How can it be so hot here?!

Frost on the windshield?! How could that even be possible here? Sam had been telling us earlier in the week that this part of New Zealand rarely sees frost, but it looked to me this morning that we brought it with us from home. The frost was a sure sign that we should once again bundle up for the day. Even though there would be no rain again today, frost means winter, winter means cold. One layer. Two Layer. Three layer. Four. Yup, that should do it.

We headed out to the site again this morning, same time, same place. Today was filled with a number of odd jobs [more of beautification jobs] to make the once site of a mining office, the home of a conservation site, one that would be welcoming to any visitors, community members, or passer bys. Half of us painted the outer fence a bright white, while the other half went over to the gorse site again to plant trees along the banks of the stream to stabilize it for the future. After taking smoko [of course], we continued the jobs and made great progress by noon.

Lunch came quickly and not only did we get to enjoy a great meal with music today, but we got to speak to Dave, the man with all the knowledge heading up the project. Dave told us numerous interesting things about the site, including how community involvement in this project is essential to making it a success. Without a sense of community ownership for the site, people would think very little about its maintenance after CVNZ and others had done their part to fix it up. It was ironic that he spoke of that because a mere two nights ago at one of our group discussions back at the house, we spoke about community ownership as a vital piece of the project. Looks like we are all on the same track with that.

After hearing his words of wisdom, it was back to work. By 4pm the enormous wooden fence was finished, as well as the water tank outside. I dug up a great deal of weeds today around the site gardens to make room for walkways and simply to clean it up. By the end of the day, the site looked not only welcoming, but brand new. The visual aspect of the site would be one that would pull the eyes of travelers and community members as they passed and it made us feel good to be apart of pulling that community interest.



I think what made the day the best was the fact that the sun came out and shined all day long. Once again we shedded layer after layer. It was wierd though. It is late fall here and although NZ's temperature are quite higher than ours, it should still be cold. But when that sun came out, it felt like the middle of summer. What I realized today made this all make sense. Of course, we have all heard about the hole in the ozone layer, heck I could resite textbook clippings about it. But it never really occured to me that this place I am volunteering in is right below that hole!

It is no wonder we were so hot when the temperature was still normal for late autumn. The sun's ultraviolet rays are so strong here that even when you are outside for only a short period of time, if you don't put sunscreen on, you can end up with a sunburn. Besides the frustration of having sunburn on my face, it is even more frustrating to think that a country which countributes minimly, if at all, to ozone depletion is getting hit hardest, when over in America, we don't see nearly the affect of harmful UV rays as others. It seems my country is the big, rampunctious brother helping to cause issues, and NZ, is the little, keep-to-himself brother who ends up cleaning up the mess.

So, that would esplain why it got so hot all of a sudden. Now, sitting in the house with no sun present outside, my nose is like ice and it's back to being chilly. Tomorrow will bring us to the end of week 1 of volunteering and hopefully the weekend will not only give us more time to explore, but time to reflect on what we have accomplished in just a week.