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Will upload some more pictures shortly those aren't very good...

Tawharanui

View from outside our house in Tawharnui

CVNZ's no 1 tree killing duo, doin what we do best

Thats me on a hill

We are now a fully fledged CVNZ death squad. Spent the week in the forests and hills of Tawharanui hunting down the enemies of the land. My weapons of choice, a handsaw, a bottle of poison and a grubber(kind of like a strange axe). Our targets, thistles, moth plant and climbing Asparagus. We went two days combing the bush for these evil plant using our expert CVNZ skills to track them down. What skills you ask? Well this is how it usually goes down. We see a plant and we say "WAYNE! Is this it? They all look the same..." Aside from thistles, we know what they look like. Have to hack down hundreds of em over the past few days.

Oh a quick mention of our Head Executioner* Wayne. Great leader. Always have a good laugh with him. He apparently somehow ingested an encyclopedia about New Zealand at some point in his life. He has a vast knowledge of weeds and is pretty knowedgable about pretty much everything that has anything to do with New Zealand as well. It's like having a tour guide the whole. Wait no scratch that, having a tour guide all the time would be horrible. This is actually interesting. So it's somewhat like having a tour guide. Also need to extend a big thanks to him seeing as he introduced us volunteers to Flight of Conchords which has now almost become ingrained in our minds.

So on our brief breaks from hunting down renegade greenery there was a night time walk through the bush, listening out for Kiwi. Really cool, Tawharnui is a reserve for rare birds. There's a big fence around the whole park to keep out rats, cats, ferrets and possums. And because of the lack of predators the place is amazing at night. Loads of very interesting birdcalls and such. And funny little insects that do the breaststroke. Oh I've just realised I haven't explained about Tawharanui a'tall. It's an Auckland regional park, bout an hour and a half north of the city. Its a part of a peninsula which has a big predator fence running around the park. Kinda reminiscint of Jurassic Park when entering/leaving cause the forest here look very like the ones featured in those movies. Beside our house was a lagoon and after that large green hills(some heavily forested) dot the landscape and on either side of the land mass are beaches. One in particular called Anchor bay was very beautiful. A long white sand beach, which has had no development so it's unplagued by horrible seaside town and hordes of people. Dolphins paid a visit to the beach one of the days, was pretty cool. The HE(head executioner) and the Frenchie* went swimming with them.

Not much else to report, back in Auckland now for a long weekend. YAY! Then back to Hamilton next week. YAY! Again. So disappointing afer being in Tawharnui. Oh well, was on Rangitoto today. Weather here is now brilliant, sun shining, bright blue sky and turqiouse ocean what more could you want. Also could actually see the view from the top of the island today, fantastic.

*This is the term CVNZ insist we use, personally we prefer the term team leader.

** Frenchie is in fact a lady called Isaelle who is a Parisian doctor and isn't really too bad for a french person. Good Luck if you're reading Isabelle will give you a shout if I ever find myself in Paris

Nothing much to report

Nothing much to say today. Sundays tend to be a bit boring around here. Weekends in NZ are typically very dull it seems everything closes at like 2 so I usually just sit in at the house and watch dvds but I've run out of things to watch so I've taken refuge here in the internet cafe where I am currently listening to some of the songs of Flight Of the Concords.*

Been doing a serious sampling of the nightlife here in NZ past few nights. I figured someone should really check it out and report back to all you people what its like over here. So you see, I only really went out so I could you guys about it. . .

