hiatus

I'm back in the US. and whenever I'm here (in this country doing 'normal stuff') I stop writing on this blog. and i write elsewhere (like in journals and documents). so until my next adventure (hopefully shoeless) we're on hold here in the blogworld. of course, actually I'm doing fun stuff still--like a project on urban community gardens in NYC and how much food they produce--but writing about that is for another place really...

and she's off....

Today I am leaving the house I have lived in for the past 2 months. it's been real. and so fun. we stopped 12 hour shifts about 2 weeks ago and have had a much more normal life-style since then. 8 hour days, weekends off, games of soccer and squash (!! yes squash. and wow i forgot how FUN that game is!)after work, dinners with the family (my house that is.) we had a vintage party at the horse racing track in town, a bbq at my house with couches and chairs outside in the backyard and fires and stars, parties with locals and a jukebox, soccer matches, dancing and too much beer. (this country has a rather intense drinking problem i have to say.) i have loved working with the poeple i worked with, and living with the poeple i lived with. I have loved getting to know New Zealand, getting bored of Blenheim and the one live band that plays the same 90s covers every weekend, feeling comfortable in this country, on this side of the street, eating pies and making wine. I have loved being abroad, and exploring myself and the people who you stumble upon while abroad. I have loved being here.

and now, in about 30 minutes, i will saddle up again. lug my pack over my shoulders and suddenly i'm transmogrified back into a turtle with my house on my back. which i love.

it's may 16th. i fly from auckland on the 26th. that's 10 days to get into some serious trouble, find my way out of it again, and board that plane for the US. it's insane how quickly this time has flown for me. and of course, at the same time i feel like ive been living in NZ for ages and ages. I'm excited for these 10 days of traveling because it is relaxed, not rushed and jam-packed like our first month of traveling was. Today, I'm heading back to Welly to meet up with those friends from before, then out to Martinborough to get Gen, then we're back in a car and driving up to Auckland (with some wine tastings along the way), and then we have a few days to just wing it. I love not having a set plan for the last bit. it is nice to just know that whatever happens will be fine--I am comfortable with this country and know enough people here and there, to know that all will be good.

til I have internet again. or perhaps not.

want a little job?

well well well. today is April 16th, and i have been working 12-hour shifts for the last 10 days straight. this is my first day off since harvest really kicked into gear and so much has been happening, I can hardly remember it all (not to mention i have to cook for the house tonight and time is a-ticking).

so. here is what's been going on: I love living in NZ.

I liked traveling this country a whole lot--I liked it because it was beautiful and inspiring, because the people are friendly and don't wear shoes, and the mountains are epic and the meat pies are delicious. but traveling is only as fun as you are able to make it. that is, it's fun. but it's also a) expensive and b) exhausting. so while I really and genuinely loved exploring both north and south islands, and all the adventures Gen and I had together hiking, and driving, and surfing and the rest, I've gotta say: now that I'm settled and just living... it's even better.

My house is still great. Love my roommates and love the set up. 6 of us are on the day shift and 3 are at night. so when we come home from work after 12 hours of grape-smushing its just 6 for dinner and strange NZ tv and showers and off to bed...only to wake up and do it all again the next day.

The majority of my time is spent at the winery. there are 30 harvest workers and about 7 year-round employees, working a rather large winery, processing about 6.5 thousand tons of fruit. mostly we are doing Sauv Blanc (NZ most popular) but we're also doing a fair bit of Pinot Noir and Merlot too. I've been put on the "Reds" team which means I'm working with this guy from California and we are in charge of processes the red grapes that come in, taking them from the delivery trucks, de-stemming and crushing them, cold-soaking them, plunging them over 5 days, warming and fermenting the juice with yeast, plunging some more, pressing it all, and finally putting the juice into barrels where it sits for months or years (depending on the winery). that whole process takes about 2+ weeks and I'm lucky because I get to follow the grapes as they go from one stage to the next. The people who are working on the white grapes are separated into very specialized jobs and do a lot of the same stuff every day. I'm lucky because my job changes around from day to day and it keeps me always moving. and when I have time, I help with the other jobs so I'm getting to learn seriously a lot. makes me think: perhaps i could do this long term....eh?

