Cleaning the Pauatahanui - Night 54

Thicker clouds filled the morning sky, for this, our first day of volunteer work. After a short introduction session by Toby and Rachel (Ray), our team leaders, we packed our lunches and loaded up the van for a drive to Pauatahanui Wildlife Reserve. A salt-marsh wetland, the Pauatahanui was rescued from industrial and commercial purposes back in the early 1980s, so it is a still a work in progress. Slowly, but surely, native plants are being reintroduced and channels are being dug; a massive effort to remedy the cutting and leveling that was once done. Running the show at Pauatahanui are the local elders. Seriously, the volunteer core consists entirely of retirees, many of whom are shockingly adept at ecological and horticultural matters.

We (Jake, Melissa, Kathleen and I) spent the

Pauatahanui Park Headquarters

morning hours rearranging the nursery, while the other group dug up a noxious weed similar to North American celery. After lunch we began tree releasing, which is just a fancy word for weeding around the tree so that it can grow during the approaching dry season. Later in the day, Jake and I repaired some riparian erosion by planting some reeds along the bank.

The retirees don’t like to work too late, so by 2:30 clean-up was called for and we all headed home. The sun had broken through by this point, so I decided on hiking down to Korakora Dam once we arrived home. A small, insignificant dam, whose purpose I could not determine, the disappointment was moderated somewhat by the fake rapids built into the spillway (likely a poor substitute for the natural falls it destroyed) that created a pleasant sound and view.

The Korakora Dam

In evening Lauren drove the van into the city to attend a talk on an exhibition to Antarctica. Put on by the Wellington Alpine Club, it featured a presentation by a member from Christchurch who had chartered a boat with 8 others and spent seven weeks hiking and skiing the Antarctic Peninsula. For just a $2 donation, we each received a beer and some snacks during the presentation. By far the cheapest beer I’ve purchased in New Zealand. The actual presentation was great, amazing pictures and stories all told with proper Kiwi sarcasm and wit. When someone asked him how much it cost, he replied “You couldn’t get pissed (drunk) on the change from 20 K.”

What I Learned Today: Although I do very much enjoy going to such presentations as this, the worst part is that they add another option to the choices of what to do next with my life. It makes me realize (in case I had forgotten) that there is so much out there and I have so little time to do it all. I guess life is all about prioritizing, but after watching this ( or reading about that, or experiencing a little bit of this other thing) how can I ever be expected to prioritize sitting in an office again? Answer: I don’t know that I can.

written by

exumenius on December 3, 2007 from Wellington, New Zealand

from the travel blog: Kiwis and Kangaroos

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