ferns and foresty kind of thing so thats booked for feb 17th - soonest date. cant wait!! back to acb went for starbucks with kate, karl and katie then to the cinema to see pineapple express with them plus wanda and dave 😊 goodtimes
and i think thats it for this week 😊
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