Worryingly I think the rest of the group may believe I am a bit of an alcoholic. I don't know why, it's clearly a baseless accusation I think it's just because I'm Irish. Prejudice is all it is. Nothing, absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I've been going out 3 nights a week and usually forcing them along with me. They're also not very good with beer most of them and this has led to the belief that I drink a lot. Again baseless, just because my stack of bottles is nearly always twice the size of theirs is no reason to assume that I drink a lot. Also bouncers here don't seem to like me, again I believe it prejudice against the Irish. They always ask me things like "Are you allright mate?" or "How many beers you had?" Most of the time at this point I've only had one or two. Its the Irish stereotype thing you see. As soon as they hear my accent they think. "Oh great, a bloody Paddy no doubt pissed off his face" I was even escorted out of the club one night for no good reason I was aware of. Was just standing there talking to someone and next thing this big kiwi dude comes along and asks me to please follow him. At this point I hadn't realized that I was being thrown so it came as quite a surprise when I found myself outside and was told I needed a break. The duration of this break I was told should be about an hour/hour and half. This was at like 1.30, so you do the math.

Anyway gone off on a bit of tangent there, this blog was originally meant to be just me telling you that if you're following my blog you should add yerself as a follower and leave comments and such. I'd like to read them.

* Its terrible I'd never watched this before. Absolutely fantastic show. Very popular here too as you can imagine

Return to Auckland III

The driveway out of the farm we were working on
One of the peat lakes we were helping restore, up close the water is a horrible murky brown
Andrew and his wife Jenny with the cake she baked for us.(real irish heads on em eh?)

Turbo the hyperactive, super affectionate dog also features
The Waikato river, biggest in New Zealand. Flows through Hamilton
Soohyun, myself and the self christened Kyle*. Crazy Koreans.

Went out in Hamilton last night, was pretty good. Good music anyway, great pub band. Played everything from Bob Marley to Pearl Jam to the Proclaimers. Have returned to Auckland now and just spent the last hour or so sorting out the pictures on my camera. Tremendous fun. Off to a place called Tawharnui next week. It's a reserve on a secluded peninsula with nothing within about 20 km or so. Should be interesting, I'm one of the lucky few not going back to Hamilton. Although I wouldn't mind spending more time on that farm really, nice people "salt of the earth" as they say. Apparently the farmer had a lot of Irish in him too. It showed, there was something very very Irish about him and his wife. She even baked us a cake when we were leaving. The farmers name is Andrew Hayes by the way, I reckon he deserves a mention for the past five years he has been working to preserve the peat lakes located on his land. I'm informed this is very important, these lakes are some of very few remaining examples of this kind of habitat in New Zealand. And I figure he deserves a mention because for the past 5 years he's been all the restoration work on the area himself. As well as running a huge dairy farm. It's a massive amount of work, to give you an idea; in the past 5 days my volunteer group planted/ transplanted close 2000 plants. Before last week this guy did all this by himself, can you imagine how much time that would take? So kudos to Mr. Hayes for some serious dedication. Though I still haven't really a clue as to the point of most of what we did (save that it helps the lakes in some way).

Oh a word about the owners of the hostel we stayed in Hamilton. Kim and Edith. Edith is a little old lady who is 92, looks like she is made of leather and has a hunched back. She is also one of the most active 92 year I've ever seen. Although truth be told I haven't seen very many 92 year olds. Kim is her daughter of indiscernible age. Anywhere from 60 up really. Anyway there's a point here somewhere. Oh yes, they're both bona fide lunatics. I know what you're thinking, I call quite a few people lunatics and you would be right in the assumption that the title is not always suitably given i.e Andrew the farmer, is not really a lunatic. Just a bit of a character. On these two however you can trust my judgement. They should probably get help. Firstly they don't believe weather forecasts, they say that the internet lies about (I know, not very crazy) they have a priest who predicts the weather for them. Also today Edith asked one of the girls to put a piece of the cake in her mouth for her. Thats a bit mad allright but exactly not what you'd call bona fide lunacy you say. Well how about this. The daughter Kim is adamant that she participated in the French revolution and not just that but led one of the charges. In a previous life no less. She produced this little bit of info when she heard one of the girls was from France.

So judge for yerself.

* Real name Young Jun, he figured we wouldn't be able to remember that so he chose the English name Kyle after the main character in the tv show Kyle xy. (I have no knowledge of this show)

A note on the previous posting

Hamilton's no.3 tourist attraction.

