It’s A Tough Job Being A Blogger

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I have to apologize to my very few readers out there: I have not full filled my promise of blogging every two weeks. I temporarily lost interest in writing once I returned to Dunedin. When I was stationed once again in a home (Danilo Hegg’s, much thanks to him), I found myself absorbed with looking for a job (which is a full time job in itself), working, catching up with friends, and catching up with Nate once he arrived. Turns out, when there’s no paycheck or grade to earn, I have a hard time keeping myself committed to blogging on a regular basis, especially when I’m no longer limited to sitting in my car on rainy days.  Lucky for you, I’m now stuck by-myself in a bar in Wanaka once again on a rainy day. So I’m facing my commitment and playing catch up.

On the bright side, you haven’t missed too from the last two plus months. Once I returned to Dunedin, not only did my blogging come to almost a stand still, but my adventuring too (well, in comparison to my first two months in NZ). Some of you may not know but at the beginning of September, I received a phone call from Nate informing me that he broke his foot. He was to arrive in New Zealand about two weeks after that…Change gears, scrap near future plans. Living out of the car climbing/tramping was now out of the question for the next couple of months.

A typical scene at work.

With this new unexpected hiccup I spent the following week searching and applying for jobs. I figured if we were gonna be stuck in Dunedin while Nate’s foot healed, I should earn some money so when he can walk again, I’ll be able to play more and work less. Turns out, finding a job that you only want to commit to for a month or two is rather hard. In the end I went through a company that sets up temporary contract work for people through various companies. The job they lined me up for? Stevedoring (according to Wikipedia, also known as wharfie, wharf rat, or dock worker). For those who don’t know, stevedores are the people who work on the wharf loading and unloading boats. For me it entailed helping to load logs onto large cargo ships. A very exciting job for about the first two hours. At 3:30 AM on my first day I stood next to my 'safety hut' (made of plywood with some metal framing) upon a dock illuminated by giant artificial lights, watching giant machines swiftly maneuvering around the wharf to move large loads of logs. I learned pretty quickly where and when to walk so I didn’t get squashed, to watch out for giant swinging cables that could decapitate me in one blow, and how to insert the cables into a clamp so I didn’t lose my fingers in the process. Once you get used to the flow and how the system works however, it becomes a boring mindless job. I counted, scanned, and wire wrapped thousands of logs in my short time on the job. At least it paid $19 an hour and the co-workers were generally friendly. It's definitely the type of job where talking to your workmates takes the bite out the boredom; just don’t get too distracted or you could get smooshed.

In those first couple weeks back in Dunedin I also kept busy with completing another grant application to fund one of my dream trips for NZ. I am happy to report that while we didn’t receive the original grant, they were very impressed with the novelty of our idea and gave us a consolation prize which was still substantial. Come February or March, Nate, Max and I will be in Fiordland looking to set the first routes (that is without helicopter support) on the walls in Poseidon Creek Valley on Llawrenny and Terror peak. Sound enticing? We’re pretty psyched. If successful, it will be my most notable accomplishment in my whole climbing career thus far.

FMC Scholarship Article

In between job searching and the grant application, I filled in some more time by volunteering to do a solo presentation at a NZ Alpine club meeting about some of my adventures in the Rockies (in the hopes of inspiring Kiwis to climb/ski in the States). Being my first presentation in three years, I spent hours in the 2 weeks before preparing. Poor Nate listened to two dry runs before finally hearing the real thing. Despite my hands shaking so badly that I couldn’t use the laser pointer for the first half, the presentation went well, or so my friends nicely tell me. I do know I got the crowd of 25+ people to laugh, so that's something. More importantly, right after the presentation I was psyched to commit to being the Hut warden at Homer between November 24^th and December 29th (much thanks to Jaz Morris for putting in a good word for me; it's all about who you know here). All I’ll be doing for five weeks is climbing, hiking, and I guess blogging, because this will be my home for those 5 weeks: Homer Hut. Ahh, yip; I scored in having free accommodation in one of the most beautiful areas of New Zealand. And it’s more enjoyable to experience such an opportunity with friends, so please feel free to visit me while I'm there.

Me leading Labours of Love at Long Beach.

Nate playing on his new mountain board.

Fear not, we did not waste all of our time on the computer in Dunners. Somehow Nate and I managed to keep ourselves relatively busy. I joined Michelle in her climbing workout routine-training properly for climbing the first time. Thanks to the workout, I ticked off one of my goal climbs-Labours of Love (24/5.12aish) in almost no time at all. Now on my way to finishing my 3-year-old bet with Dave by working 25s. Nate became obsessed with kiting just before he came to New Zealand. He brought two kites with him to NZ and within six weeks he added four more to his collection, along with a mountain board, a kite surf board, and a wet suite. I’ve gone out with him occasionally. Sometimes I enjoyed flying the kites and other times I just found myself being dragging through grass, sand, and/or water. I wouldn’t say I’m hooked yet.

We also began to have small dinner parties with friends. Sometimes we went to Dave’s to do a fingerboard workout with Michelle while we took turns cooking dinner on our breaks, and sometimes we invited friends over Danilo’s for dinner. 

Finger board/dinner session with Michelle

After long consideration and turning down some summer job/interview offers, I decided rock climbing guide work was probably my best option for short season work that wouldn’t interfere too much with my adventure plans for New Zealand. I signed up to take a rock climbing guide assessment that would certify me to guide in NZ (apparently with the new laws here, my outdoor education degree is basically useless for being even a basic single pitch guide). So some of my time at the crags in the last month was spent refreshing myself on rescues I haven’t done in years. Like climbing up on the rope to rescue a climber on top rope (a rescue I will probably never have to do) and abseiling down to an unconscious victim. At least it's all good practice for my own climbing.

