A Day in the Life

At the request of my Dad I’m doing a “day in the life” piece on this piece! Come with me to my job on the ragged edge of the Red Zone in central Christchurch working on the side of the Pacific Tower.

I usually wake up around 5:00 AM or so. I used to use my cell phone as an alarm clock but I’ve taken to just waking up on time as a habit. I lay in bed half awake until 6:00 AM when I grab my computer and talk to Ellen on Facebook for a few minutes. It’s weird because when we talk one of us is always on the edge of sleep. I’m either waking up or she’s falling asleep. If I catch people on Facebook on Saturday night or so I can often chat with them while they are drunk which is obnoxious but often humorous.

At what I would like to think is 6:30 AM I get up but it ends up being 6:40 more often than not and I end up late. I put on my fluorescent vest, cover alls, and Virginia Tech hoodie and head off to work. Sometimes the windshield is iced over and I have to scrape it just like back home.

On the way to work I hit Barbados Street and cruise down the one-way system into Christchurch. Since I live in St. Albans this is only about a five-minute drive. Why don’t I bike or walk you ask? You try working seven days a week for ten hours a day on the side of a building then tell me you don’t need the extra sleep! Besides, I need my car to sit in while I take my lunch break.

I usually stop in at the BP station on the corner of Barbados and Bealey Ave. to get a coffee on the way to work which puts me in right on time. The guy at the counter says “another flat white then” and I say “yep” and he pours it as I grab a bumper bar for breakfast. Bumper bars are like cliff bars but they taste amazing instead of abysmal. They have oats and dark chocolate with dried apricots. Absolutely amazing to start the day off right.

After I leave the BP station I usually realize that I’m cutting it close so I try to hit the lights green on Barbados until I get to Gloucester St. I take a right and run past Latimer Square. Up until that point it just looks like a regular city. Once you hit Latimer Square everything changes. The first thing you notice is a big gravel and dirt lot on your left. The reason for this is that there used to be buildings in that area. They have all been demolished since the earthquake. I continue down Gloucester until I come up on the Pacific Tower. At that point I turn left into what used to be a hotel. It’s now a big car park for all the construction workers.  I finish off my coffee as I park the mighty oddity with all the other NFM workers. NFM stands for National Facilities Management. None of us can get our heads around that. How does National Facilities Management have anything to do with high ropes specialists? Whatever, I park my car and put on my helmet. I have a yellow helmet with some big safety goggles sitting on the front like something from Rommel’s Afrika Corps. Aside from looking absolutely stunning they help when I bust out the grinder or the hammer drill.

I mosey into the building looking up at the windows to see if the wrapping on them is fluttering in the wind. If it is blowing too hard it can be very hard to get the job done. The job I do requires me to be on a swing stage. This is basically just a big outdoor elevator on the side of the building. We run it up and down with two electric motors attached to cables. For those of you wincing at that thought there are also two additional cables attached to sky locks. These will arrest the swing stage should it suddenly jerk down or exceed a certain speed. They can be very annoying if you’re jumping around a lot.

Upon entering the building I sign in at the front desk. It feels like checking into a hotel that then turns around and makes you work. After signing in I make my way up to the NFM cupboard on level two of the building. There I find my boss who tells me what I will be doing that day. Ninety percent of the time he says I will be on the southeast swing stage. I like it when he says that because it means I know exactly what I will be doing all day. Since I work on that face the majority of the time I have a good idea of what is going on there.

I then suit up for the day. I have a big fall arrest harness that was made by my good friend Lindsay. He owns Aspiring Enterprises in Christchurch. Just as a shameless plug, it is widely regarded that Lindsay makes the best cave suits ever. I’ve worn one in a cave and I will say they’re pretty magical.

After gathering all the materials I need for the day I make my way out to the swing stage and hop on. Me and who ever I am working with will do a jump test to make sure everything is alright then we’ll head up the face to the work area.

