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Published: February 15th 2009
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Atiu, 100% humidity so a fairly hazy picture I'm afraid last week with cvnz as a 5 monther this week :*( (however, as you may already know, i have 2 more weeks in march, hopfully 3 more, then some more maybe in may...)
team: Dan (leader), me, kate, karl, jack, brecht (up from the south island), young, chikako 22 japan.
MON - in Atiu Creek this week with the most amazing house! i can't believe theyve kept us from here for so long!!! adam came here 3 times in his 12 weeks with cvnz! it had fly screens on the windows!!!!! that was an exciting discovery :D amazing power shower, good living area, 2 toilets, 2 showers, me and kate had proper beds, big house, just the best one we've been to really 😊 nice for our last week. we got there quite late, had lunch and waited for the ranger to come and tell us what to do. he left us at about 2.30pm so we went to work at about 3pm, really more of a bush bash. we walked up the track then cut through the bush as it was getting late, we collected a few Karaka and Puriri seeds on the way and came out at the
maori pou which is like a native american totum pole, but maori obviously...beautifully carved with dolphins, eels and various other things. then back up to the van, was soo humid, i was sweating like a pig, nasty :P had first shower as was cooking. cooked the pasta with dan then had cookies and cream icecream with melted nutella for pud 😊 mmm
TUES - bush bashing agai this morning looking for more seeds. bush wasnt so dense as it was yesterday so it was a nice wander through, also nice was it was raining so slightly cooler. heard a massive rumble of thunder whcih sadly didnt turn into anything, would have been nice to have a storm to clear the air. after lunch we went to the workshop, on the way we got a bad flat tyre so replaced that before heading out to plant 100 flax. clay soil but it wasnt too bad as it had been raining. started to chuck it down whilst we worked, sooo good as we were imensly hot and sweaty 😊 first shower again as was cooking mac n cheese with karl. we wanted to show how much it had improved since the
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the pou at atiu first time we cooked it when on dans team, and it was gooooood, even if i say so myself 😊 though slightly too much, could have fed 2 full teams with seconds, there were only 7 of us, turned into lunch for a few days! after food the others went out to play rounders whilst dan advised me on how long to stay in each place when i travel, hehe, we then had a sneaky scoop of icecream to finish off the nutella sauce of course...then went out to play rounders, was great fun unitl dan hit the ball to hard and we lost it..oh well!
WEDS - sooooo humid again today, way too hot to sleep in aswell, i had to resort to my boardies and a straptop at night time! we mulched in the morning, was fun, me and kate were shovelling the mulch pile whilst the lads stood around watching and waiting so they could put out the buckets of mulch on the flax, typical work men :P seed collecting in the afternoon again, me, dan and chikako went on an adventure to find more seeds. found some mullet in the sea which dan then stalked.
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upclose Pou went into wellsford after work to get the spare tyre fixed then got icecreams on the budget :D night time was fun, me and kate got a bit hyper and decided to go and scare the guys, well karl was our target, as he has been for 5months, sadly i was laughing too much and karl heard, so we still havnt scared him in the whole 5months...then he got revenge, as he always does, and scared us half to death, kate screamed, waking dan and i squealed and fell to the floor, good tactic there if im ever attacked, fall on the floor...hmmm lets hope i never get attacked!
THURS - stripped a fence today. me and brecht took out all the staples and batons whilst the others cleared it of undergrowth, had watermelon for lunch mmmmm, then back to the fence, kate, brecht and young did some tree releasing, karl and jack dug out the fence posts and i carried on with the staples with chikako, was good work though very hot again. had a party tonight as was our last ever night together as 5 monthers 😞 party was wild...it wasnt but it was fun, we had
party food and balloons and we got our certificates. had a laugh. afterwards me and karl went outside in the rain, refreshing, nice alone time together 😊 then jack and brecht came out and we played watchman (hide and seek with a base) until brecht fell down the stairs and cut his toes...bled everywhere so that was that!
FRI - finsihed off the plant release work in the morning then cleaned the house and left. got to the officeat about 2pm said goodbye to sandra and got our leaving money and references from a top person and cva (the one who helped screw us around about the south island) back to the house, got all my stuff that ive been leaving there, tooo much stuff!!! then into acb in dans car. said goodbye to him outside acb 😞 then on up to our room, back in the smelly egg room whcih was an upgrade from our booked room. had a wagamamas in the evenig with kate, karl, jack and dave (from the south island, hes up team leadering for 2 weeks as they couldnt find anyone to replace bruce when hes on hol) was lovely just us 5, good
laugh too 😊 was going to go to the airport after th emeal to meet mum and dad off the plane as a surprise fo rthem, but ti didnt work out so went out drinking with jack and kate, jack went home around 11.30 so me and kate went on up to shakespeare to see eddy from all that time ago, got a few free drinks from him then went and sat on abench witha kebab for about an hour talking 😊 got to bed by about 3.30...nice last night out with them 😊
SAT - up early to get my laundry done before going to see mum n dad but all the washers were being used, plan ruined, we (me, kate, karl, jack and brecht) went to cima for a last brekki together 😞 was nice then back to acb, internet time, laundry, then got a call from the parents 😊 they came up to acb tearful re-union! ( i pity them for having to see acb, let alone spend time in here!) sorted my stuff out and said a very tearful goodbye to kate and karl 😞 well i was crying, they wernt...they were laughing at me
:D ! then wandered around auckland with mum n dad, got my xmas prezzi watch, went to cima for lunch (got some dodgy looks from the staff as ghad only been there a few hours before hand!) then wandered down to the harbour. back to acb to get my stuff, saw karl, another, better goodbye where i could talk 😊 then onto the lodge with mum n dad. such a nice room compared to acb!!! love it! amazing shower and bathroom :D yay! well impressed with renties as they managed to stay up til 9.30pm, though they were losing it a bit, mum seemed very much drunk, had a giggling fit on the bed because something dad said that wasnt remotely funny...jet lag does strange things.
SUN - nice lie in, actually had a cosy sleepm, wasnt too hot and the room was nice and cool!!! went to a cafe in parnell for brekki then walked into auckland through the domain, i forgot how exciting everything was when i first got here, they (mum n dad) kept stopping and looking at stuff finding it all fascinatiing, if i pointed out a tree theyd spend 5 mins looking at it
etc.! had a nice starbucks with them then they went to the sky tower, adn i to the interent. saw kate again, just said goodbye, a better one where i could talk 😊 now mum n dad are aiting for me outside so i best go...so weird they're here, yet it doesnt feel strange at all! went down to get gelato at the harbour then back to Parnell. had the most amazing curry ever in Oh Calcutta (kindly recommended by Dan) i havtn had a proper curry since the last one with andrew in edinburgh all those months ago!!!
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