Mission Punakaiki Restoration: COMPLETE.

Well, after an evening of celebrating one of our volunteers birthday, it is Wednesday and our time as the CVNZ volunteers for the Punakaiki Restoration Project Site is finished. But what a day we had to end it...

The morning started just like any other. Early wake ups, someone making breakfast, loading ourselves into the van...

"Enthusiasm?!"
"CHECK!"

Good. We never forgot it before, but one last check, on our last day. We pulled into the site parking lot, bags and lunches on our backs, ready to give 110% effort like we would be there for the next year. But we weren't going to be there for the next year, we had eight hours left to give it our all. We started our project last Monday, feels like forever ago now, with planting and deciding on a goal. The 5000 tree goal we had originally planned got bumped to 3000, when we found out we would be doing other work for the site. But 3000 trees?! That's still a lot. Nothing too big for us though.

Our final team building exercise, the best one thus far, was called Giants, Dwarfs, and Wizards. It consisted of hand motions, yelling, and running. What better way to wake up. With Kristina and Sam in on this one, the game ended in heaps of laughs and an energy like I had never seen before. Planting is what we would be doing for the day, so that's just what we did. We had 400 trees left to meet our goal of 3000. Piece of cake. By lunch 400+ trees were planted, which meant we met our goal. But we didn't just meet it, we surpassed it. 3267 trees were planted in a mere week and a half, in between other jobs for the site. I would say that's a success.

It was beautiful outside, a perfect day to end our time in Punakaiki. "Let's eat outside," Kristina suggested. "It's a wonderful day out." So we grabbed a few chairs, a few crates, and a few buckets and ate our lunch in the sun at the front of the site. Kristina grabbed her bucket, pulled up next to us and told us to enjoy our last smoko/lunch as the first ISV group of volunteers at the Punakaiki Restoration Site. Last? What about afternoon smoko? After Sam sat down with us too, we found out why.

Every task that we were presented with these past few weeks, we surpassed with flying colors. Over 3000 trees, the site looked brand new, and we had opened up tons of area for planting. It was our last smoko because everything the CVNZ gang threw at us we zoomed through, and they started having a hard time coming up with jobs for us. Sam presented us with Certificates of Appreciation from CVNZ and told us that as a thank you, he would give us the rest of the day off and wanted to bring us down to the Truman Track to enjoy the beach and area one last time before we left. And boy, what a way to end our time here.

The trail was beautiful. The weather was amazing. The beach was perfect. I couldn't have asked for anything better.

So, that's it. My first volunteer work/conservation work overseas is complete. The trip had opened my eyes to so many new things, things I never thought I would see change in me and my thinking. Being apart of a program like ISV, gives you the opportunity to give of your time to help someone somewhere else in need. Last week I mentioned how no one forced us to come and no one begged us. We came because we wanted to. We became expert planters. By now we can point at one of the treelets we planted, name it and feel proud. That is something I always envied in others in the environmental field, and now I feel like I have had a taste of that. This experience has reassured me even more that the environmental field is where I belong. When we had discussions about conservation and energy efficiency and other related topics, I felt like what I had learned this first year in the ES program was being put to work. I learned so much here, but I feel I gave so much too.

Conservation isn't just about planting trees or hounding people to recycle. It's about making conscious choices. We all have the power to be environmental conscious, but must have the desire to think before we act and be open-minded to new ways, ways that may be better than the ones we have right now. So, thanks CVNZ! I put in some trees for you and helped you rebuild an ecosystem, but you made me feel at home in a unknown environment and gave me an experience of a lifetime. Cheers!