waihohonu, take 2 (feb 24 - mar 1)

i'm back to waihohonu? that can't be possible! you see... there are 4 huts and i work 8 shifts, which means if it's not my first time to a hut, it's my last... which means that i'm more than halfway through my time in the park!

this was a much more mellow week in the park than the past few (see last post re: ankle) but... a bad week in the mountains is better than a good week... well, most other places, and i wouldn't call this a bad week. it just included more stream swimming and spoon carving and hut baking and less peak climbing and ridge exploring.

mara and jen and i have gotten together for sunday lunch the last couple weeks, which is great fun. and unbelievably good food. especially when you consider we didn't plan anything, just showed up and threw together whatever we had for food... the first week we had brie and crackers, fresh vegetable soup with warm scones (from scratch!!), and cheesecake. with chocolate shavings and kiwifruit. so good. this week, the menu included sushi and fresh homemade cookies and peanut butter/banana/carrot cake. yummy! and so much fun to eat on the picnic tables in the sun, while all the hikers stopping by for lunch eat dried fruit and nuts...

other major disappointment of the week was the complete lack of production from my possum traps. waihohonu is the only hut where we trap for possums, and i set the traps nearly every night while i was there... and i didn't get a single possum! so i've still never seen a possum (apart from the glowing eyes at night) and i was completely robbed of the hut warden experience of digging a possum grave! most unfair.