So we volunteered for DoC for a week. We had to collect campground fees for two camp sites in the late afternoon and evenings but most of the days were ours so what did we do?

Hiking and biking… well we had to drop the truck off in the morning and walk back to our cabin, about 25mins, and then go back again in the afternoon.

We discovered that an early morning shadow can be made to look like a Hattifattener!

The cabin was by the lake…

and it was HOT, so very very hot, so lots of swimming in the cold clear alpine lake infested with eels…

…eels that we watched for hours and that did indeed confirm Helena’s hypothesis and try and check out a tin because it had food residue in it! We learnt quite a bit about eels – this is a longfin eel.

We also managed to be there when it was the Classic Boat regatta.

We “had” to go both days. I wasn’t sure how much was going in but later with friends who came to stay Helena organised races (stick boats) and the races had different classes of boats, canoes etc.

We visited Jan Thompson

the woman who painted this and she was inspiring and very kind as well as making beautiful art.

Helena painted at the Classic Boat show; paint mixing strips, abstracts/patterns and stones. “Looking for shapes”.

The stones got placed on the orienteering course we did over the course of several days.

And then there were sculptures, or perhaps they were real things in the minds of the makers?

Our cabin came not just with a lake but with a playground right out side our door…

Helena and Monkey disappeared off in the mornings to make dens and do “nature” studies.

We also went rat trapping with some other volunteers. The kids disappeared off together doing something on a big rock they found, played in the dark, went coasteering and had a few arguments and then making up. Time just flew by.

Of course there was the odd hard bit, like the wildlife -bumblebees. I’ve never seen so many in one place all at the same time! Helena got bitten and stung twice.

Volunteering was mostly such hard

hard hard work…. in one of the most beautiful locations.😉