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Published: January 9th 2009
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Kirsty's tattooFRI NIGHT - had a lot of fun, drank...a lot. enough said!
SAT - went into auckland with kirsty for her to get a tattoo from Ballistic - it seems to be a regular weekend outing now, a trip to Ballistic - she got a beautiful lotus flower on her back, said she'd never get one again, ever!! i should probably say the same for me...neh! went to christmas in the park in the evening with kate, fanny 23 belgium, ray 39 leceistershire and jin 25 korea. massive event, record numbers attending this year aswell - it's because we were there really... great atmosphere, everyone out to have a good time, so weird being out at night in a strap top, celebrating christmas though...
SUN - went to starbucks to read twilight, nice and relaxing, very christmassy in there , apart from that did boring stuff, essential boring stuff though.
oh good times, shit hit the fan to do with south island, again, and we thought it was all behind us, apparantly not. sam (south island team leader - taking north island teams because there are no volunteers down there because cvnz/cva jumped at the south island project too soon,
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Fanny and Kate at Christmas in the Park without much thought to how it will work with no volunteers...we 5 monthers spring to mind, oh joy) took us to the office in the morning before going off on our projects - not good for me because we had to leave straight away for our project to waitawheta due to the 3 hour tramp. we got there and the manager person, martin, took us and told us that we were going to the south island for the remainder of our time with cvnz (again) in 2 weeks time (ooo half a weeks more notice than last time, getting better there...) so that would mean 7 weeks down there, and the end of our cvnz there too. we all immediately say we are not going, he said we hadnt a choice this time and we definately were. we got very angry, again, at our treatment, the handling of the situation, at everything really. we all seriously considered quitting because of this but we cant because of financial situations and our plans that revolved around being with cvnz until february. later in the week, after many exchanged emails between kate, karl and madeline (high up in cva) the time there was
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Christmas in the Park cut down to four weeks again, still no choice and still in 2 weeks time - better as it means ill be finishing up in the north island but its still shit as i, we, really dont want to go!!!
team this week - Bruce, me, adam, aaron, justin, JB, carina, anna, fanny, kengo, ray
MON - eventually left the office and got on the road - hour and a halfs drive to waitawheta - i evidently wasnt myself in the van, staring blankly out the window, as the team were pretty concerned about me (still extremely angry, upset, let down). we eventually got to the lay-by where we left the van and started walking. the walk there was fun, only a 3 degree gradient most of the way there so it was a fairly easy tramp despite the load on our backs - our food and stuff for the week. the river crossings (5 over the same river) were fun!! the deepest it came was up over my knees :D felt weird walking with water in my boots, like my feet were in a mini jacuzzi, bubbles everywhere 😊 got to the cabin a few hours later
and chilled out for the rest of the evening.
TUES - today we split into 2 teams, i lead one, bruce the other, to follow ripped up pieces of newspaper through the bush that warren, the guy out there, had layed out. they marked a new track that we were to spend the week cutting and making (bruce has put a video of the finished path on facebook, look in videos of me on my page). so we spent the good part of that morning cutting through dense patches of supple jack, native bush and big trees - warren had to explode a tree with dynamite to get it out of the way! after morning smoko we began benching the path (cutting into the steep slope to make it flat and path-like), pretty tough as the ground was very rooty and the gradient wasn't the best to work on, though we were aiming by the end of the week to have the path at a steady grade throughout for easy walking. in the afternoon me and the other girls lugged through big ponga (silver tree ferns) to edge the paths and prevent the soil falling down the hill. after
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Kate and me work went to the water hole with carina, fanny and adam to watch JB and justin swim, it was freezing, very clear, water!!