My general purpose for being on the side of the building is to repair cracks. Since the earthquake there have been small stress fractures in the building. Our job is to find the cracks and destroy them. That is, fill them in with epoxy resin. The first step in this process is finding the cracks and grinding off all the paint around them. We then drill holes along the crack every 100 mm or so to make sure the resin has a chance to flow freely in the wall. After we use a concrete adhesive called TG to attach injector ports or “nipples” over the holes. Finally we inject resin into the crack. After it has time to set we knock off the nipples and ferring coat over them, prime and get ready for painters to step in to finish them off.

That whole process sounds like it would be rather easy but it takes about a month to get a face done. Since the product we are using was new when we first started working on the south east face, we stuffed it up and have to do it all again. Few people were thrilled about the prospect. Lately I have been going back up the wall between the 4^th and 10^th stage and prepping it for crack injection.

The most annoying thing that can possibly happen is this. You are minding your own business on Halloween just doing the time warp with your flat mate and all of a sudden the ground starts shaking. Then you go into work the next day and find the place you just finished the day before has about two new hairline cracks in it. The entire thing is just completely unfair.

I work from about 7:30 AM until 10:00 AM which is affectionately known in New Zealand as a smoko break. This is the first time in the day I get to see food cart guy. This guy is the best. His prices say he charges $2.90 for a sausage roll but more often than not you’ll walk away with a free drink to go with that. He is an actor but he runs the food cart by day. I told him about Mike’s burgers in Blacksburg VA once and now he has a calling. Every time I see him make a burger he tries to make it bigger and more extravagant than Mike’s. This leaves me with a moral dilemma. I don’t want to tell him he can’t do it but I really want him to keep trying. Once we saw a van roll up behind him that belonged to the city council. We almost rappelled down screaming “death from above” but they weren’t hassling him so we left them alone.

After receiving our food we go to the oddity for a sit and a feed. Usually my buddy Chris comes and hangs out with me. We have fun making fun of our boss and talking about stuff that dumb boys talk about when they don’t have girls to bother them with rational thought. We shoot the shit and talk about dumb boy stuff for a half an hour then hit the stages again.

We work on the edge of the Red Zone, which is very odd. I sometimes look around the side of the building and see the old Cathedral. It’s sad to see it without it’s trademark bell tower sitting all alone in the middle of the Red Zone. A few times a day the red bus makes it’s rounds on the “Beyond the Cordon” tour. This is a trip through the Red Zone. Often we look down and wave as it goes by. People looking up at us always have that look of “are those construction workers waving” like they don’t actually accept that we are real people until we acknowledge them.

The Red Bus riders are not the only disaster tourists we see during the day. Often groups of back packers will walk by our building. Often they will try to pay the parking meter. This behavior is usually met by admonishments from on high as we yell at them not to pay for parking. No one checks the meters in the red zone anyway. Often the tourists are attractive females, which give us something to talk about while we work. Many a time I have sat on the stage injecting talking shit with the other guy there about girls down on the street. Our conversations on the swing stages range to all sorts of different topics, from politics to how bad our socks smell.

The day wears on and at 1:00 PM we get lunch. Often this is a PB&J or something from the food cart. On rare occasions we get belly busters. That means big burgers delivered to us from the center of the Red Zone. None of us have passes so the owner of the cart brings them out to us. Double meat, double cheese, double bacon is the order of the day. Somehow I’m still losing weight… I don’t understand how.

We hang out in the shade then get ready to go back for one last push until 5:00 PM or 6:00 PM. Often the work slows down a little at this point because we haven’t had coffee since breakfast. This will cause any swing stage operator to become lethargic.

Every now and then a rope access guy will drop by and say hi. These are the guys who hang from ropes that are attached to the top of the building. As swing stage operators we are kind of like the bomber pilots of the construction world. The rope access guys are the fighters. They are the coolest construction workers. Often if we meet up with them we’ll offer to let them stand on our swing stage for a bit. Generally we’re all there to help each other out and we all get along real well. They’ll move along and we’ll keep working spinning yarns or listening to the hum and hammer of the drills and grinders that make up our daily routine.

When the day ends we go up to the top of the building to pull up our safety ropes and power cables. This is always the best part of the day because the view is usually very good. From the roof of the building the southern alps are visible along with the port hills and the ocean. Often we sit up there for a little bit and watch the freighters come into Lyttleton harbor. On a sunny day work is truly enjoyable.

