At the beginning of October, I started working at Rāpaki planting trees four days a week. I decided to only work four days so that I could spend every Friday working on my research – I am getting closer and closer to being done with the work and am working towards a final publishable paper. The work was lovely and the team was great. Every day I woke up around 6:25, grabbed my things, and was out of the house by 6:55. I had to drive half an hour to get there, so I listened to a podcast on my way in usually. At 7:30 we would all put on our work boots and gloves, grab our spades, and march up the hill. Some days we had to cart trays of seedlings up the hill as well, forming a fire line where each person carried 2 trays 10-20 meters to the next person. Once everything was up the hill, we would lay out the trees and the guards in the patches of grass pre-cleared by the weedwhacker, and then move across the hectare planting the trees. Some days we had to weed whack more holes for trees. Some days the weather was beautiful, and it was a joy to be outside all day. Some days it was wet and windy, and it was still nice to be outside even though my hands would get wrinkly and my feet were soaked. I would eat my breakfast every morning at our 10am break (which they called “smoko”) – I have given up trying to eat early in the morning, it just won’t go down and takes me forever. At 12:30 we would all eat lunch, and then after lunch would work till 3:45 and leave 15 minutes early instead of taking a break in the afternoon. Usually I was home by 4:20ish, where I would take a shower and then eat an early dinner before moving on with my evening, sometimes with capoeira, sometimes seeing friends, sometimes just having a quiet night. Every night before I went to sleep I prepared breakfast and lunch and laid out my clothes for the next day so that I wouldn’t have to wake up any earlier than absolutely necessary.
Everyday views while working 
Weedwhacking 
One of the guards we used, with a wool mat to keep the soil moist 
Marlo, Dylan’s golden retriever puppy he sometimes brought to work with him 
The Woolshed, where we ate lunch many days 
Steep slopes to plant on 
A tree tucked in a guard 
If you look at the hillside across the way, you can see the guards of trees planted there 
The crew 
A grass skink I caught 
I got my work shirt 3 days before I left
About halfway through October, we finished planting all the trees – altogether the team had planted almost 25,000 trees since June across 11 hectares. After a small celebration where we all brought some food, we moved on to our next task, which was to go back to hectare 1 and begin the process of releasing. All the trees were planted in fields of grass, which had grown massively over the course of the winter. We combed through the fields looking for planted trees, freed them from the grips of the relentless grasses and thistles, and replaced any broken or missing guards.
My weekends were also fairly exciting – the first weekend I went with the tramping club to camp near Lake Ohau and climb up the mountain Ben Ohau. There were quite a few international students on this trip, and I had a lot of fun talking with some of them. We also stopped at my favorite salmon shop, where I split a tray of salmon with another guy and ate an absurd amount of the most delicious salmon I’ve ever had (this is my third time having this salmon, but the first since I’ve been back in New Zealand).
The next weekend was predicted to have high solar activity, and high chances of seeing (in my case) the Aurora Australis (Southern Lights), so I made spring rolls and then Travis and I drove up to the Port Hills to see them. With my eyes I couldn’t see all that much – just a faint glow in the sky – but my phone managed to get some pretty good pictures.
The next day, Travis and I went and climbed Mount Richardson, which was a fairly chill day hike. I struggled significantly going up the hill though – an omen of things to come. Also, a bit of news for those who don’t yet know: Travis and I are dating, which has been very fun and exciting.
Around this time, I stopped sleeping well and started feeling exhausted all the time. I spent my days bone tired, just taking one step at a time so I could make it to bedtime. Then, I would get in bed and lay awake all night, maybe still sleeping in snatches but feeling like I had been awake the whole time, which feels extra cruel when I was exhausted to my core during the day. I didn’t really know why – I wasn’t stressed or anxious, and I enjoyed working outside. On the other hand, I also really wasn’t helping myself; I did physical work 4 days a week, and spent my weekends active and outside, meaning that I rarely got the kind of lazy rest days I think my body needed. Eventually, it got to be too persistent, and after talking to some people I concluded I might have low iron, which is easy for a vegetarian to get. I got an iron supplement and started purposefully eating more foods with iron, and also got a sleep supplement (only after finding out that melatonin is not sold over the counter here). These have helped a lot, especially the sleep supplement, and I’m feeling much better these days, although not 100% back to normal yet.
