I've had a busy weekend. It involved all sorts of things. On Friday, the crews from the DRV unit volunteered (in the sense of getting told to turn up and volunteer) as staff for a big national Coastguard conference hosted in Auckland. I started out spending an hour or so sticking cheese and sliced gherkins on toothpicks for the "horse doovers" as somebody called them. I'd like to say it was a deeply fulfilling and exciting experience but I would be lying.

After that, I got sent to stand outside the gate to the helipad for the entire rest of the night. Mainly I just stood around and politely stopped conference visitors from wandering out onto the helipad and being diced by incoming police helicopters, or from lighting cigarettes while standing under signs saying "Jet Fuel, No Smoking." So, that was Friday.

On Saturday afternoon I was on as an observer with the Air Patrol, and on arrival I learned to my horror that a promotional video about the Air Patrol was being filmed that day. I was in some of it, in the exciting role of "person listening to pre-flight briefing". Then I got handed the video camera and it was my job to finish off the rest of the tape while we were flying!

So there would be some exterior shots too, I spent some time running along the airstrip filming the plane being warmed up before the flight. Then I got back in with the other two and we flew around the Hauraki Gulf for a while videoing things. I never used a video camera before so I dread to think how it's all going to turn out, but I think I got some good scenic shots. Also, I was trying to hold an extra radio headset over the camera's microphone all the time so all our radio conversations would be on the film too. It was surprisingly difficult.

We flew a different route than the ones I've been on before, so that was cool. I got to see my house from the air! And also we flew back over the Manukau Harbour, which I'd never seen from the air at all.

On Sunday I was on the boat all day but we didn't get any callouts at all; it wasn't much of a day for recreational boaters to be out. I saw a set of *infuriating* photos taken by another crew member last week - a pod of orca, one of them with a young calf, RIGHT THERE next to the boat. He got an awesome shot of one of them breaching. The orca was entirely out of the water except the end of its tail - gorgeous. I can't describe how annoyed it makes me that this sort of thing NEVER HAPPENS the days when I'M on the boat. All we saw were penguins again and they go away as soon as you pull a camera out.

Brunnen-"glad the weekend's over so I can get back to work for a rest"G