Once the cables and ropes are pulled up it’s time to go home. We all come down the building and sign out at the front desk. We all walk out together and get in our last stories or jabs at each other as we go to our respective forms of transport. I get into the oddity and drive home listening to The Sound live at five. This is great because they play two live classic rock songs for my drive home. I usually get home right as they end and hop out of the car.

After that I cook some dinner and shoot the breeze with my flat mates. We watch some TV and I usually talk with Ellen again. This time she is usually just about to pass out on the other end of the line. Sometimes we skype but not often since internet is slow as over here. After that I get a shower and go to bed after doing an ab and core work out. The next day I wake up and do it all again. It’s a simple life but I enjoy it thoroughly. It makes me think about lots of cool things during the day. A few of the other guys read a lot. I still prefer my books on tape but I’m getting back  into reading  over here.

The whole lifestyle is very tiring but I enjoy it very much and I’m learning a lot about construction. It’s comfortable and I’m saving a lot of money for when Ellen comes over in the Autumn. 

Laser Shows And The Like

Well I'm here in Christchurch getting settled in to my job as a crack repair specialist for National Facilities Management. Here are some of the things I've done since the last post!

Jack and I were up on the swing stage two Fridays ago. Every now and then a tourist would come by to witness the destruction of Christchurch and we'd cat call them or yell not to pay the parking meter. The way we figure, if people just started paying the parking meter willy nilly then a precedent would be set for the rest of us to follow. It was a normal day as they go in Christchurch. Find a crack in the concrete, grind it into exposure and then fill it with epoxy resin. This process is much easier said than done mind you. Then something strange happened.

A few van loads of people rolled up. This was more than our usual social interaction allowed for and we didn't really know what to do with them. There were about 50% attractive females in the group so yelling down in a tasteful manner was called for but there were just too many for that. It was an overload of the system! With me being engaged and Jack having a steady girlfriend we decided that our best course of action was to observe from afar to figure out what the deal was.

They looked like College Kids as we know them in the US. Reasonably clueless as to what they were doing and more interested in the social gathering than the task at hand. Deciding we required information that could only be done by close reconnaissance we moved from level 16 to level 5 and started working down there where we could be closer to the action. Then the clock struck 12:30 PM. Time for lunch. We went down and met up with the other NFM boys to decide what we were doing for lunch. Since it was a Friday and we had all recently been paid Burger King was in order. We piled into the Oddity and headed off. Coming back with our Whopper Jr. burgers and fries we realized that the place we had left a sleepy construction site was now a bustling ant hill of worthless university students! Wading through the confusion I asked one of them what was going on. He said it was a meeting of architects from five major universities around New Zealand. They were getting together in the City Centre for a convention in which they would put up non permanent structures centered around lights.

Basically they were designing a giant light show party!

We were excited because, in one way or another, when you look at the City Centre of Christchurch you can't help but be a little sad about how it is a ghost town. This was going to be at least something that we could all go to although we weren't exactly keen on how we'd have to go to work to see it.

Jack and I worked the rest of the day watching them put up their temporary structures. Most of them were just sitting around while a couple did the work. Any one of these kids would have done the Virginia Department of Transportation proud. At 5:00 PM we clocked out for the day. Since we had recently started doing Saturday work we would be there during the finishing stages of the setup for the party.

I got to work on Saturday morning to the sight of new cranes that weren't our crane. There were also lots of workers that didn't appear to be working. They seemed a lot like the people on the inside of the building in that respect. "Try to look like you're working at all times. That way you never have to." I had heard one of the uni students say. We worked all morning watching the students in curiosity as they put up their structures. At noon we all clocked out and I went home for a nap.

That evening I went out to get a Domino's Pizza. You can get a large Pepperoni for $5 which is a steal for food over here. You can also get a Margarita pizza with cherrie tomatoes and pesto for the same price. I like to pretend that it's the healthy option. I picked up one of those and went out to the City Centre just to humor them. I was greeted with throbbing techno music that would have made Mike Futrell giggle like a school girl. The University of Auckland was going no holds bar with that.

Lights of the University of Canterbury next to the Pacific Tower.