The weekend of the 19th/20th I went on what was probably the hardest tramp I have ever done. I was exhausted going into it, which did not help me at all. We woke up just after 5 and left Christchurch with a group of 8 of us from the tramping club just after 6, driving 2 hours to where we would start our tramp to Avoca Hut, which is the hut the tramping club owns and maintains. To get there, we hiked up Bealey Spur and along a ridge before dropping down a ski slope and into the valley, where we walked along the river to the hut. It was 20 kilometers of walking with 1000 meters of vertical elevation gain and took us 10 hours total. I was so exhausted by the time we got there that I broke down crying before pulling myself together to cook some dinner. Avoca Hut also has a wood fired bath, and that evening Travis and I sat in the bath for a little while before heading to bed.
The next day, we split into two groups for the way out: the group taking the hard way out got up at 3:30am and left just after 4am. The group taking the “easy” way out got up at 7 – unfortunately, I missed the memo and thought we were leaving at 7 and so got up just before 6. I soon realized people weren’t getting up, but I was also not going back to bed – getting up was the hard part and I was not about to do that twice in one morning. Instead, I watched the sunrise and did some stretching. We left around 8, walked down the valley and up a stream before walking up to Sphinx Saddle. There was snow on the saddle, but unfortunately not enough to use the ice axe and crampons I had carried the entire way with me. Walking up the snow was so hard for me, even though the first people to go up it in our little group put some very nice steps to follow in the snow. I counted 100 steps over and over to reach the top, telling myself that I could catch my breath when I reached 100. By the time I got to the top, my feet (which were wet from crossing the river) were frozen ice blocks, and I was concerned enough to take off my shoes and massage them to get some life back into them. We ran down the scree on the other side to get to the Anti-Crow River, which we would follow out. When we were halfway down the scree, Emily spotted an avalanche coming down on the mountain across the valley – and another, and another! Once the critical temperature is reached they all go at the same time. They were so loud! I was very glad there wasn’t any snow above us that could’ve come sliding down.
After a lunch break at the river, we walked out the riverbed, which was technical walking with lots of river crossings. At one point, we crossed the river, and I was trying to see if I could get across on the rocks without getting my feet wet for the 20th time that day (silly, I know). Having finally decided that I could not, I stepped into the water – and fell in, hitting my knee pretty hard. At first the shock and the cold water numbed any pain, but later it really started to hurt, and after rolling up my pants I saw that I was bleeding and stopped to put a plaster on. I still had 10 kilometers to go, and I bravely walked out the rest, trying not to slow the others down too much. I don’t think I’ve ever been so relieved to reach the cars and stop walking as I was that day. We drove home and I was asleep by 9:30 that night, and then woke up at 6:25 the next morning to go to work. The group that had gone out the hard way didn’t make it out till 10pm that night, and weren’t home till midnight, having had to backtrack part of the route because they didn’t know how to get safely down into the valley from the pass they went over, making our route seem harmless in comparison. As difficult as the trip was, in retrospect it was still beautiful, and I think if I did it again without going in exhausted I would have enjoyed it a lot more. I’m also incredibly grateful to be surrounded by people who are able and excited to do these kinds of things, since it allows me to push myself and get better in the process.
Now that October is over, I am back to being unemployed and looking for a job. I have enough money to live for a little while, so I’m not all that worried, but job hunting is never fun, and I’ve exhausted all the conservation jobs and have resorted to applying for customer service jobs (which would not be bad for me to work either). Now it’s really just a sit and wait game, but at least I’ll be tramping for a bit while waiting.