Venus Hut Project

This year I am involved in managing the construction of three new replacement backcountry huts in Kahurangi National Park. One (Granity Pass Hut) was build in March/April and the other two are planned for October - December. Both of these are in the Karamea River Valley - one of the finest fishing rivers in the southern hemisphere - some say the World!. The huts Venus and Crow will be replaced with newer brighter, warmer, and larger huts. The new huts are to be built by a contractor but before construction at Venus could begin, the old hut had to be removed.
In late September, two of my colleagues and I (Kim and Steve) and two contractors (Andrew and Steve) were helicoptered to the Venus Hut site and spent three days (one in the pouring rain) demolishing the old hut and preparing the site for the new one - including removing vegetation and drilling pile holes. To assist us, we did take a small digger, generator, a selection of the best power tools we could find and a large box of matches - not to mention having a twin engined Squirrel helicopter at our beck and call. We worked long days, stayed on site at Venus for three nights - demolishing the only accommodation for miles around. We did fly in a small bivvy on the first day and had a couple of tents - so accommodation for the five of us was adequate (just). On the fourth day the contractors and Steve flew out, while Kim and I moved to the Crow site to meet up with another colleague (Hutchy) and another Steve to drive the piles for the new Crow Hut.
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Football Prizegiving

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Football Prizegiving this year was a bit different for me as being the manager of Findlay's team, i had to do some of the presenting. Scary stuff!!

I had to choose a Player of the Year as well as a "Most Improved Player". Last year Findlay won the Player of the Year trophy and although the consensus of opinion amongst the parents was that he should win it again, I felt it was better if someone else did. (Can't have the manager's son winning all the prizes!) Anyway I choose someone else but Findlay did win a special prize - Golden Boot - for scoring 50% of his teams goals in the season . He scored a total of 27 goals in 17 games which wasn't bad considering he was goalie for one half in 3 of the games!

As you can see from the photos there was a local celebrity at the Prize Giving - Jeremy Brockie. He had played in the New Zealand Football team in the Olympics and had scored the goal in the opening game against China - not bad for a 19 year old. He is a bit of a hero for my boys.