Kawau Island - Pulau Ulu
I just came back from Kawau Island, where I spent 5 days as a volunteer for the Department of Conservation. :) The time was alrite, lotsa saigang, but also lotsa fun with my fellow volunteers. We cleared the walking tracks, cleaned shelters, dusted Victorian antiques in the museum, weeded the garden, cleared cobwebs.. etc..
Kawau Island is a small Island on the East Coast off New Zealand's North Island. While it is a really ulu island, accessible only by boat and water taxi, it's a nice quiet place to be. The views aren't fantastically awesome, but they're decent. And besides, waking up to bird calls in the morning is seriously the best thing ever.
Preparing for Kawau
Preparing for Kawau
Our daily visitor
View of the wharf from on a walking track uphill.
Views
The Wharf
Mansion House
Mansion House is the house that Sir Governor George Grey once lived from 1862 - 1898. He bought the entire island for 3700 pounds in 1862 and proceeded to make it his dream 'Gentlemans' Estate'. With this beach side mansion with 10 bedrooms, lush forest, he also released many animals not previously known to the New Zealand eco-system onto the island, including many wallabies. In fact, wallabies number the thousands on this island today. The house is also the main attraction of the island, although IMHO, it's really nothing.
Emer Loraine. English (North Yorkshire), Architecture Student at Edinburgh University.
Jan Ward. Fiesty woman. I wun reveal her age here, but I WILL tell you that she met her boyfriend of 23 years when she was 19! :P She's FIT, funny (or fonny as the Brits say in their accent) and also likes to climb onto roofs!!
Christine Liggins. Logistics Manager. She's from Burnley, but she's lived in kiwiland for 2.5years! :) Also the nice lady who offered to drive me up to Warkworth, and brought us to the thermal pools on the way back!
Daniela Bucher. Lucerne, Switzerland. The girl who claims she couldn't speak English when she came over to NZ 3 weeks ago. She thrashed 3 native English speakers and 1 English-as-first-language Singaporean at Scrabble. Or maybe we just can't spell.
The rangers: Steve and Adrian-the-chainsmoker
Clearing the hiking treks of fallen leaves.
Weeding the garden.
Throwing dead leaves and pine cones into the side bush (so that the public walkers can't see them).
Powerjetting the shelter.
Leaf-clearing again. In the rain some more.. dun play-play...
Vacuum-ing the museum
Hiding under the tree when it rains.
Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it's off to work we go
With a spade and a pick, and a walking stick
Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, heigh-ho, heigh-ho
Just add a hot babe. *wink*
Compulsory morning tea.
Sights when looking out of the window when brushing teeth
Jan and 'Who Am I?'
Dinnertime
Taking stupid fotos
Beachcombing
Beer-drinking at the cafe on the last night. All the local islanders were there and they kept trying to chat up the ladies. I was bored.... damn bored...
Me and the babes
Jan and her paper rose.. (given by the water taxi driver who kept trying to jio her..)
Departure...
Alluvus
:) Kawau Island Survivors. No food for 5 days.
Jan Ward. Fiesty woman. I wun reveal her age here, but I WILL tell you that she met her boyfriend of 23 years when she was 19! :P She's FIT, funny (or fonny as the Brits say in their accent) and also likes to climb onto roofs!!
Christine Liggins. Logistics Manager. She's from Burnley, but she's lived in kiwiland for 2.5years! :) Also the nice lady who offered to drive me up to Warkworth, and brought us to the thermal pools on the way back!
Daniela Bucher. Lucerne, Switzerland. The girl who claims she couldn't speak English when she came over to NZ 3 weeks ago. She thrashed 3 native English speakers and 1 English-as-first-language Singaporean at Scrabble. Or maybe we just can't spell.
The rangers: Steve and Adrian-the-chainsmokerThe Work (read: saigang):
Cobweb cleaning.
Clearing the hiking treks of fallen leaves.
Weeding the garden.
Throwing dead leaves and pine cones into the side bush (so that the public walkers can't see them).
Powerjetting the shelter.
Leaf-clearing again. In the rain some more.. dun play-play...
Vacuum-ing the museum
Hiding under the tree when it rains.
Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it's off to work we goWith a spade and a pick, and a walking stick
Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, heigh-ho, heigh-ho
Slacking time:
All-natural swing. Rope tied on tree. Branch tied on rope.
Just add a hot babe. *wink*
Compulsory morning tea.
Sights when looking out of the window when brushing teeth
Jan and 'Who Am I?'
Dinnertime
Taking stupid fotos
Beachcombing
Beer-drinking at the cafe on the last night. All the local islanders were there and they kept trying to chat up the ladies. I was bored.... damn bored...
Me and the babes
Jan and her paper rose.. (given by the water taxi driver who kept trying to jio her..)
Departure...
Alluvus
:) Kawau Island Survivors. No food for 5 days.
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