Gap Year: Bay of Islands Service Work! Day 4-8

Bay of Islands was gorgeous! Every day from 8:30-3:00 my group and I worked with New Zealands Department of Conservation. The first day we pulled up onto our campiste: a white sand beach, crystal blue waters, and gorgeous mountains. There were other "Kiwi's" or New Zealanders there because it is the only campsite you can stay at on the Bay of Islands. We met really funny kids who challenged us to games of vollyball and rugby... we killed them at vollyball but they showed us up on the rugby games! Anyway, the island was amazing but the work was also fulfilling. Here are the tasks I completed:

Day 1 of service: cleared and old Maori(indigenous people of New Zealand) lookout on top of a mountain. We cut down trees and stacked them on the banks to uncover the old grounds of the lookout. The Maori people dug into the mountain creating ditches on both sides and then surrounded the bottom with spears. It was hot and a lot of work to stack the tree branches but the amount we cleared was amazing.

Day 2: Cape Brett Island-- worked on this huge Possom fence that split a island/mountain in two. We had to climb really high up the mountain/hill fixing it back up, under the hotttt sun. This seemed like the longest day of work...it seemed like it would never end! The reason why they have a fence is because one side of the island is virgin and hasn't been invaded or touched by possoms yet and therefore they are trying to keep them out.

Day 3: Lindsay Ursula and I cleaned out an old WW11 observation tower. THe tower was on Mototura Island and overlooked the Pacific to the North...looking for the japanese. The tower had cables linking to other towers on different islands for communications. There was 4 years worth of water built up in the tower that I worked on. Between the 3 of us we bailed buckets from like 10:00 to 1:30 or so. My lunch break was incredible though with a breathtaking view.

Day 4: Cleared trails on Urapukapuka Island. We walked for 2 miles clearing out overgrown brush and hid it in the forest so it wasn't visible. The views walking along the island were awesome and it was worth the long hike!

To get to work everyday we took a boat called the Barg--it reminded me of the boats in on DDay in WW11 when they landed on the beaches. I always felt like I was going into combat haha

Those were my work days but here is what we did for fun after 3:00!
-The leader of the D.O.C. team took us tubing and wake boarding!! My favorite!
-Sight seeing
-watched the sun rise-Vollyball: we played the conservation team but they beat us...they were good!
-Rugby
-Frisbee
-Swimming
-Relaxing/tanning

A few activities. For meals we were in cook teams. All the food we have prepared has been really good thanks to my instructor, Leo, who loves to cook!

That is all for now but the last week has been just great. The weather for the most part (one night it stormed) has been really good and I am working on my tan!