Oct 06

So, I am at Bushy Bark, a bird sanctuary in Wanganui, which is on the east coast of the southern part of the north island. (It has a web-site) We have been here for 1.5 weeks and are staying another few days, working for our keep. Next we are going to the south island to thin and pick cherries. Yesterday, we went tramping (hiking) through the forest with the bird researcher and saw a saddleback. We were also stalked by a northern robin. We were looking for kiwis, but unfortunately Jo (the researcher) didn't find any. Today we went to a rugby game. It was fun in that it wasn't the most boring sport I've ever watched.... Unfortunately, Wanganui lost.

The fact that Bushy Park is a WWOOFING (willing workers on organic farms) place is very strange. There is nothing there that even remotely resembles organic farming (or farming for that matter). Basically, we've done jobs that have nothing at all to do with organic farming, suich as raking the driveway (twice) that is about a mile long. It is a pointless job, since the next gust of wind throws all the leaves back on the driveway.... We prooned the driveway once. It looked no different afterwards. On a rainy Saturday, they had no idea what to do with us, so they sent us to their run-down house in Wanganui and told us to strip the wall-paper in, not one, but ALL the rooms. Well, after 8 hours there we were not done with even one room, so we gave up. We had not even been giving any proper tools. Between the three of us, we had two scrapers and a bucket of ammonia. Annie went and bought her own scraper and a set of speakers for the IPOD. Joy drove.