Of course, before he could even walk, Nate was back to climbing. It was rather an entertaining site (and probably confusing to others) to see him crutch into a crag with a ‘boot’ on his foot and then see him leading a 25 in rock shoes. The ‘boot’ would be sitting aside his pack and crutches at the base of the crag. This discovery allowed us to sneak out of Dunedin on a climbing trip to Wanaka with a large group of friends, a mere 4-5 weeks after he broke his foot.

Well, now that your caught up on the mundane parts of my life in the last two months, I’ll take you on a couple of trips I did sneak in during that time.

Day 2 of Kite surfing for Nate.

A Brisk Walk With A Bit Of Climbing

August 30-August 31st

The morning after my interview, I was standing on the side of the road, thumb up, at the edge of Franz Joseph Township. The first ride took about an hour to catch, mostly because there weren’t many cars driving north. The good weather was continuing to hold so it wasn’t a terrible wait, except for dealing with my own impatience.

A RV filled with rowdy college students pulled a fake-out on me at one point (pretending to pick me up at first but then tauntingly rolling forward as I approached). Then 15 minutes later a man in an old truck pulled over and I was able to hop in without having to chase him down. He had gone on a drive along the coast for the morning just for the sake of it and was on his way back home. We chatted briefly in spurts and listened to the radio in between our occasional talk. On the drive, the man smoked a few cigarettes, so I focused on trying to not inhale his smoke and looking out the window to admire the views.

He dropped me off at the main traffic circle in Hokitika. As I was walking to a good hitching point, I put my thumb out when cars went by, as every good opportunist does. I was still walking when someone offered me a ride.  He was heading back to Christchurch from a weekend of visiting his family.

 He was almost the exact opposite of my last driver. Very talkative, with no shortage of stories. They were good stories too about his travel all around Australia. I listened intently as I munched on the apple turnover he had offered me (part of the large supply of food his mother was sending him home with). He’s been stuck trying to hitch hike from a few buildings surrounded by miles of uninhabited desert, hours from the closest proper town. To him, a five-hour drive to the West Coast to visit family for a day was nothing. He also took some time to describe many of the deadly insects and animals he came across during his travels. I probably should have been taking notes. I mentioned my worry about all the animals in Australia that could kill me. He assured me that as long as I don’t go around poking things with a stick like many teenage boys do, then I’ll be alright.

He ended up going about half an hour out of his way and dropped me off at my car. No broken windows, now slashed tires, and everything inside looked all in order. Sweet. I walked to the grocery store, bought some food and a bottle of wine. I left the wine at the backpackers with a note in exchange for my car keys. It was only about 3 in the afternoon and I felt like I needed to do something before heading back to Dunedin. Long story short, a few texts and a phone call and I had plans with Manu (gentleman I had met earlier that week) to go hiking and climbing on Mt Somers.

Mt Somers was a short 30-minute drive from where I was. I parked in the lot to see heaps of cars. Right, it’s a sunny warm Saturday, of course people are going to be hitting the hills. I went for a run while I waited for Manu. When he arrived, we decided to sleep in our own cars in the car park that night and head out at a leisurely hour in the morning. The sign at the start of the track noted the hike would take about 3 hours. Well, with Manu being a ranger in the summer and me Funemployed fit, we covered the trail in about 1 hr and 45 minutes. Conversation was brief and only held on the flatter bits of the trail when we both had air to talk and walk.

We crested the ridge I saw the familiar site of Pinnacle hut sitting in the wide valley, just below the features that earned the hut its name.  Rounded, pocketed limestone pinnacles protruded from the slopes. Above them, short wavy basalt walls stuck out of the steep slopes that were otherwise covered in scree or bushes

A short while later we arrived at the hut, just in time for most of the occupants to be heading down hill.  We chatted with the folks briefly and I looked around for topo drawings of the climbing areas that were here 3 years ago. With the last minute planning, we didn’t have time to get a guidebook. Unfortunately, the topos were gone (though I did find a copy of the entertaining 'Antics', a publication made by the University of Otago Tramping Club). Luckily Manu had the blessed and cursed smartphone, which helped us find information on a couple of crags. The arcing wave of basalt columns that were called the Christian Principles caught our attention (I for the looks and Manu for the name). It was one of the furthest crags but it looked like it had a couple of decent moderate climbs for Manu (who didn’t climb a whole lot). I glanced at the note that said the crag was not as big as it looks and decided it would be a fun adventure, we must go.

About an hour of scrambling up and down scree fields and on top of bushes, we finally arrived at the base of Christian Principles. I instantly learned to pay better attention to the small print in guidebooks. The wall was about half the size I though it to be from the hut.  I realized then some of the walls closer to the hut would have been preferable to this. But we were there. So we found some bolts and cracks and did some climbing. I led and Manu top roped.

My psych for climbing was high at the start of the day and rapidly decreased once we were at the crag. Meanwhile, Manu started the day with a low psych for climbing, and after struggling up the first climb remembered how fun climbing could be. His drive to climb something clean perked up and he hoped on the second route I put up.

After a couple of hours at the wall we headed out and back down to the car park with less spring in our steps than coming in. We arrived at the car park rather hungry, and despite my low climbing psych, content with the day out. We quickly loaded our cars and met in Geraldine 20 minutes away for a fish and chip dinner. After loading up on the cheap greasy meal, we said our good byes, and I hopped in the car to finally make my way to Dunedin, a mere three hours away.