Hey Hey W(aih)eke

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I was very lucky to get to work on Waiheke. CVNZ only goes there for a few weeks every year, and the other team had to stay on the main land at Atiu Creek. It is a island of wine and beaches, but sadly I only got to enjoy the latter. It was a busy and chaotic week. Not everything worked out quite perfectly, but we coped. The house was in the most romantic spot ever. Directly at the beach. Living in a place like this has always been a childhood dream of mine. 

Since there is no road directly to the house, we had to walk for a few minutes. That’s not too bad, even though we had to carry everything, luggage, groceries, water – there was no drinking water, and we had to preserve the tank water for showering etc. As pretty as it is from the outside, no one lives there apart from volunteers every other month. That means it is not very well maintained. Upon entering the kitchen, we found a few mouse droppings on the counter, and of course more spiders than there are people on the island. However, at this point, I’m used to it. A few little bugs don’t impress me anymore. Cockroaches, moths, spiders, rats,... – They are as much my house mates as the other volunteers. 

A hand full of spiders wish you a good morning in the toilet, then you find some chilling in their nets over the stove as you make breakfast and say hello to the ant family in the food cabinet and maybe clean up the fresh mouse poo from the fruit bowl. Then you go to brush your teeth together with the cockroaches. At night, you fall asleep listening to dozens of little rat feet on the roof. That’s just the life.

What bothered me a bit more than our unrequested pets was that we were almost out of gas. And the energy outlets didn’t work. Neither did the microwave. And we didn’t have any hot water for the showers. Awesome. At least the gas lasted long enough to cook couscous. And since we would get sweaty and smelly again the next way anyways, it didn’t really matter if we didn’t shower. That day, we had only spread out some mulch. Boring, but not that hard. Luckily, we could sort out most of that the next morning.

On Wednesday we fixed bait lines. That means filling rat poison in traps and smearing on a bit of peanut butter on it as bait. It was a nice walk, at least for me. I volunteered to go with the ranger. It’s always great to work with the professionals, they can tell you so much about native plants. And that way I wouldn’t get lost somewhere in the deep forest. I saw a great old Kauri, and a tree that might have been used by the Maori to store dead bodies. Our route was easy for the most part, but appearently the other teams had a hard time climbing around in the jungle. The ranger might have kept the easiest route for himself.

This may have been a burial tree

Thursday morning, a not-so-pleasant surprise waited for us: The tap stayed dry, the toilets didn’t flush, we had run out of water. Or at least we thought so. Later we found out that there was still a lot left, it just didn’t get pumped out of the tanks. At least we didn’t have to do the breakfast dishes. We had to resort to flush with sea water, one resource that was not limited.

We got to do my favourite job: Killing gorse. I was excited, even though I just managed to pick the last thornes out of my hands. This time with great seaview. We worked at the top of a cliff. I’m glad I’m not scared of hightes anymore. Our team leader Sirri told us very specifically not to risc too much and that we should not climb down too much to cut the gruesome weed, only if we were 100% sure that we would not slip and fall to our death on the rocks down below. I am not sure if I was always truly 100% sure, but I think I managed a good 76. The cliffside, though, was definately over 100%.For the most part, I could get a good grip on other trees or use them as foot support. It only got a bit icky when the soil started crumbling. They should have given us a climbing harness and tie us to a tree, that would have been cool, and safe.
Since we had worked so hard, Sirri convinced the ranger to give us an hour off in the afternoon and we went into town and to some beaches.

"Please Respect"

Me and German Steffi 

Somehow, and with a lot of screwing and unscrewing, the water came back after dinner, right in time for all the dishes.

Like every Friday, we had to start the day by cleaning the house. I don’t even know why I try to do that properly every time if I don’t even get to profit from it. Most places I have lived in are a unhygenic  health hazard with dead cockroaches everywhere and ten year’s worth of dust. And the shower drains were blocked, which made cleaning them very annoying. Also, I was approaching a bad laundry situation, since the washing mashine in the house, of course, didn’t work, even if we had had enough water to wash clothes.

We were supposed to mulch some more that moring, which I was not excited about. It’s dull and not rewarding and doesn’t feel like proper conservation work. So when I heard that someone was supposed to go back to where we cut the day before to fix up some bits that were missed, I volunteered immediately. I thought it would just be some really small ones on the top that we specifically left there since they could be sprayed easily. I was wrong. He made me and another girl poison the ones down very low that we specifically left there since they were too dangerous to get there. The dude was sliding around on loose soil and falling several times with a running chainsaw in his hands. I honestly was a bit freaked out and constantly thinking “If Sirri saw this, she would not be happy” Well, it was fun, in some ways. What good is living if you don’t feel like you are going to die painfully on the scenic shore every once-in-a-while?

Then we went back to Auckland on the ferry.

From the Water

It might sound as if I am complaining and having a horrible time, but honestly, it’s just the truth. And I still enjoy my time, I still love the work. It’s still great, at least it’s exciting!

Then the sad part came: I had to say goodbye to all the new friends I made and went to the Airport.

I arrived in Christchurch at night and naturally, it was raining. Because Christchurch is much nicer to you than Auckland, there is a public bus service from the airport to the city centre and you don’t have to pay for the insanely expensive Skybus. It’s still not cheap, but better. As always, the bus driver was almost uncomfortably nice. I just wanted to go to the city centre and walk the two kilometers to my hostel from there. He actually wanted to help me find the bus that I had to get on at the city centre bus stop so that I didn’t have to walk. I didn’t listen and walked anyways. It’s far more exciting, and after a flight it’s always nice to get some fresh air.

The next morning, I finally could sleep in a bit longer. I did not have anything special planned for my stay, just walking around and relaxing a bit. And I needed to do my laundry in the morning. I really needed to. So I slipped into my cleanest dirty shirt and took care of that while catching up with the world online.

Parts of Christchurch are still in ruins, even if it’s been over five years since the big earthquake. But they dealt with the disaster beautifully. For example, there is a mall completely built out of shipping containers.

I found this traffic sign sculpture very interesting

"Everything is going to be alright"

The botanical gardens are also pretty, even though I can’t forget that all these colourfully blooming plants are weeds. There is a New Zealand garden as well. 

There was a charity race and their outfits were just too good!

Sunday morning, I stumbled by a Thriller-flashmob, and of course I got nice Zombie-Make-Up done and jumped in.

I woke up like this

I was also interviewed by a local TV Station. You could say I'm internationally famous.

That's what I look like every Sunday morning

I proceeded walking around town pretty like that. It was funny to see how the people reacted. I think I freaked out a little girl.

Now I’m on the bus to Greymouth and get to see the mountains of the South Island.

A shame the bus didn't stop for pictures

 I just want to go up to these summits and build a snowman. I have officially reached the listening-to-Austropop-a-lot-stage of my journey now and would kind of like to go skiing, even if it’s too early. It took me longer last time, in the USA, maybe because that had more of a homey-feel to it. I’m not sad-homesick or anything, more like happily sentimental in an almost nostalgic way. I enjoyed being on my own for a bit, especially with my single room, but now I’m  looking forward to meeting new people and re-meeting my friends that left Auckland to go to the south before me.