So, that's what I 'do' but really what it all entails is: lots of hosing down of concrete floors, and mixing huge 30,000 ton tanks of grapes with long metal plunger things and adding buckets of yeast to tanks and more hosing of concrete floors and cleaning and plunging, and getting inside big presses and hosing out tanks, and shoveling grapes into presses and emptying presses of old grape skins, and hosing down floors again, running around the winery getting grape juice on my clothes and my hair and laughing with friends about silly international language mix-ups and eating and drinking heaps of coffee and feeling, really feeling what it's like to be part of a group of people who all get wine and like making wine, who laugh and play and eat and drink together, and feeling what it's like to live and feel settled in New Zealand.

Because that's what I am getting most. A sense of what kiwi life is really like. It's laid back and not wearing shoes is just how everyone does it. and men with the biggest thighs you've ever seen wear tiny short shorts called "stubbies" and the whole country is obsessed with "toasties" which is just any delicious product on a piece of toast somehow melted with cheese on it; and people here who say "heaps" and no one pronounces their "R"s and its sunny every day and at night the sun sets behind the mountains and I watch the colors change in the sky from the highest catwalk of the winery near the 270,000 ton tanks.

I'm feeling at home here and settled and comfortable and quite happy. when i think about the dilemma of the 20-somethings, that we have too many choices presented to us and no way of deciding which is the best option, i must remember Desmond and how he told us (mallory and myself): that the only thing to do is to live this experience 110% of the way and once it's over and done with, to move on to the next one, whatever it may be and give that 110% as well.


My hands are getting lined with dirt again, and my fingers smell oddly of yeast which reminds me of baking bread with my mom when i was younger, and my clothes are covered in grape juice and when I take a shower at night little grape seeds always fall out of my hair.

if i were a duck I'd be a lucky one. that's for sure.

A slice of Blenheim....

Today I crushed and pressed Sauv Blanc all day in the sunshine. After work I cooked dinner for my house--4 quiches and sweet potato oven-fries with broccoli. Along with the usual absurd amount of booze. And we finished the night off with an Easter egg hunt outside in the dark. Movies and bed now. Wake up at 6am for work tomorrow. And then... do it all again-- someone else's turn to cook tomorrow night tho. And maybe not so much chocolate either (I have a canker soar).

And that's my life.

:)

crush is imminent!

Im writing from my new house in Blenheim where I am actually having such a happy time it's beyond me. It's been some time since I wrote (or at least so much has happened it feels that way) and things are getting pretty busy around here and, most exciting, I'm feeling more and more settled. But, to be complete with my stories....

We finished the Milford hike with a few more adventures, including: a river fording, camping next to the tallest waterfall in the country, and a sprint out of the woods to make the last boat of the day. But we did make it and the whole experience was a) intense and fun, b) beautiful though cloudy--but it's a rainforest afterall, and c) officially hardcore of us.

The next 5 days or so we traveled all the way back up north. First to Queenstown where we ate the best ice cream i've ever had in my life. And if you know me (which you must if you're bothering to read this) you know that's sayin' somethin' fierce! Other than the ice cream, Qtown was cute and gorgeous and just plain old fun.

Next we drove to the glacier region; and as a treat we stayed in a villa with legit crisp sheets and an amazing shower; hiked out to the glacier, and finally finished the driving all together when we arrived in Nelson, a small and adorable town at the very north of the south island. We stayed a few days with this man we had met our canoe trip earlier, got rid of Sunny the car and started prepping for our next hike. (Gosh even thinking about it all again is making me tired--but yes, we hiked afresh.) This time the Abel Tasman. Which is more of a hard walk in the most gorgeous woods along a path that meanders in and out along the ocean with clear blue and turquoise water. Each afternoon we'd get into camp and have a few hours to just lie on the beach ....! what luxury! And no rain! Still exhausting with a 50 lbs pack on tho...

Afterwards we went back to Nelson, had a night out with a few friends we'd made along the way and...well, the next morning saw my separation from Miss Genevieve. While she flew to Wellington, I stayed in Nelson for the day, exploring both the town and the feeling of being alone in NZ for the first time. Thst afternoon i took a bus to Blenheim and a taxi to my new house (35 severne st. Springlands, Blenheim NZ. In case anyone wants to send me things!!) and .... Well, truthfully, the fun hasn't stopped since then.

