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.