My flatmate Glen had not thought anything would come of a bunch of uni students building this stuff. I had to go get him to see his mistake. I got home in a frenzy. "Glen come see!" I exclaimed. We got in the Odyssey and headed back down to the City Centre. We got there and a bunch of people were walking in from a long distance away. I knew better than that. I pulled the mighty AWD Oddity into an abandoned construction site. over a busted water main and parked. "Nice" Glen said in the way only Glen can. We got out to the pounding techno of Auckland right as the sun set. There was my building, the Pacific Tower, with lights all up and down the front of it. These were residual from the giant lighted beams coming out of the Canterbury University light show.

We walked around and saw all the other lights. There was a good kiwi band going in the atrium right outside the cathedral. Other than that it was purely a light show. There was very little music or anything else. Some of the displays were cleverly interactive and served beer or food. Some had little kids playing on them and others soared 50 or 60 feet in the air. There were all sorts of lights used in all sorts of ways. It was something any architect would have been proud of.

More lights outside the Quest building in Christchurch. 

There were some problems that the University students couldn't have accounted for. Christchurch is a city starved of what every city should have. There is no vibrant night life or bustling city centre like there had been. The old city had the cathedral in the very center as a symbol of everything Christchurch. The old cathedral was sitting there within view and deprived of all the light in it's decrepit state. It is beyond salvage. Clearly the city council wanted to keep people from rekindling the old Save The Cathedral initiative. That being said, it would have been better if they had lit the thing up like a Christmas tree for this occasion.

The other problem was the massive crowd. There were choke points in the area where people were just standing. They weren't able to move due to the sheer number of people there. To me this demonstrated the need for a place for the people of Christchurch to gather. They were starved for something to be going on to celebrate. When these unknowing university students put on their lights show it gave the community exactly what it needed. A release from the hum drum life in Christchurch which is not usually a sad or boring place.

That being said, the whole thing was very interesting. The next day at work I realized that there was now an open area through the Red Zone on Gloucester St. After the celebration everything was just a little more open in the Red Zone. Cars now moved through the area in a normal traffic pattern. It just went to show that the people of Christchurch needed something more to focus on than the fact that their city was in ruins. People needed concerts, beach parties and the like.

If there was ever a case for the Arts being taught in schools this is it. People here need the arts to stay sane. The people in Christchurch need things to keep them going while they rebuild. If not the arts then it would appear drugs may take hold. There is already evidence of this around the city. Canterbury Crusaders games also help. The rugby team has quite a following in the city.

Last night I was reminded of this when Glen came in and said "So we're going to the rugby tonight ay?" I said we'd be criminal to not go and off we went. The Crusaders were playing Auckland so Glen had issues. He had formerly lived in Auckland so he was cheering both ways. I myself am a dedicated crusader.

We got our tickets to the game and entered. I went and got fish and chips right off the bat since I was really hungry. I got to my seat right as the National Anthem was sung. It was interesting since first it was sung in Maori then in English. Then like any other sporting event they called the starters for either team as they came onto the field. There was no booing for the Auckland team which I also found interesting. As the game started it appeared that Auckland would hold their own. They scored 10 unanswered points before the Crusaders ever got a try. Then Canterbury took off. Auckland scored a three point penalty kick then the Crusaders scored 38 points in tries and penalty kicks.

The sunset over the port hills was absolutely beautiful and the light coming into the stadium was of the most soft red and purple. The little kids sitting in front of me took an interest in my accent as did their parents. They asked if I was Canadian as most people do.  I proudly responded that I was a Virginian as I always do. At first I thought covering up my nationality was the way to go but not here. The kiwis would rather you step up as what you are then worry about what they think. You'll win more respect being a proud American than a meek one.

Glen and I left the game early to beat the traffic and were surprised when we got to the car. This being the last home game of the year, there were fire works after the game. The launcher was about 100 meters from our car. We watched the fireworks which burst in red, the primary color of the Crusaders. Then we drove home and I fell asleep to a good kiwi movie.

Even though my job is very difficult and my hours are long I'm managing to have fun around it. Even work it's self is great. I am looking forward to being away from this job, however, to see the rest of this amazing country.

The adventure marches on.

