Monday: November 27

It was an easy day. All we did was transplant little potted plants into larger pots at the nursery. While it’s not terribly exciting, I enjoy being at the nursery. It’s a bit more relaxed and not too labor intensive.

The first two images are of a wētā.

After we got done at the nursery, David dropped us off at Owhiro Bay to see the Red Rocks.  Before we headed out on our forty-five minute journey to the see the Red Rocks, David shared some Maori history about the area.

This is Red Rocks:

You can barely tell they are red, but in person you can easily distinguish between the red rocks and the others.

As David puts, whenever there is an anomaly in nature, a story must be created to explain the oddity.  The red rocks found at Owhiro Bay are unique because there are a cluster of them clumped together in a decent size area unlike all the other grey clumps of rock found along the coast.  The Maori story has it that Maui, fisherman demigod, was fishing on his canoe (the South Island) and caught a fish (the North Island) and reeled it up to the surface.  The fish’s laceration from the hook bled out.  The rocks are colored red from the fish blood.  Interest eh?

So we saw Red Rocks and then we walked another forty-five minutes back to the van.

But before getting back into the CVNZ van, I had to pet and hold this cute pup.

Tuesday: November 28

We drove to Island Bay and met an elderly lady, Jennifer (GREAT name).  She lives on a reserve that was purchased by the community to save it from construction.  We released newly planted trees.  Myself along with a couple of others removed some plant (something with the word asthma in it) that was invading harakeke plants.  The asthma plant was easy to pull out, but I’m pretty sure I wasn’t getting the root. The snails were also invading the harakeke plant, but not causing any harm.

In the late afternoon, after volunteering, Marcel and I went into downtown Wellington to look at some camping gear.  My dear little Marcel is going to camp for the first time.  He’s never gone before and he decided “to go big or go home” and is walking Abel Tasman next week.  He needed a stove and other things so we did a little shopping and price comparing.  I also made an appointment with the bank for the following day so I could get a NZ tax ID number and a bank account.

We walked back to the house which is only a couple miles away.  I really want to get in shape for my well-being as well as my upcoming treks so I’m looking for any opportunity to walk instead of taking the bus. It was also my bright idea to go on a run when we got back.  Marcel is 18 and full of life.  Natural energy.  I’m full of life too. Fueled on coffee.  With that being said, I don’t know what I was thinking when I said “we should go on a run when we get back”…  up a mountain.

But I swallowed my fear; Lasse, Marcel, and I ran out the door a half hour later.  Long story short,  I yelled “go on without me.” since I had fallen behind.  We literally never crossed paths again while on our run to Mount Victoria and we aren’t really sure how that happened.  I started following a group of runners so that could have been the problem-different routes.  I think Marcel and Lasse took a longer route so I’m happy I didn’t follow them :P.  I got back to the house first since they waited for twenty minutes at Mount Victoria.  Such good fellas to wait for me… I thought they ditched me!

Even though I didn’t run the entire distance, I did run further than the last time so that felt good.

Wednesday November 29

Instead of going to Zealandia on Thursday like we normally do, we went today.  It was the routine Zealandia trip.  We hacked into the bush and removed gorse and trees to expand the clearance from the fence to the bush.

We discontinued efforts at 1:30p and walked through Zealandia instead of taking the van down. Zealandia is huge so walking through the ecosanctuary takes about an hour.  One of the volunteers from the day (who isn’t staying with us) is a Canadian girl, Heather.  She just became a volunteer guide at Zealandia so she was able to stop us in our tracks and show us bird sightings as we walked back to the main entrance of Zealandia.

I had an appointment with Kiwibank at 3:45p and we didn’t get back to the house until 3:20p.  I needed to shower so luckily I was able to reschedule the appointment for 4:00p instead.  Phew.  Marcel went with as he needed to finish shopping for camping gear.  I met with a Julie at the bank and set up my bank account and applied for my NZ IRD number.  In order to work in New Zealand you need to have an IRD for tax purposes.  I was especially motivated to get this done as I just accepted a housekeeping position at a lodge in Te Anau.  I’ll be living in a town of 1,900.  I’m excited for this new experience.

Anyways, after we got done being productive, Marcel and I walked back to the house.  We made a few more stops along the way so it was 8:00p by the time we got back.  Marcel was definitely feeling pressure to get home as he still needed to pack and set up his tent for the first time.  Marcel was to leave the following morning at 7:30a.

Marcel has never backpacked nor camped.  Not even in his backyard.  I explained some necessary measures he should take while backpacking, but also explained there are things that he just has to feel out on his own.  Everyone’s needs are different. He asked so many specific questions, good questions, that varied in answer.  Eventually I compared learning to backpack to learning to drive a manual.   Your instructor gives you the basics and technical side to driving a manual- when to release and push the clutch.  When you’re with your instructor, your driving sucks. It’s stop, it’s go, it’s a jerk here, and a stall there. When you’re alone and no one is there to tell you when to push or release the clutch, that’s when you really figure out and feel the relationship between each function of a manual transmission.  You find that perfect balance between your clutch and gas pedal.  I’m still finding the balance between backpacking gear and my backpacking needs, but with every backpacking experience I learn something new.  The same will go for Marcel.

