Last week was my final week of working for Conservation Volunteers New Zealand. Our final project took us up to the town of Waiuta. It really shouldn't be a town because it has a population of zero, but it used to be one of the main gold mining towns in the entire country so today a couple people try to help keep the area nice and tidy for tourists to come through and have a look. It really is in the middle of nowhere, but that just meant more peace and quiet for us.
We spent the first morning clearing around some of the old machines that were used to dig for the gold that had been overrun by weeds, but our main project lasted the rest of the time that had our group clearing an old road that lead to an old gathering ground for the miners. Over the course of a few days we managed to clear almost 400 yards of thick and muddy trees, weeds, and ferns. It may seem a little tedious, but it was quite nice to be able to look back and get a sense of what we had accomplished. To give everyone an idea of how long this trail was, I took a video of what we cleared out (too long to upload here for everyone, sorry), and it took over five minutes to walk from where we finished back to our starting place. We chopped down a bunch of trees, whacked out all the thorny bushes, and enjoyed ourselves for the most part.
I finished up last Friday and had a weekend to myself before my mother arrived on Sunday. I'll post an update later this week about all the things we've done so far, but it's going to be two weeks of seeing the entire south island; and there is a lot to do in just two weeks, so we are cramming in as much as possible. So check back soon for some more info, including the most recent episode in a series I'm sure everyone loves to read about. Until then, hope everyone is staying cool in what seems to be a nasty heat wave everywhere--it's nice and cool down here, in the upper 40s and low 50s each day.
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