Week 3

We were back in Punakaiki for our third week, its our last week here. Planted about 700 trees this week, went litter picking in Greymouth lagoon (its amazing what sort of things get washed up) and have spent a few hours looking for jade on the beach. There was torrential rain for most of the week which was good because it meant we finished early. Its has been a warm weekend, sunny both days which is unusual. We went kayaking up the local river and bought some whitebait, a very small fish that is a delicacy over here and had it for our lunch. I wasn't overly impressed.
We also went for a swim in the river without a wetsuit, it was freezing and the current nearly swept us down stream but it was good fun.
The pub has been lively this week, we've know all the locals now but met alot of backpackers this week who all seem pretty cool and a stag party of about 30 people came to the pub Saturday night, it was great and we all managed to get a few free drinks out of the drunker ones and then went to a local house party! This week we also acquired a playstation with 4 singstar (karaoke) games so its been a little wild.   

Next week we are heading further north but still on the West coast to a place called Kamera. Hopefully it will be a bit more populated than Punakaiki.One of the locals also has promised us that its going to get warmer in the next few days so hopefully there will be less rain!

Truman Track, Punakaiki

Yesterday we went on a short, popular walking track called Truman track. We walked through rain forest and ended up in a small beach cove with a waterfall falling from the cliffs and some good rock formations. The sea is very rough and nearly caught us out a few times. The weather was temperamental, sunny one minute, torrential rain the next followed by a hail storm.

It takes along time to upload photos on the computer at the volunteers house. Next time we go to Greymouth (the closest town) i will find an internet cafe and upload some pictures for the last few posts.

Friday 17th ( Snowday!)

Yesterday we travelled back from Otago to spend the weekend and next week in the Punakaiki volunteer house. To get back we had to come through a mountain range along a route called Arthur's Pass. Apparently there is a storm the size of Australia in the sea just North of the North Island and its heading our way. We are starting to feel it, we're experiencing heavy rain and strong gusts. When we were getting close to Arthur's Pass, it started to snow. We had to pull over and put the chains on the mini bus tyres. While we were stopped we though it was a good idea to build a snowman and have a snowball fight. I didn't expect to get any snow while i was over here but it's good fun.

2nd Week Of Work (Sinclair Wetlands, Otago)

Spent last week in Otago, on the south east coast. We were staying in a house in the middle of a wetland area called Sinclair Wetlands. The Sinclair wetland consists of ponds, water channels, swamplands and a couple of scrub-covered islands. Over 60 species of bird live in or regularly visit the wetland. The area used to be a run down farm but was then privately bought and has gradually been turned back into wetland. We were there to help maintain this land by planting native trees and weeding. We also went on treks through the bush collecting seeds and young trees so that we could bring them back to the nursery to ensure they can grow to a good size before replanting them in the wetland.

I felt a bit secluded as the house we were staying in was at least half an hours drive from the nearest town and all the roads were gravel. There were no trips to the pub this week.

1st Week of Work

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I've now moved away from Christchurch to a small village on the West coast called Punakaika. The village has a population of 70 and is 45 minutes drive from the nearest town. The area is mainly covered by rainforest but large areas we cleared when the area was bought by Rio Tinto for mining. They have now given the land back to conservation volunteers and are funding a fiver year project to replant 100,000 trees. This is what i have been doing this week as well as constructing building where the seeds can be grown without animals and birds eating or damaging them. We're planting around 100 trees a day and marking trails through the rainforest.

Christchurch Earthquake

03/09/2010 My Second night in Christchurch

I spent most of the previous evening in the hostel bar and went to bed feeling quite content, only to be woken at around 4.30am by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. Luckily the hostel didn't collapse although there were a few cracks and alot of rooms are now closed. We had to stand in the freezing cold for 3 hours before being let back into the hostel and getting a few hours sleep.

It wasn't until the next morning that we realised the extent of the damage and spent 12 hours with no running water of electricity. We were left to wanded the streets for the day which have no been closed. We're stuck at the hostel at the moment in the very middle of the city. No buses are running and no cars are allowed in so it looks like we'll be here for a while.