Today we spent our time killing bone seed.  It’s a tree like plant with yellow flowers whose seeds are eaten by native birds… but eating bone seed is much like a pigeon eating uncooked rice… once it’s ingested the bird becomes a ticking time bomb with the certain fate of ruptured insides as its digestive track basically explodes. A final meal brought to it by human civilization… On a brighter note it was hard work but great fun.  We spent the day on a severe incline of sand doing our best to keep our footing and fight the needle like growth of fox thorn. I would go half an hour sometimes under an umbrella of brush tunneling my way from bone seed to bone seed before reemerging and lying my eyes on the sky again (much less other volunteers).  The object was to find the yellow flowers, climb and fight your way to it, trace its branches to the roots, saw it off near the base and finally poison it with a healthy helping of blue gelly poison. Take that bone seed.  Thats what you get for exploding birds!  I had an exhilarating moment after cutting down a rather large bone seed plant that was hiding in a thicket of fox thorn and other invasive mess.  I discovered that i was imprisoned by a nasty thick of brush and was not willing to go back through the pin cushion from which i came… after a few minutes of contemplation I broke through the ceiling of brush like the glass elevator in willy wonka and the chocolate factory.  With several yards to go to escape the thicket, I pulled myself on top of it and walked above the chaos.  I felt as though i was a monkey transformed into a super hero with the ability to defy gravity.  It was like walking on clouds. Every step was soft and springy as the very plants i had been hacking away at all day met the soles of my boots and supported my weight above the ground.  I imagined the sensation must have been similar to that felt by Jesus walking on water.

Each day is like that here:spiritual or exhileration and always gratifying.

I was already sore when i woke this morning from moving a lot of dirt and gravel builing a bike trail the day before, but tomorrow I’m sure will open up an entirely new world of pain. Pain is just the weakness leaving though, right? I plan to sleep well and dream about the penguins we’ll be helping tomorrow!

So we’ve just returned from counting fur seals  at the cape (nearly 600!) and hiking a nice incline to look out at the Putangiiu Pennacls (where a short bit of the 3rd Lord of the Rings was filmed).  They were stunning! We’re all back at the house now just waiting on Toby and watching some bad TV.  All in good fun though! We new volunteers are anxious to have a night out in wellington tomorrow… promise there will be more interesting stories to come

-Momone