Austrian volunteer enjoys her experience in Tongariro park

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 3, Issue 44, 15 April 1986, Page 3

Austrian volunteer enjoys her experience in Tongariro park

An Austrian biochemistry student has been working in Tongariro National Park for the last five weeks. She has been painting white lines in a carpark, clearing tracks, painting huts and cleaning an ambulance — and she loved it! Eighteen-year-old Arneli Thonke decided before she came to New Zealand that she wanted to do something which used her hands rather than her brain. She wrote to Tongariro National Park asking them if they would like a volunteer. She was given a unit at Whakapapa Village and a small wage to cover her food but all her work was unpaid. "It's a whole new lifestyle,"said Arneli about her experiences in the park. Although she wouldn't like to do what she has done in the last month all the time, she has enjoyed the experand has been able to see a part of the New Zealand way of life. Arneli said she has enjoyed working with park staff because whoever she has worked with, she has not been made to feel inferior to them. One of the highlights of her stay was flying in a helicopter over the mountain: "It was amazing!" she said. She helped paint the glacier shelter near the Crater Lake of Mt Ruapehu and from seeing areas of' the mountain said it is much different to the ski areas in Austria. She is amazed at the huge expanse of the national park and said in her country parks are much smaller. Arneli left Whakapapa Village this week and hoped to travel north tocatch some sun and warmer weather before continuing on her tour of the country.