This week I got to spend an awesome day out in the fresh air away from the office and I could hardly have picked a better day. I work for ANZ Bank and as part of its values of giving back to the community the Bank gives every staff member the opportunity to do community volunteer work for two days a year.
Our office has 'adopted' an island in the Hauraki Gulf named Motuihe Island, which after 100 years of various uses including farming through to being used by the Navy as a training ground and hosting a variety of introduced pests, it is now to be restored to its former state through an intensive pest eradication and re-forestation project.
All introduced pests and animals have been removed from the island and a replanting programme is underway and in about 10 - 15 years time the island will be a sanctuary for bird life and also day trippers to escape the city and enjoy the tracks.
It's already a great escape from the city with some great beaches to relax on and only 30 minutes by boat from the city.
Here's some pics
The boat trip out to the island.
My 'job' for the morning was to drive a tractor which was fitted with a tank full of spray and a couple of spray guns. Two others were walking behind me and scrambling down cliffs spraying any of the unwanted weeds or introduced and unwanted plants which if left unchecked grow into quite large tress which crowd out the NZ natives. I'd never driven a tractor before but really it's just like a car in a lot of ways so I had no issues with it at all.
On the island's tractor.
One of the island's stunning beaches.
Training this week has been a a little mixed. I felt I had quite a good 'recovery' run of 30 minutes on Thursday but Saturday mornings was a real struggle with the shin actually flaring up the worst since I've been back running. Add to that the numb foot thing that used to bother me looks like it has not fixed itself yet.
This week I'm back to the physio for a check up so we'll see what happens. I'm supposed to get a 50 minute run in beforehand and that is scheduled for Wednesday.
Here's the numbers;
Monday - Run /walk 40 minutes
Tuesday - Swim 1000 m
Wednesday - Volunteer day
Thursday - Run / walk 30 minutes
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Run /walk 35 minutes.
Sunday - Rest
Finally here's a pic from the Auckland Santa Parade held today, again in awesome weather and it's not even summer yet! 
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Sunday, 25 November 2007
Motuihe Island Restoration Project
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3 comments:
LMAO! It's so funny to see a tree with green leaves and a Santa sleigh. At least to me . . .the one that lives in the Arctic :P
Great pics Bruce! How do I get a job like yours :-)
Nice work if you can get it! A bit different to the office.
Where's the long black cloud in that bottom photo?
;)
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