Log Book

Motorcycle Marshaling

SUPPORT FOR SPORT!

It was hot. It was long.
2 days of searching the track for any pieces of bike that detached while racing, announcing over the walky-talky that our sections of the track was clear, and of course watching out for anybody falling off & injuring themselves (or just getting in the way). Certain persons at other bases seemed to us to be either a little bossy (telling us what tod od & confusing the head marshall) or paranoid (reporting ever incident, even if it wasn't actually on the track, eg. a motorcycle parked on the grass).

We didn't see any action (ie gory accidents) on our corner, but we heard a bit from others - several people over the weekend were taken to hospital.

By Karlene

Service Hours
Brendan - 10
Chris - 10
Darryn - 5
Eugenie - 4
Karlene - 10
Raewyn - 10
Nathan - 4

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6 1/2 Go Mad on Kawau Island

One jolly fine Wednesday at their seceret meeting inside the seceret club house, five members gathered around excitedly.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.
"Password!" yelled Brendan. And the answer came at once.
"Open the *!*@# door and let me in!"
"Enter" said Brendan and in came Chris.
"Hello Everyone! I say it's nice and cosy in here. What's the meeting called for? Anything special?"
"Yes," said Brendan, "I've got something jolly interesting to show you".
Karlene and Trudy looked at each other in anticipation.
"Here it is", said Brendan and held out a long, straight object. He then unrolled it and revealed a colourful pictures of an island. "We're going to Kawau!" he exclaimed.
"Oh is that all", everyone else exclaimed back. "We go there twice a year, why do you have to hold a special meeting to announce it?"

So it happened that 6.5 members of the seceret club "The Famous 5 Waitakere Rovers and Chris and Keith" arrived on Kawau Island. There was a bit of a Hallabaloo due to Keith loosing his luggage and Karlene and Keith being late and missing the boat, but luckily there was a big party on a Kawau that night, and they got a lift in another boat that came over later to pack up the party, and they didn't even have to pay!

That night we played some cards, practiced some Irish Dancing, talked really loudly and hobnobbed with the boaties at the big party (I'll leave it up to the reader to decide who did what). Next morning we were up bright and early ready to do service. Our first job was to fill in some holes. Sounds like an easy job we said, and went to it, enthusiastically shoveling dirt into the holes, which is what one generally does when one is asked to fill in holes, except if one happens to know what they are doing, which we didn't. After morning tea we were informed that there was actually a technique to it, and our job was a complete botch up due to there being too much dirt for the hole, and a big mound on top. Fortunately Andrew the acting ranger wasn't very annoyed at us, but was rather annoyed at his assistant (Duane or Wayne?? I never figured out which) for not informing us of the hole filling technique. Andrew kindly demonstrated the heel method (which is where one uses one's heels to compress the dirt into the hole so hopefully all the dirt fits), and told us to dig out the hole and then fill it in again. Which we did, and discovered that heeling takes a much longer time than merely shovling. However the dirt did fit a bit better, although we still had a slight excess.

Meanwhile Brendan helped repair the deck using dyna bolts or some such things which are far beyond the comprehension of females (who only know about embroidery and kittens).

In the afternoon we were instructed to use the tractor to drive around and pick up stray material that didn't belong on the pristine grounds of Mansion house. We then had to drive up to the dump to deposit it. This wasn't too bad, since driving the tractor is great fun. Even just riding on it is great fun, especially when you go over giant pot holes and get bounced up and down on the hard thing which isn't really a seat, and not really suitable to be sitting on while going over giant pot holes. Darryn, Raewyn and Chris all had turns at driving the tractor. Keith was too chicken though. Trudy, Karlene and Rae also experienced Brendan's racy riding on the 4 wheel motorbike (which has much more comfortable seats than the tractor).

In the afternoon Chris had to leave to go and see a rugby match (that's why he was only a half). We also met some foreign students who were travelling around the world doing voluntary work. We amused ourselves by talking to them, and also went for a swim at Lady's Bay. That night we went for a walk over to Two House Bay, and decided to go for a swim off the wharf. The only problem was, we hadn't brought our bathing costumes, so several jumped in sans clothes, while the rest made do with various under and over garments (I'll leave it up to the reader to decide who did what). We wallowed in the phospheresence (little things that live in the water and glow when they are agitated), and hoppped out, shivering and did our best to get dry.

Next day it was an early start for Brendan, Darryn and Raewyn who did the morning shift in the cafetaria (one of the cafetaria ladies had sprained her ankle, so they needed some help). We made scones, filled rolls, sandwhiches and ice creams (and even at a few ice creams and scones ourselves). Then it was our break time so we walked to the copper mine. We took a few artistic pictures, and wandered back. Then it was time for the others to have their turn helping in the cafetaria. We discovered that our sandwiches/scones/filled rolls weren't highly popular, so we in fact got to eat some of them ourselves, and donated the rest to the foreign volunteers who were staying two weeks and hadn't brought enough food.

We travelled back by boat, then car. We stopped at KFC as per custom for a bit of dinner, then headed back to Auckland, satisfied at another successful Kawau Trip. I won't mention that Karlene and Keith got lost on the way back (oops, already have).

By Raewyn.

Service Hours
Brendan - 7
Chris - 5
Darryn - 7
Karlene - 7
Keith - 7
Raewyn - 7
Trudy - 7

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Disco

We helped out at another of the Kereru Massey Group's fundraising discos. There were approximately 170 kids ranging from about 8-16. Not a bad turn out. The crowd was noisier than the music and the music was loud. Some of the kids were "wall flowers" while some entertained themselves chasing each other around the hall, some were even dancing. Watching the crowd we see some budding Rovers (they've already got the Time Warp down pat) and two young girls who look like they would make good nightclub bar dancers. The favourtie song for the evening ... you guessed it - Meredith Brook's Bitch.

By Brendan

Service Hours
Brendan - 2
Chris - 2
Eugenie - 2
Nathan - 2

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