Swing Stages

I have been working in Christchurch for a while and I must say it suits me quite well. I wake up every morning at 6:00 AM and get ready, usually talk to Ellen a bit, then go to work at the Pacific Tower. This is the building on which my friends and I are working. I've still been working everyday with George. It's interesting because, although the earthquakes were almost two years ago, the Pacific Tower  is one of the first buildings to go back online. That makes my crew one of the only ones in the town with any real on the job experience. This means we may be able to stay together as a crew after December. I am left with a choice if this comes to pass. Go elsewhere or stay in Christchurch? I may be able to get more interesting work in another place but I like my crew. We can go get a beer after work and it feels a bit like home.

By the end of the first week of working I found a flat. It was a little place in the suburb of St. Albans. The people living with me were older people but all of them were very fun. Writing for the blog has become more difficult because I have less time to think. I'm usually on the swing stage with George most of the day. I usually work 9.5 hours in a day. We are doing crack repair in the side of the building. This involves a lot of power tool use. It's difficult to hold drills and grinders over your head all day and come home awake.

It just so happened that on October 16th one of my flat mates mentioned an All Whites game in Christchurch. The All Whites are the national soccer team in New Zealand. We decided that we couldn't have the All Whites coming to Christchurch and not go. That would just be a travesty. We got off work and got ready to go to the game.

Going felt like going to one of the VT football games. We went in and it turned out we were right behind the goal. The game was the All Whites vs. Tahiti. The Tahitians were favored to win the game. In the first couple of minutes the All Whites had scored a goal. This was unfortunate since we hadn't found our seats by then. I was sad when the All Whites then seemed to go cold. That being said, they played very good defense and kept Tahiti out of the goal. The overhead lights went off right as halftime was supposed to happen.

The weather was being very typical Christchurch. The nice warm day gave way to the very cold windy night. It was a nice cool evening to watch soccer. I noticed that the Kiwis were about like Hokie fans. There were plenty of snarky remarks along with jeers to the ref. A couple of yellow cards later there was a corner kick. The cross came in beautifully and the head ball bounced off the goalie. Then all of a sudden an All White swooped in and scored the goal. The whole stadium went nuts. People blew air horns and vuvuzelas. This was very well received but not quite as much as when an All White came down the center of the field. He placed a kick to the top right corner of the goal and landed the shot perfectly. A keeper's nightmare. The crowd went absolutely wild.  People were jumping up and down and doing what I heard people around me calling the "earthquake". Basically they were banging their feet on the bleachers making a loud noise.

Coming home we talked about the awesome goals during the game. It was nice to be at a big game again. This was a playoff game for a spot in the 2014 world cup. The whole thing was apparently a very big deal. I was just happy to go to a public event with lots of happy people around.

I'm sorry this isn't a longer post but I am having a hard time staying awake. I'll try to do a little better on the next one.

Job Hunting in ChCh

Well I’m back in Christchurch. The hostel I stayed in my first night back was abysmal so it’s just as well that Alice emailed me and told me I was staying with them. I was happy to oblige. Alice is a very good cook although she won’t always admit it. She’s one of those people who “throw it together.” The problem with this theory is that everything she throws together is great. The Shanks-Main family has been gracious enough to let me stay with them until I find a flat. This serves two purposes. I have a wonderful supportive group of people around and it keeps me out of trouble. I also get to talk to Lindsey about his rope techniques.

The first day I was in Christchurch was the day for finding a job. I got an interview for Tuesday the second of October in the construction line. Construction was a moderately interesting choice because it meant that I would get to participate in the rebuild of the city. Another couple of farming jobs came up as well. I went and interviewed for one of them. It was a dairy farm in a beautiful part of the Canterbury plains. When I was there I felt like I really wanted the job. I even offered to take a pay cut but after this I realized that not everyone had been interviewed yet and the owner took it as a slight that I asked him to consider me for early placement in the job. Obviously this did not pan out.

The next day I went into the construction office and accepted the job. The job was not on rope, which made my parents happy. I would be based on a swing stage. It was basically a long, outdoor, elevator. It’s good because the pay was good because I had rope skills, but it was also safe. I even still got to rappel in the weekly emergency drills. 

