A Journey to The Island, Part 1: Extreme Planting

Hi, everyone. Sorry about the lack of posts recently, I've been trying to keep up with my readings and I suppose I'm also a tiny bit lazy. Onward with the grand narrative...

Four weeks of interesting but increasingly tedious schoolwork yielded a fair amount of local exploration around the Wellington area, but inside of me laid an ever growing thirst for a more nature-rich, truly "New Zealand" experience. Last weekend, in what turned out to be a very lucky choice of dates weather-wise, My study abroad program organized a weekend volunteer project at Matiu-Somes Island, a small land mass laying in the middle of Wellington harbor, visible from most high points in the city. Somes Island was originally used as a quarantine area for infected immigrants seeking to enter Wellington, followed by an animal quarantine station, followed by what has now become a rather extensive and beautiful nature reserve. I was very excited for the opportunity to see another beautiful piece of the country and to give back to the land I now inhabit, and the forecast foretold sunny skies and not much wind. 

I awoke around 7:45 a.m., a time which would have struck extreme fear into my heart at home but one that I've grown used to after choosing 9 a.m. classes. It's good to get the most out of the sunlight as it sets at 5:30 during the winter here. I had a pretty decent breakfast (I've branched out from just eggs recently into more gourmet options such as sausages and oatmeal. Exciting.) and packed quickly. I've yet to buy a sleeping bag so I packed my top two layers of sheets into my pack along with a change of clothes and some toiletries. I also found an ingenius method of attaching my pillow to my pack through a loop on the side. It only gets more exciting from here.

The walk from my flat to Wellington Harbor is a solid 25 minute walk, but I probably walk through the city more extensively than this at least 4 times a week, so it wasn't a huge deal for me, even with the pack on. I am noticing my stamina increasing very slowly after living in this walking-intensive city, which I'm happy about. A few friends and I met up at the top of the hill and made our way down the impossibly steep slope known as Vivian Street. I'll expand more on Vivian Street later, but to make a long story short, it's everything evil in the world manifested in a city street. It's the quickest way home but is legitimately at a 70 degree angle uphill. To make matters worse, at this angle, you look equally as ridiculous going down the street than you do going up it. 

So we trekked down Vivian, walked across the city through Willis St., and came at last to the shores of the sea at Wellington Harbor. At this point it was about 9:35, and our wharf departed at 10:00. After some confusion of which boat to go on and how to get tickets and a solid 20 minutes of sitting in silence/staring into the abyss due to the fact that we still hadn't really awoken, we shuffled onto the Daily Post ferry, soon to set out for Somes Island. The weather channel didn't lie (a rare occurence around here; weather is ever changing and impossible to predict) and we enjoyed a beautiful, cloudless day with minimal winds, about 15 degrees Celsius. I'm going to act really smart and pompous and leave it at that, letting all you Americans calculate the Fahrenheit on your own. 

Wellington City seen from the water.

After about 20 minutes we began to approach the island. Myself and several others, without prior planning, all found ourselves spontaneously whistling the theme to Jurassic Park. It really, really felt like that scene in the movie when they approach by helicopter and Richard Attenborough goes "Welcome...to Jurassic Park." Only we approached by ferry. We spared no expense.

Landing on the island, we were met by two rangers who introduced themselves and shuttled everyone from the boat into a small shack immediately after getting off. We found after a short lecture by the woman ranger, Jo, that the shack was a containment area, used for inspection of all bags and shoes for unwanted plants, dirt, and stowaway rats and mice. New Zealand has a fragile ecosystem as it's very isolated from other lands, and this island in particular is home to many endangered species. We all shuffled through our bags and picked our shoes free of dirt, and proceeded to listen to Jo talk a bit more about the island. They loaded all of our bags onto a small, beat up but hardcore looking tractor rig and hauled it up the hill. Our bags got the easy ride. We, however, had another experience altogether.

First task: carry a 20 foot, rather light looking but in fact very heavy drainage pipe up the side of the island to the summit. I still haven't decided if this was a real favor he needed or if it's some sick form of hazing that the D.O.C. puts its volunteers through every day. We split into teams of three, switching off every hundred meters or so. It was actually executed quite impressively, with military precision. Even with two other people, the pipe was very heavy, especially at such an incline. The weather was still beautiful and the sun was out, and I felt that this was a great way to get our energy going for the day ahead.