I am living with 8 other people. 4 guys and 5 girls. All from all around the world; all here to make wine. 6 of them work at a different winery from me, and 3 of us are at Kim Crawford. We have a French girl, 3 californians, a kiwi, a Brazilian, a German guy who switches all his V and W's around, and an Italian guy who loves to cook extravagant and delicious meals every night. The second day I was here we had a BBQ with every meat possible, heaps of beer and great wine, and a visit from none other than the Ryanosaurus himself, Ryan (the guy from Georgia I lived with in the shack out in Oregon). So great to see his face (overgrown beard and all). The night finished with a drive to the beach and seeing some spectacular stars.

And then work started. Which is a whole other story to get into--for another night. For now I will say this: I am working at a massive scale. And compared to what's out there, I'm still semi-small. We processed 14 tons of fruit at Carlo & Julian out in OR. here we will be processing around 6 thousand tons. Today was my third day and I got to wear a full yellow waterproof suit and get inside 40 ton tanks with a pressure washer. It all makes me really appreciate how involved I was in every step of the winemaking process at C&J. And yet, even tho what I'm doing here is far more industrial and factory-like than artisian wine-making, it's still a blast and I'm loving it.

More on Blenheim life to come. So far we are cleaning everything in preparation for crush. Next week the fruit will start coming in. And then the 12 hour shifts start up.

Yeehaw! Let the games begin!

Over and out. With love and grapes in my toes.


Sb

Eating the best ice cream I've ever had while I write this...

Well, we continue.

The ferry dropped us off in Picton and a) it felt like a carribbean island airport; and b) a man from rent-a-dent (from now on RaD) was standing with a sign that read 'genevieve joy'. O RaD! How pleasently surprised we were!! Except for then the man gave us the car and walked away forgetting to leave us with the keys. O RaD! You were so close but then such an epic failure. The good news was, firstly that we were able to run after the man, locate him as he was driving away in another car, and get the keys. And secondly, our new car is SO much classier than the first one. Our North island car was a 1994 Nissan Bluebird who was a girl and light blue and we named her Belle (thanks to Wayne the RaD man in Auckland who suggested that name. Random? Yes.). Our South island car is also a Nissan. But it's from 1996 (!) and is a Sunny and is white. Sunny is his name, obviously and he has fancy things like: automatic windows, automatic locking abilities, a trunk lock, a stereo that works, oh and he doesn't feel like he's gonna literally fall apart at the slightest bump, and also he doesn't make racketty noises from the accelerator (!?? I just met 'er!!). So basically all in all: Sunny doesn't suck-- tho we do need to give him lots of encouragement when going up hills of any size because he doesn't like the incline since he can't seem to switch gears very quickly. But comparatively...he's great!

Well. We drove straight southeast to Blenheim to do a bit of recon on where i'll be working at the end of the month. The town feels cute and managable; saw the house I'll be living in, etc. Felt a bit stalkery of me but hey, i wanted to know.

The next few days saw us driving the whole eastern coast of the south island. From Blenheim we went to Kaikoura, a tiny strip of a town on the water with awesome mountains, epic scenery, some funky live music, a hostel playing a late night movie, and a stand selling mean fish and chips for cheap!

Next we drove up and around and all the way zigzagging past Christchurch, through the rain over the mountain pass and into the tiny town of Akoroa--which is the first French settlement in NZ and has street names like Rue Bulgerie. There we really went all out: staying in a hostel with sheets, out to an italian movie with a bottle of wine, dinner out! All would have been perfect except for when we got mixed up and didn't pay for the movie and almost had the NZ cops after us! But we are safe now. The next day we drove further south-- after a mad hunt for the Cookie Time factory (a cookie here in nz) with no luck, we ended up camping in a small town where we watched penguines waddle on shore after dark, cooked a dinner on our car hood using the camping stove, and found an abandoned little trampoline that all made for a great evening.

