The First Week: On Site and at Work

Hello again and welcome from Waihi Beach! I figured it was time for an update, seeing as the last one was from weeks ago and so much has happened since then!

After we arrived in Waihi, we set about checking out the town and generally getting a feel for the place. The pit was literally 100m from the front door and the lookout gave a fantastic view of the operation. I can't help but think how weird it is to have a pit right in the middle of town, although you would forget that it's there, it's so cleverly hidden! Saturday night saw us check out the local nightlife and it was very disappointing. We thought we'd try the Stirling Hotel, one of two pubs in town, and there were only 5 people there, basically your average kiwi bogan. We thought it was very quiet for a Saturday night. So when we bailed from there at about 10, we all realised that we were starving and the only place open to get food was the night window at the BP. Welcome to Waihi!

After finally getting some rest (we were all knackered after the red-eye flight from Perth on Saturday morning) we figured we should get some real food, and so ventured over to Tauranga to go to Pak 'n' Save on Sunday. This is a bit of a kiwi thing, basically its like Bunnings, just filled with food instead of hardware and they don't give you bags... Instead you pack everything into cardboard boxes, cold stuff gets wrapped in newspaper and off you go from there. So that just about filled out our weekend and come Sunday night we were looking forward to see what site looked like so we were into bed early and eager to see what the next day would bring!

For the first week or so, they had us with the training department before handing us over to our designated department and supervisor. Aaron was bored out of his brain sitting in the underground mine office watching people work and doing inductions but luckily for him, they eventually got him underground after 3 weeks of boredom so he could actually start earning his money. I was put to work in the maintenance department with the fitters which was great. All the guys are great to work with and I got my wish of getting my hands dirty, well and above expectations! So far, I’ve changed out pumps, pipe work, conveyors, learnt to weld (very badly), grind and mill all kinds of things. It’s been a great experience because I’ve been able to get to know the plant, all the operators and most importantly the maintenance crew. As of tomorrow I’ll be working with the projects team so it’s back to being a ‘shiny bottom’ as they call it. Its been great being close to the beach. During the first week, we took advantage of some nice weather to have a swim after work. It was a bit chilly at first but you get used to it eventually!