Our house turned out to be a very nice vacationing flat full of nooks and crannies to sleep many  people. I grabbed a nice chunk of bed sitting in the family room overlooking the harbor and dropped all of my things, finally feeling that weighless sensation after being released from a heavy load. After divvying up our sleeping places, eating some "morning tea" (it was quiche, and it didn't taste too bad) and "taking ten", we walked up the hill to begin our first assignment. Our activities for the next four hours can only be described as a hardcore form of "extreme planting", an activity that should most certainly be coined as the next olympic sport. 

The land on the island was beautiful and we soon found ourselves walking along a roped off path along the beach. The scenery reminded me of the opening scenes of "Prince Caspian". The beach was located at the foot of a large, steep mountainside. We were to plant about 50 saplings of the endangered plant species "Euphorbia" into this mountainside. After demonstrating the technique of digging a level ground, making a hole, pouring in a water-saving concoction called they called "liquid rain" (I kept calling it Purple Rain for kicks), etc, Jo asked for 3 volunteers to go up the steep side of the mountainside to attempt to plant some saplings there. I was in an adventerous mood and raised my hand along with a few others. 

Getting up the hill was a mighty challenge. To start, my sneakers have little to no traction, and the ground constantly fell apart at your feet as you climbed. Using the spade as a grappeling device, I was able to slowly climb the steep mountainside until I found blessed solid footing upon a rock. I helped the other 2 up and we began the arduous process of finding small bits of plentiful earth in an area rife with large rocks. 

Yes, that's me up there

It was an incredible challenge just to journey up this hill, let alone to gain the proper leverage and grip to dig a hole and plant a sapling. It took about five minutes each time to find the right angles and footholds to start planting again. I took occasional breaks to watch the sailboat races in the distance and the birds as they circled above the sea. About an hour, 15 plants, and several precarious slips and a few epic "QUICK grab onto a random vine somewhere to save yourself from falling to your death" moments, we made our way sideways across the cliff face to plant some more, because why not? At this point it became an issue to watch out for already planted saplings as other groups had covered areas in between. 

My "extreme planting" team

Remember that book "The Lorax"? That was a great book.

I found the most ridiculous, rocky and steep way down because, as I said, I was in an adventurous mood, and scaled my way down to join everyone for lunch. Before I decided to turn around and scale this bad boy, my friend Alise grabbed what may become the most epic picture of all time:

"This Summer...One Man...Has Had Enough."

I don't think I've mentioned this, but they fed us 3 square meals a day, which is very exciting when you're cooking your own food all the time. Lunch included chicken/lettuce/tomato in a torpedo roll, an apple, and a ridiculously rich and delicious piece of brownie/cake. 

After lunch, Jo asked for yet another few volunteers to join her on a particularly difficult ascent to plant saplings in a difficult area. I joined a few other kids and the rest journeyed back to our house with all the equipment. The ascent we took was so unstable that we took all of our backpacks, plants and planting tools with us, planning to basically climb to the top of the cliff and make our way home from there, as climbing back down would be impossible.

 Following You, I Climb The Mountain

We had a good time and go to know Jo a bit more. She turned out to be a pretty cool person, despite my initial impressions (she asked a woman and her baby to leave the shack during the intro session when the baby was making noises. It was a bit awkward). We some great discussions, ranging from such topics of geckos to sociology to the book "1984".

Jo keeping ahead of the pack

The EXTREME extreme planters

 

I still can't believe how beautiful it can get here, especially since it's during the winter (albeit at the very end of it - Spring in three weeks!). It was all blue skies and warm sun. Wellington has been blessed with now officially 8 days straight of sunny Spring-like days. In a town infamous for its wind and rain, this is incredible for the Winter months. People were kayaking and sailboat racing and all of the animals were demonstrating their various chirps and bellows (particularly the birds). 

The second leg of extreme planting took another half hour, and reaching the summit and some solid walking ground was a welcome relief. We walked with Jo back to our house and took a half hour break to rest. Our next task involved planting some particularly porcupine-like grass plants in a lamb and sheep breeding area. I'm going to wrap part one up now because I need to get some work done, but I promise part 2 will be up quickly. Sorry again for the delay between posts there. I'll leave you all with a priceless portrait/memento (can be utilized as a signed 8x10 glossy upon my return) of yours truly as a sign of reconciliation. Until next time,

Bill