These days of constant travel were great, if not tiring as well. There's a lot of car hood cooking, tent sleeping, and makeshift plans. And that's all part of traveling, especially since we have a car and not too much of a plan so we end up planning a lot the day before we do things. Again, this is liberating and tiring at the same time. Sometimes it's awesome to be meeting new people every day, and other times it's just nice to curl up with a bottle of wine and friends, and have sheets and a shower!

But I digress perfectly. We left that next morning for Dunedin where we couchsurfed for 2 nights, explored the town and tried to make a night out on the town out of a dead Monday evening. This failed and ended in ice cream and NZ TV shows. Turns out NYC really is one of the only places you can go out any night of the week.

After all these towns and driving it felt really dire that we get some serious nature-- and nature is what we got! We happily packed our backpacks to the gills and headed out on a 3 day hike along the Milford track.

Milford is the most popular track in the country and actually you have to book your hike with the DOC and space fills up nearly a year in advance. How then did we do it?? Turns out, while they say you must hike the track and stay in these huts along the way, turns out you're allowed to camp aslong as your site is 500 meters off the track. The issue is this: most of the track is lined with this forest or, more challenging, it's in the valley of mountains, which means that there are only a few places along the hike where it's possible to get 500 meters away. We'd met some dude on our travels who'd told us a bit about how to find the spots to walk off the track and camp-- tho, he made it seem really easy to do and, well it proved to be somewhat of a challenge. It's probably good that I didn't tell people back home that we were sort of winging the hike because now we are out and safe and can look back on it and laugh since it's in the past; but at the time it was a bit scary and unknown.

We decided to look at the hike as our first solo-of-sorts camping experience in the extreme. We embraced the challenge of finding places to camp, cooking all on our own, and carrying everything on our backs. And hete's how it went down: We packed tent, stove, food, waterproof everything, sleeping bags, etc. Into our packs Sadly I learned early on that my rain coat is not a rain coat at all; rather it's only a windbreaker, posing.

So day one: starts with a ferry to the beginning of the track. We were late (duh) and nearly got left behind. Started hiking It starts to rain-- oh! You're only a windbreaker!-- by evening we've made it to the first hut where other hikers were staying (dry) and the hut warden offers us his floor to sleep on if we pay $90 each. Ha! So we head back out onto the torrential rain and turn off the path 40 pacess after the boulder on the left, etc etc and..... Well you must picture this right because it's so good: gen and me covered in waterproof gear ( in my case I'm now wearing a large trash bag over my 'raincoat') carrying 50lbs packs, dirty and cold, shoving our bodies through a forest so dense that the ground cover comes up to our necks. It's like ploughing thru a wall. Trying to find a spot a) 500 meters off the track and b) large enough to pitch the tent. After nearly an hour of searching and as the day light begins to fade, we decide we need to be a bit more invasive--branches are broken, ferns smushed, the tent is erected, and we're now huddled over our pot of ramen noodles wearing soaked clothes hoping we don't get esten by some unknown animal. Luckily NZ has absolutely no animals besides sheep and orcs, so in the wild beast department we were quite safe.

Actually. That's all I have time to write at the moment. The rest will have to come later.

Xoxo
SB

O my lord

I write this from the inter-islander ferry as we cross from the north to the south island. We've just left Wellington after three days of relaxing and comfortable city exploring while we were staying with a girl who graduated from Columbia that we found on couchsurfing. Ah what a small world we live in!

I feel its time for a run down of the fun and crazy, and impossibly exciting, advenuters we've been having so far in NZ.

Raglan was a blast with surfing and swimming, communal cooking and sleeping in a train caboose, no one wears shoes and no one seems to do much except have fun and be tan and enjoy the beauty of the sea. Enticing, i know, but we had to keep moving--adventures were ahead! so we dropped some friends (those seem to be instantaneous around here) off in Hamilton, went grocery shopping at a Cosco-like place where people still didn't wear shoes and went on our way south towards the Waitomo Caves.

Fast forward to Gen and me standing waist-deep in frigid water 65meters underground, floating on inner tubes down this river deep inside a cave, swimming around underground in full wetsuits and headlamps looking at glow worms above us and hoping eels weren't eating our bums. That was the caves. Followed by free bagels and hot soup and more bagels and more soup! and off we were again! This time heading for the tiny and unknown town of National Park.