Firstly when I say the farmer is unhinged I mean it in the best possible way. He's a nice man. His mind has just moved to that particualr corner of insanity reserved solely fot those have worked in agriculture for most of thier lives. If he was in Ireland he would certainly be wearing a paddy cap and a battered old tweed suit with some wellingtons. Sorry "gum boots" so they call them here. He would not at all be out of place in the village in fact (leaving aside the Kiwi accent obviously).

And secondly I've realised that this is in fact the midlands of New Zealand so maybe its a general rule that midlands have to be boring. Or maybe they've done it purposely so no one will want to visit. Yeah maybe they've actually destroyed anything thats of any interest as some form of tourist detterent. Certainly worked back home, ever hear of anyone going on holidays to Offaly? The main tourist attraction in Hamilton is (after the museum and garden) a statue of a character from the Rock Horror Picture show. This strikes me as very odd. Though I've never seen the movie. I reckon it may be another cunning strategy to keep tourist away. Who in their right mind would come to a place with such a thing listed as one of the main attractions?

Hamilton, epitome of dullness.

This week we are helping conserve some peat lakes outside the city(it's not much of a city) of Hamilton. Thus far this has involved a lot of "Transplanting". What is transplanting you might ask, it sounds kind of cool. It's not. We spend ages digging up these plants and move them to a location slightly further away(we're talking a couple of metres) then dig another hole and put them there. I am assured that it is very important work.
I wouldn't really mind this if we were somewhere nice, but this place seems to be the equivalent of the midlands in Ireland nothing even slightly interesting aside from some distant hills that you can't even see if it's cloudy.
We are also being supervised by a clearly unhinged kiwi farmer and his equally mad dog Turbo(who has a brother I've yet to meet called Diesel, I think this may have been a joke). Its very funny to listen to him though, he talks to the Germans and Asians in the same way he talks to his dog. Except for when anything needs to be explained, then he speaks really fast, with his thick kiwi accent. Then laughs at the expressions on their faces
"Heh eh! Didn't understand a bloody word I said eh?"
Will update you further on this place shortly...

DEATH TO ALL FOREIGNERS( The New Zealand conservation mantra)

Black Swan... Very strange.
The greatest volunteer team of all time

I have spent the past week hacking at non natives with a saw. Plants that is. Obviously. I know there was a few of you there thinking "Wow its finally happened, he's lost the plot entirely"

You'd be surprised at how much death is involved with conservation work. Yeah I know you'd think seeing as it is called conservation work there'd be more actual conserving involved really. I'm starting to get the impression that CVNZ may be some kind extremist plant killing group cunningly disguised as a volunteer organisation. Since I started with CVNZ I have spent most of my time killing plants. When not killing plants we kill small mammals(well set up the traps to do so anyway). You see the New Zealanders are very upset that all these non-native plants and animals(all land mammals here are non-native) are here stealing all the resources from the natives and they believe that the only way their native flora and fauna will survive is by a mass genocide of all plant and wildlife that is non kiwi. Isn't this sounding a bit familiar? Think circa 1940's...

But yeah, you'd be amazed at what they actually consider weeds here. Back home it is a term reserved for little plants that grow between the cracks in the footpath. Here everything is a weed. I had to kill a couple of great big trees the other day. By "ring barking" this is botanical equivalent of cutting somethings throat, the tree dies slowly over a number of years afterwards. They had us chopping down weeds on a little forest track there the other day, when we were done it was a clearing. It looked the scene of some kind of tree massacre. Nearly all their plants are in fact weeds. In the New Zealand dictionary the definition of weed is actually "Plant from somewhere else.

More plant killing lined up for next. At a peat lake this time. Terribly exciting stuff eh?

Right, don't really have much else to say. I'm off to the zoo. I'll keep ye posted on my plant murdering antics.

The turkey incident

It has since been explained to me that in the aforementioned mix up between thirty and turkey the Korean girls believed that I telling they had to prepare a turkey meal for us. At 8 in the morning...

