The Enthusiastic Agricultural Family

With so much to do and see here, it's hard to make time to sit indoors and write, but I figure that as much as experiencing this is important, so is remembering it years from now.

Success is the only word to describe how well we are doing here. 500 trees the first day. We were all extremely excited to reach the goal, one we thought we would never surpass while being here. I mean, come on, it was our first day, our first time on the site grounds, and the energy level was soaring. That would be our most successful day...or so we thought. That night we slept soundly, knowing that what we had been planning for the past year was finally happening. 8 am rolled around quickly Tuesday morning, just as it had on Monday, but we were just as pumped and ready to go as the day before.


"Everyone in?"
"...Yes!"
"Did everyone remember everything? Gloves, hats, waterproofs, gumboots?"
"Yes!"
"O and did everyone remember to bring their enthusiasm?!"
With heaps of laughs, "YES!"

The enthusiasm question was mine. If there was one thing I realized from the day before, it was how amazing the group I was working with was. Our waterproofs were ripping left and right. We were cold, wet, and drained from flying so much over the weekend, but no one left their enthusiasm at the door. It was right with us wherever we were working and it showed. I find myself lucky to be apart of such a group and Conservation Volunteers New Zealand were appreciative. They kept telling us how exciting it was to have so many hands helping in the beginning stages of the project and how the petrel colony was being nurtured with our help. That right there is reward enough for being here.

Day 2 of volunteer work started and ended with that same enthusiasm. The morning brought more heavy down-pours but we were right out there sorting trees until CVNZ pulled us inside. Seed sorting continued from there and we potted plants as well. Variety. It was nice. With a break in the rain, we ran back outside to continue our planting. Half of us with Sam [CVNZ member who works and stays with the volunteers] to plant and half of us with James [project site coordinator] to gather seeds. After smoko, the two groups switched places and it was now my groups turn to plant. We decided we were ready for the wet plants and sloshed our way through muddy waters to plant. 430 plants by the time it was almost time to go in, but that was 70 less than yesterday. We knew we could do more and told Sam we wanted to stay out a little longer and reach our goal. 510 trees were planted on day 2, 10 more than the day before. These people here with me had just the desire I had to make a difference, and this enthusiasm was what we all took pride in.

After two days of wet, but worth it, planting and gathering, we decided to lay low for the night. Movie night with homemade popcorn sounded perfect. The 8 of us volunteers, Kristina [our project leader], and Sam did just that. Here it was. We were no longer just strangers from around the world. We were one big, happy family having family time together after a hard days works in the fields. It kind of reminded me of a big agricultural family from "back in the day," where everyone chipped in and did their part to make the farm run smoothly. What a family! We care and have fun together! What more could one ask for? Maybe we should make a family band.