I’m settling into life in my new home and I’m fast beginning to love it.
To give you an idea of what camp is like, we have no lightbulbs in any rooms so we do everything by red headlamp light so the birds don’t hit the windows. Our bathroom is a long drop with only one wall and quite often I’ve had albatrosses walk right on past me!
The shower is a cold water hose and it has an agressive pair of terns nesting above it. It took me 4 days before I needed to charge my phone for the first time and I’ve spent an avg of 20 mins a day on it, which is all taking photos!
I made corn fritters for everyone last night which they loved and then we watched an Attenborough doco afterwards.
I’m currently sleeping on an inflatable camping mattress on top of a wooden board, and when I wake up in the morning, I get to look into a field of albatrosses which is an amazing start to my day. I’ve made friends with the spiders here, they’re called cane spiders and are about 10cms wide! We’ve been playing heaps of card games in the evenings.
I’m reading a book every three or so days and I’ve been doing heaps of writing too, probably enough for my own book when I’m back – hahahaha!
The work here is full on, it’s hours and hours of smashing through dense bush while trying not to step on nesting birds or in burrows (which is much harder than it sounds) while also picking out the non native plants that need spraying and staying on track with my gps. There’s a lot to think about!! Its very challenging but I’m enjoying it a lot. I know lots of the plants now and can look at the ground and be able to identify everything that I see as we walk through the feilds and the bush. My favourite plants so far are naio (false sandalwood) and nohu (tribulus).
One of the best things has been being able to see a short-tailed albatross (there’s only 4 in the whole Hawaiian islands!) She is more the size of our wandering albatross back in NZ with a beautiful golden head and a pink-blue beak. I felt very lucky. We’ve also seen a bristle thighed curlew which was very special!
Tonight I am making a baked mac n cheese for dinner with a fruit crumble, it will be my fourth night doing dinner and I’m very excited for it! So far everything has been going super well. I’m having such a great time but missing you guys so so so much.
Love and hugs, Charlie