A dreaded rainy day

I had a terrible nightmare this week. Some ballots didn't work and Austrias presidential election got postponed and I had to figure out how to vote now that I am abroad with no real, consistant adress I could request the new ballot to. But something that ludicrous like failing glue strips would never happen in a respectable country like Austria... right? Honestly, how often can a country mess up an election for a merely representative position that hardly wields any real power? At least the faulty glue was (probably) German. OUR glue would never do that...

Sorry for that little rant, I never claimed this blog would not get a little political. Just don't let other countries' politicians hear about that whole fiasco, they might get ideas. #gluegate #Bundespräsidentenwiederholungswahlverschiebung 

Three other volunteers arrived today. One German, one French, and one Austrian (yay!!). Now I won't be the only one telling the people here that Austria is not, in fact, part of Germany. We tried that once, and it didn't work out too well.

Us four were on our own at night all week. We managed to make food and not die, which is pretty adult I think. Now we are seven, and it's getting a bit crowded here. The good thing is that more people working means less work for each person.

I finished my first week of volunteer work. My muscles are a bit sore, I can definately feel that my shoulders aren't used to physical labour. Maybe I will come home looking super buff! We mainly planted trees this week. The weather was pretty bad, otherwise I would have taken more pictures, but I didn't want to ruin your bright green Middlearth-Image of New Zealand. And you can look at a rainy, grey sky anytime. As soon as we have a bit more sunshine, I'll have my camera on hand, I promise! Unfortunately, this won't be next week, at least not according to the forecast.

So monday through wednesday, we planted trees. It's not too bad, as long as long as the soil is not too hard, or has little rocks in it. Or you are planting on a steep slope. That's muddy and slippery. The weather was cold and windy and cloudy, but at least it didn't rain.

On thursday, we went to Zealandia, a ecosanctuary trying to preserve native flora and fauna. It's a beautiful place, it almost looks like the real jungle! It actually was kind of sunny that day and I took some pictures of the birds. We cut down trees that were too close to the perimeter fence. Even though we went there for work and not sightseeing, we got to look around a bit. And having a person who worked there with us ment that someone could tell us about the plants, birds, and other animals we saw and point them out to us.

The very rare Takahē

The Takahē is the largest living member of the rail family and the biggest flightless bird to survive in New Zealand. They were thought to be  extinct until they were rediscovered in 1948 in a remote Fiordland valley. Their current population is only about 290. We saw this one bird in the sanctuary, and it wasn't very shy! The birds there are definately used to people. Takahē are quite big, fat and not very graceful looking things. My first thought was that they kind of look as if I tried to make a bird out of clay - misproportioned and round with a far too big beak. But then it fluffed up it's feathers and looked like the softest down pillow. I think that bird was doing it on purpose, to impress the visitors - what a poser!

Kakariki

"Kakariki" means small green parrot in the language of the Maori, and that's pretty accurate. This one has been fed to attract it to that branch where everyone could see it.

This is some kind of Shag

We also saw several Tuataras and a Weta, but I couldn't take a decent picture of them since they are so small and camouflaged.

Today, it was time to plant trees again. It started raining halfway through the day, which wasn't nice. We had to plant trees next to a river. Knowing how clumsy I am, I was constantly worried I might slip on the muddy slope right next to it and take a involuntary bath. While I slipped many times, especially with a tray of plants or a trashbag in my hands, I didn't fall in, luckily. 

Needless to say, I was glad to come back to the house, where it's warm and dry and I could get rid of the messy clothes.

Julia & Johannes - soaked and muddy