Once there-- and really we're talking about maybe 4 stores in a row, that's the town-- we found a campsite along this pretty little stream with a handful of other campers like us.

Next morning we head off to the beginning of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing where we promtly met Eva (German) and Alistor (Canadian) who were planning to hike that day as well. We schemed up a great plan with these two: instead of paying $35 a head to take the bus at the of the treck back to our cars, we four decided to leave one car at either end and do a kind of carpooling. Save $$, make friends! We had a blast and ended up hiking the whole day with them! The two of them proved to be formidable hikers, tho their jeans and converse sneakers might have suggested otherwise initially. Gsm and I, of course, are dorked out in super hiking boots and rain gear (just in case!)....and of course they beat us up. Which made us feel only slightly silly.

The area we were hiking in is really barren and is full of old volcanoes and dried lava. It's really steep and a hard, but amazing hike that takes all day, 20km in all. Actually, and importantly, the mountain we hiked around is Mt Doom in the lord of the rings (LOTR ROTK, that's for you O). So we're hiking in Mordor basically is what I'm saying, but meanwhile we're high enough up that you can see way out to rolling hills and in the distance Lake Taupo and some epic mountains. Damn cool.

What's next..?? Oh we finished the hike and recamped and were about to eat our tiny stove-made dinner when we realized the car wouldn't start. The 'dent' part of 'rent-a-dent' was coming to full fruition. Only a little panicking and some Israeli girls driving us to cell service and I'm talking to THE friendliest man I have ever spoken to from AA. Which, so perfectly, here is the auto service company like AAA in the US. Anyway, we wait and this AA guy pulls up to our campsite in a full mechanic suit, asks me to show him the problem and....of course the car works. So he leaves and we feel embarressed and awkward but cool! Car still works.

Next morning we head to the start of our canoeing adventure. We arrive with zero minutes to even think about what we are about to do or what we might need while canoeing down thus river in the absolute middle of nowhere for three days. Throw our stuff into plastic barrels, throw ourselves into the boat and we're off! And on our own.

But of course there's always kiwis on this kind of adventure too. Families on vacation, couples sticking to themselves, and then also the group of 7 twenty-somethings who are celebrating a birthday excursion and have with them 4 coolers of food and beer, a BBQer, at least a fair amount of illegal substances, and lots of nudity. They were great-- invadors of other canoes, pirates wearing purple earmuffs, with an inflatable swan with sexy eyes tied to the back of one canoe, swimming along behind for all three days. They were generous with their beer and food, friendly and just fun to be around--- tho quite loud at night.

Anyway the canoe trip was awesome. We were so far in the wilderness, it was so remote and so quiet of man-made sounds, tho noisy noisy with forest sounds! Canoeing felt like an alternate universe where suddenly our purpose was only to make it to the next camp site, and all the planning and worrying about emails or phone calls or work issues later, just didn't exist for that time. Quite fantastic!

So that took us to 6 days without a real shower, smelling rather foul and generally pooped. we drove, first to where Gen will be working later in Martinborough, and then to Wellington, dropped off the car and packed in to Hannah's house ( from CS) with her 4 musician-sorts flatmates.

Wellington was really awesome-- it feels a lot like San Fram because it's right on the water with a bay and it's super windy and so nice and sunny, tons of waterfront walkways and loads of cafes and a really great beer garden. CSing with Hannah was just perfectly what makes couchsurfing so great. We got a floor to crash on, a kitchen and house to use and instant friends. In exchange we cooked everyone dinner two nights and by the end of our stay really felt that we'd crossed over from just using their floor to sleep on, to actually being good freinds with a fantastic group of kiwis! Sweet-as! (best expression. Used constantly here. As in: this view out the front of the ferry that I'm looking at right now, out to the mountains of the south island, is sweet-as!)

And now?? Well we'll pick up a new car and head south along the eastern coast of the south island then over west to do lots of tramping around giant mountains and glaciers, then finally back north by march 22nd to start working at the winery!!

Will keep on keeping on...per usual. Love the no shoes culture here-- I fit right in, love how everyone really is totally friendly and relaxed, ready to help and so generous with what they have. Not to mention how stunningly gorgeous every inch of this country seems so far to be!

All my love from the sun that I'm sitting in as I write this,
SB