Lasse took some photos while me and Marcel set up his tent.  Thank you Lasse!

Thursday: November 30

Look at Marcel go.  All grown up and ready for some backpacking.  Today I sent Marcel off in “mom style” and got a shot of him before he left.  Side note: look at that backdrop!  So lucky to have such views.

After Marcel left, I got ready for the day.  David was going to be at the house early so we could meet a corporate group, Mobil Oil, at Trelissick Park which was about twenty minutes away.  We met Peter there who would lead us to the spots that needed our help.

The first part of the day was dedicated to removing wandering willie (tradescantia).  I guess I like removing  a lot of invasive plants from the dirt- agapanthus, ivy, and tradescantia.  With tradescantia, it covers the ground so you can actually pull and roll the weed out of the ground like carpet.  This only gets rids of the top layer so you have to go back and remove the individual roots by hand.  The roots aren’t difficult to remove so I actually think it’s relaxing to sit there and pluck each stem by hand.

There were so many bugs in the dirt, including a large spider that surprisingly did NOT bite Maxi.  After finding out the spider type, it does bite and it would have caused some discomfort had it decided to inflict pain on him.  It’s a black tunnelweb spider. BLAH!  G-ross.

Spiders are so terrifying.  Maybe if their lifestyle was… I don’t know… more welcoming I wouldn’t mind them so much, but they are just so heartless.  Fooooor example, the male black tunnelweb spider has to seek out a female black tunnelweb spider to mate.  No courting involved. He basically traps her in her OWN web when she least expects it so he can avoid getting killed.  If he isn’t sneaky, he’s toast.  She is larger and stronger than him and if she has the chance, she will second degree murder his a$$.  If he’s sneaky and she’s passive, he chooses to either mate or kill her. Awesome.  Sounds lovely.

And we already know about the black widow and what she does.  Just brutal.  Some spiders kill fish, birds, snakes, and bats.  Even that small little house spider you see in the corner of your living room… It most likely has some freaky thing it does on the daily.

Spiders undoubtedly scare me, big or small, but they do serve a purpose in this world which is why I would never opt to kill one… not even that freaky little house spider.

Just another one of my tangents.

Moving on.  The second part of the day was dedicated to removing weeds and mulching.  Fairly easy work but the sun made is almost unbearable.  The sun was feeling itself so it was hot, hot, hot!  While we were working, a guy walked by with (no joke) 18 dogs.  I couldn’t believe it.  It was a large pack of miscellaneous breeds that followed the guy.  I’m telling you, the dogs are different in New Zealand.  They don’t pay attention to humans unless you are their owner.  New Zealand dogs have minds of a German shepherd, but coats of everything else but a German shepherd.  They’re just different.  Not one dog has been excited to see me.  Not the shih tzu, not the lab, not the husky, not even the beagle!

After the volunteer day was over, we got back to the house and ate a late lunch.  After sitting around a bit, a couple girls and I decided to lay out in the blistering heat for an hour. I picked up a book the day before when Marcel and I were scouting the city for miscellaneous items so I read some of that while laying out. From what I’ve gathered after reading a chapter and some other random pages, it’s a remedy book for common issues women deal with… The first chapter (of course) talks about food, the second and third chapters talk about body and mind.  It’s OK.  Funny that I was soaking up sun rays while reading this book.  I need my vitamin D okay?

Friday: December 1

Today we went to Lyall Bay and picked up garbage with a group of kids.  Similar to last Friday, but not quite as fun for me.  I really enjoyed the girls who taught me some Kiwi vocabulary! Nonetheless, today was still fun.

Pictured below are some boys who had just got done digging out a plastic bag from the sand.  It doesn’t sound that exciting, but the plastic bag was a bugger to get out.  Just a little piece was sticking out of the sand when one of the boys tried to grab it, but it wouldn’t lift so that is when they had to dig a huge hole to get it out. Teamwork at its finest.

Me, Franzi, and Christina 

Once we got back from the beach cleanup, I changed into some shorts and headed outside to get some writing done.  I hadn’t worked on my blog so I needed some “me time”… Is this even a blog though?  If I add multiple days to one blog- can it still be called a blog?  Does the tree that falls in the forest make a sound if no one is there to hear it?  Nobody will ever know.

Franzi took this shot.  Thanks Franzi!

Later on we went back to the Wellington Night Market.  My last one before I head down south!  Got back to the crib early, watched some Harry Potter, then it was off to bed for this girl.