In between study, working almost fulltime and moving house, there is barely enough time left for the South Island’s only Community Technician, Kiwia Lake, to participate in her favourite seasonal hobby – catching whitebait.
With a fulsome teacher aiding schedule and Comtec work and study commitments, the Tuatapere mother-of-four is resigned to the fact that possibly this season, not too many hours are going to be spent at the Waiau river mouth catching the delicacy.
“I’ll whitebait when the tides allow me to fit it around everything else,” says Kiwia.
Eight months into the project Kiwia says there is a marked improvement in her confidence levels.
“I’ve got to the stage where I’m willing to play a bit because I've realised that if I don’t play, I’m not going to get any further ahead.”
To ensure Kiwia and the other Comtecs keep progressing, the Ministry of Education supplied the Comtecs with unneeded computers, and Microsoft donated software that allows users to build and strip down a virtual server.
Kiwia’s confidence was also boosted when she realised while attending the two week block course at CPIT with her fellow Comtecs recently, that her knowledge and skill levels were on a par with most of her colleagues.
“I always thought I was at the lower end (of knowledge) but then you realise that you may know something someone else doesn’t. Also, last time I found the data class really daunting and was stressing about it, but this time I sat there for an hour-and-a-half and understood it.”
Kiwia describes the two week intensive theoretical course as draining and exhausting but acknowledges that the stress, cramming, sleepless night and good and bad days are a means to an end.
Laughingly she says “I know why I’m doing it and I can see the end but there’s just a whole year in between.”
Looking forward to being qualified and with study out the way, Kiwia says there will be more time to do other things – and catching white bait will be one of them.
