Wa Wa We Wa!

Holidays have arrived...thanks be to the great hawk!

The last week of term 1 I was lucky enough to help out with this year's Kiwi Forever program. I attended last year, but only the first 3 days. The idea of the program is to teach senior students about conservation and sustainability, within the context of the Kiwi. We stayed at the Tirorangi Marae outside of Ohakune and did our work in the Karioi Rahui. We set traps and did a study on the plants to see if anything was eating them - all with the goal of checking the health of the forest. We tagged along with Kerry Oates from Enviro Research and did a health check on a Kiwi chick. We even released a Kiwi into the wild. It was a great week - great kids, great weather, great food, beautiful scenery. A good recharge before term 2!

I attended the first Iron Virgins meeting a couple weeks ago. I'm thinking about doing the Taupo Half Ironman this year and then seeing how I get along before I decide if I want to do a full Ironman. The group was started about 7 or 8 years ago by this guy, Steve Jacobs. He's a very, very, very enthusiastic person so the meetings are always fun and eventful. There is another meeting this week. I'll let you all know how I get along.

As I mentioned, holidays are upon us here in NZ. I'm laying low this week until Thursday - doing school work and hanging out at home. On Thursday Jess and I are heading to Auckland to see The Magic Numbers. We are staying in town that night too so it will for sure be a good night. This weekend we are heading to Waikaremoana to do the tramp. I'm looking forward to it - hopefully the weather cooperates! Then back to Tauranga and onto Auckland to pick Randy and Alicea up on Friday April 20th. It's great not having to worry about school and students!

That's about all for now. Just picking away at school work, training, and relaxing. Happy Easter everyone!