A Ship Out of Its Harbor: February 2012

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Volunteering is for the birds...

In my search for a job in Queenstown, I emailed the Kiwi Birdlife Park to see about work. When Brad’s family visited back in November, we went here and saw all sorts of cool NZ birds including a kiwi! I can’t lie, seeing that iconic little beast set my heart aflutter. There weren’t any jobs available, but the guy I was emailing suggested their volunteer program. I’ve kind of been so wrapped up in being abroad that frankly I forgot volunteering existed, but was happy to have the opportunity to support the park and give back to NZ. Brad and I met with Paul the volunteer coordinator on Wednesday, and today we were in behind the scenes supporting the park! Our project was fixing up the enclosure for 4 birds: the deepest diving duck called a scaup, shovellor ducks, oyster catchers, and a black stilt who happened to be one of only 140 in the world. We put on some "gummies" (rain boots) and dug rocks from the center of the pond and moved them to the outside to prevent flooding and to give the scaups some depth to dive. It was hard work, but being in with the birds was cool and when were done the little baby scaups got to dive for the first time! They were so sweet, it made it all very rewarding.

The black stilt, 1 of 140 in the world

Me and the oyster catchers chillin'

Scaups enjoying their new deep pond:

On the way home we took a little plunge in the old lake:

And decided to hike the path up home to enjoy some amazing views (and some crazy looking tree roots):

Now I’m just counting down the days (7!) until my parents, sis, and BroLo come!

Monday, February 6, 2012

"Heading south to see the sun go down on camp fire light, to join the singing at night... Heading South, heading South." -Roy Orbison

We’ve arrived in Queenstown! After a 4 ½ hour bus ride to Auckland, staying the night, and catching 1 hour flight the next afternoon, we made it back to the South Island. We spent the first few nights in a hostel while we searched for jobs and apartments with our new Canadian buddies, Jesse and Jami. I had really good luck meeting a girl at a 7-11-ish store who said she just left a job cleaning at a hotel for really nice bosses, but wanted more hours and was sad to leave. I dropped my resume off that afternoon, and they called me back later with a job 4 to 5 days a week! I start tomorrow and hope it works out. I may want to work odd jobs here and there to make some extra spending money, but I’m really glad to have the work. We also lucked out and found a really great apartment on the ground floor of an incredibly nice kiwi family’s house. They are letting us rent on a week by week basis for a great rate, and also give us rides into town all the time, invited us up for a BBQ and to hang in the hot tub, and overall are just really cool people with 2 adorable sons. Oh and our view may be one of the best in Queenstown. And they have a chocolate lab. And two cats. And they didn’t make fun of me when I brought soy sausages to the BBQ. Keepers!