Just so you know.

One more thing

They mostly do ales here. Only two kinds of larger available normally on tap. WHY? Why would you inflict ale upon a nation?

How did that happen?

Here's the thing. I was sitting in a pub last night, at a gig with 4 of the other volunteers. 4 people I barely know. So anyway I'm sitting in this pub (The Dogs Bollix) and watching this band. And suddenly it hits me. I'm at a pub over 10000 miles from home, with three brits and a german. How exactly did this happen? The people who used to ask me before I left if it had "hit me" yet, well last night it officially hit me. Very hard on the head, simulated the effects of drunkeness and then made me slander quite heavily the German man in the group. (Who had it coming admittedly but probably should not have got it like this).
But anyway, it hit me last night.
On the plus side Kiwi rock seems pretty cool. Downside, I now have to do four more weeks work with a person who I insulted in front of quite a few other people. Sounds like fun eh? Oh well, I've bought House and Black Books so I'm happy out.

Out of contact

Just to let ye all know, it'll probably be very rare that I get a chance to contact ye for the duration of the volunteer thing. So if you don't hear from me don't worry I am still alive.

Hills, Hills and more hills.

The order of these pictures is a bit messed up. Thats a very hazy view from the highest point in the ranges.(Where we had to work one day)
Hunua Falls, just down the road from where I was staying
A bit of a fairly typical track, this one is in Waihete I think
The Falls again
A river with forest type area
View from the "Cafe" lookout, it was the midway point on the mountain
I loved this picture so much I put it in twice(I don't know how to delete it)
One Tree Hill

It seems ever since I left home all I have been doing is walking up hills. When I got to San Francisco I spent half my time traipsing up and down hills, when I was in search of a hostel. In L.A I had a brief break from hills.

Then I got here.

For the first few days I went sightseeing, all their sights are either on hills or are hills. I walked up three different mountains in my first days and also all around an island called Waihete which is, shockingly, very hilly. Now I didn't really mind at the time this was because I didn't realize what volunteer work here consisted of.

For the past five days I've been working in the Hunua Ranges, its basically a vast mountainous rain forest area.( Made up mostly of gigantic ferns, that can grow up to 20 meters high I am informed). The first day was quite boring we spent it putting plants into pots. The second day we had a 4km hike up steep slopes before we even got to where we were working. It was great fun. And then we had the awesome job of spreading gravel on steps. So up and down the mountain with big buckets of gravel. Even more fun.

The next two days we spent cutting tracks for bait lines. On near vertical slopes in the forest, I spent bout 50 % of the time falling, 25% getting tangled in the things and just about the other 25% cutting. Most of you will know how naturally clumsy I am so just try and imagine me trying to work my way down steep rain forest hills in the rain. With a clippers. Amazingly neither me or my fellow volunteers have sustained any injuries yet.

Oh yeah it might sound like I'm a bit bitter bout the whole but I'm not at all. Having a great time, and the ranges were amazing. The few times I managed to keep my balance long enough to look anyway. Also the volunteers are grand, a good laugh most of them. And the Germans are cool. I know it's mental, who'd have thought it. Fun Germans. One of them even sings Irish rebel songs. There's also two Koreans who don't speak very much English* and generally just clean things up and smile. Not quite sure what I'm going to do for the weekend now.

*eg. I was elected to explain to them that we wouldn't have to leave til half past. The conversation went as follows.

Me: Hey girls just to let ye know we don't have to leave til half past eight.

Girls:*stare in silence*

Me: We don't have to go *makes "going" gesture with hand* til half eight. *points at time on phone*

Girls: What is halfe?

Me: 8 30, we don't have to leave til 8 30

Girls: *Nod and smile, clearly not understanding anything I've just said*

Me: E-I-G-H-T T-H-I-R-T-Y

Girls: *Giggling* Ah a turkey. Yes we understand.

Some while later I did manage to explain to them using both my phone and watch, at this point it was time to go though.