We are so incredibly lucky! We got to spend two weeks totally out of our normal life volunteering for the Department of Conservation at a Lodge at Nydia bay. Only 5 hours of power a day, no cellphone reception… no roads, shops and not even many people! We got dropped there by boat with our two weeks of food and stuff to do. I think the DoC guys were somewhat bemused by our jaws dropping with pleasure at our incredible luck when they dropped us off on a glorious day. Mostly it was just us. We had a non powered cabin in our own clearing to sleep in. There was a toilet block with HOT showers, a kitchen with a catering stove, a massive lounge – seats with tables for at least 31… We were able to utalise every table with a different project on each one. We had the use of a kayak. All I had to do was radio in twice a day and keep the place clean… I did feel guilty so undertook a few big projects- cleaning the jetty steps, all the windows, removing spiders on the out side walls, and cleaning the mesh (for bugs) in the kitchen.

We:

• Caught fish
• watched fish
• dissected a fish
• picniced on an island
• kayaked
• walked
• picked and pressed plants
• found cool sticks
• read (I read 2.5 novels)
• did jigsaws
• cooked
• made things
• sat on the deck
• made friends
• trapped a possum
• skinned a possum
• dissected a possum
• read some more
• did some drawing/painting
• played games
• talked
• Lots of Shakespeare related activities
• swam

If it wasn’t for Helena missing her cello and the rats I’m sure H and I could have stayed there longer, even though we had several days of rain..