WEDS - continued benching the path today, us girls got a section instead of the lads doing all the really tough work 😊 had to cut thorugh the hill by about 1/2 metre to level the track! there were sooo many rocks in the ground that i spent a lot of time digging out, pretty satisfying struggling with them and eventually getting them out!! later in the afternoon, our section was all but done so i asked bruce for more work, he gave me a very very rooty area to hack away at with justin, that was fun, if ever i found myself running low on energy id think of martin and get a massive burst of energy to continue hacking into the ground :D after work me and bruce went to find the kahikatea tree where he can get phone signal for updates on the s.i. situation.
THURS - benching again to finish the stretch of track we were working on. in the morning us girls went up to the tree that warren had
blasted to re-cut the path there (as it had blasted over the previously cut path!) and gather fire wood - apparantly the tree that exploded was a very good tree for burning, even when fresh...so warren explodes it...?!) after bruce got me on my hands and knees digging at the path with my hands!! its because it was mainly stones and roots, hes not mean!! after lunch i got myself a matic to hack into the ground with 😊 fun! finished work by 2 as we had completed the path!!! awesome, felt so rewarding finishing it and then walking it afterwards! great team, hard working and we worked together/got on well too 😊 me and bruce went off after work to sign up the path (putting orange triangles on the trees to show the way) then on up to the kahikatea again for more updates. cooked with aaron and bruce in the evening, good laugh. after food, when it was dark we went to see the glow worms, there were a fair few, but not as many as waitomo caves, obviously! back up to the hut to look at the stars, i was out for about 1.5hrs! i also went
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Jin and Fanny up the track just to experience the pitch blackness, i couldnt see my hand infornt of my face, bruce jumped out on me on my way back aswell!!! saw 3 possums (grrr, big brown ones, the size of a big cat, evil things)
FRI - up very early today (6.30) to clean the house and leave by 8. my bag was so light compared to the way in! took lots of photos on the way home, beautiful area/views. was off with the faeries on the way back, thoughts, imagination etc. but it didnt stop my hips hurting for the last hour sadly. they wern't as bad as rangitoto though, very lucky! in the van on the way back i got a call from fiona (office person who sorts everything out for us vols, love her to bits) asking me to come to the office when we got back to discuss south island situation. when we got there, i ran up looking like a homeless person in my ragged, cut off shorts and bare feet, sweaty and dirty from the tramp back (eeew!) thinking i was going to get a lift back with bruce, therefore not have to see public
before i got washed, but no, he had to go! had a chat with fiona about the projects and how i felt about going then walked up the street looking like i did to get a hire car with her so she could take me back to mount albert! talked more with her about s.i. with kate and karl too (having been re-united), afterwards she took us into acb for the weekend. rapidly got ready for the night out 😊 and more happy re-unions! was walking to my room after a shower and who is with adam but charlotte!!!! squeal, run, hug, dont let go!!! so happy to see her!!!!!! taz turned up later in our room 😊 then down to reception and kirsty was checking in, hug time, through to the kitchen, bump into ruth, more hugs! night out was good as sascia was there too! squeal run hug! jenny came out (team leader, only 26 and such fun!) fiona came out briefly too, with her boyfriend then went to the cinema with karl and kate whislt the rest of us drank the night away 😊
SAT - had lunch in cima with kate, karl, adam, fanny and
taz, yummy, had a quick nap (bit hungover..under exaggeration, pretty hungover) the had food with JB, justin, fanny and a new vol amelie 23 france. played pool for a bit then bed.
SUN - went to victoria market for xmas presents with kate, karl and adam. was sooo christmassy - despite the hot sun, shorts and strap top! on the way down we went into sky city to have a look at the giant xmas tree in there, took pics of our reflection in the baubles, yes we are all adults...me and kate got very happy! after vic. mkt. adam left us to finish off presents and we wnet to the skate park for karl, on the way we found santa line phone boxes, so me and kate called santa and wished not to go to the south island! fun! went to pizza pizza when we got back to auckland then to the cinema with jin 23 korea, fanny, justin and amelie to see 4 holidays, pretty funny. got back at about 10.30 and did my laundry (i forgot to do all weekend..oops!) played pool with justin then bed by 12.30ish.
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