The first day I showed up at 6:30 AM. I was inducted in the atrium of the building by the foreman and given a harness, hardhat, and orange jacket. I have to admit I was a little excited on a romantic level about the job. I was going to be a part of the effort that would bring the first building in the city centre of Christchurch back online. After two years since the last big earthquake many people were frustrated and had given up hope somewhat. The people of Christchurch were getting very weary of their town being in shambles. Our getting the building back in action would mark a turning point for Christchurch.

There was a big mural of a Phoenix on Colombo St. that I could see on the way to work. It set the tone for how the town was going. They weren’t rising yet but they were fighting hard to get back. Helping in that made me feel like I was in a special time and place.

Walking into work was a very surreal experience. The first thing I noticed was the large atrium of the hotel. Instead of tourists it was full of jack hammer men, cleaners, heavy equipment operators and my people, the high ropes operators. This was odd because the various shops had all been converted into offices and lunchrooms for workers. It looked like a scene out of a dystopian story. Honestly the first thing that came to mind was a zombie movie but with no zombies.

I received orders to go do training on a rappel device and commence work after this was done. My partner and I quickly did the rappelling, which was fun more than anything.  We were busy taping up windows all morning. Another twenty something year old and myself were working on this high rig doing industrial construction work. I always imagined workers as grizzled old guys but many of them were just like me. We made dumb jokes like normal but we were on a scaffold with the best view imaginable. I realized I was one of the only Americans to see the Christchurch cathedral since February 2011. The cathedral was a landmark of Christchurch before the quakes and it was sad to see it in such a dilapidated state. Some of the people here are laboring under the assumption that it can be fixed. They may be right but it looks pretty dismal to see it in the middle of all that construction.

We went down at 10:00 AM to take a break. There was a little food trailer across the street. The guy running the trailer was wearing the fluorescent vest like us. I wondered about that. He didn’t have to do that. He was well beyond the cordon. I got my chicken and went to the break room, which was in an old ice cream shop. After the half hour there we went back up. I noticed lots of people driving past the building and lots of people walking in to see what we were doing. Then I realized that they were watching. It was a very surreal feeling. The people here would never tell you they wanted the building to be done but something seemed to be gravitational about it. If we could get it open by February I would feel much better. Incidentally so would the owners because that was when the insurance would stop paying for the project.

With the windows covered we came down (did I mention this is as safe as an elevator?) to get grinders. These were to find minute cracks in the concrete. We would then go back and fill the cracks with rosin. This sounds boring but with another twenty something guy on the swing stage with you it’s actually hilarious.

For three days we hung on the east face of the building working and cutting up. Eventually the name of our swing stage became the “Speed Stage.” We did all the things required of construction workers such as eating at a food cart and catcalling at girls that we couldn’t actually see due to the two hundred yards between them and us.

On Friday tragedy struck. They kicked us out of the atrium between our building and the one next to us. This was a problem considering all of our gear was there as well as the smoker room. Smoker room is the name of a kiwi break room on the construction site. Never once did I actually see anyone light up in there. The smoker room was what had been a café before the quake. Now workers on break inhabited it. When the high ropes crew had a break it became a mad house. We were all younger men who were keen to do the things younger men do, i.e. act stupid. Our boss Gene was fun too. He was always making goofy jokes and then laughing at them. He was a really nice guy but he was stressed because the company was treating us like dirt.

None of the site managers could do anything about it but the general upper echelon of managers decided they didn’t want us mingling with the people on the other side of the job. Obviously this was stupid but our site managers were insistent they had nothing to do with it. Most of them are good guys so I was inclined to believe them.

Saturday we’re going to have to work to get all of our gear out. We don’t know where we’ll be moving and the general frustration was noticeable. The pace of work slowed considerably in the afternoon due to general low morale. That in its self was entertaining. Much like losing at a Hokie basketball game. You don’t like it, but you grin and bear it.

The end of Friday was a familiar comfort. George (my swing stage partner) and I went down to the pub after work. We sat around much as Phil, Ray and I did on a Friday night at the London Underground back home. Just shooting the shit about work and all the other stuff people talk about in pubs. It was a pretty nice place but it kind of felt like the Applebee’s of pubs. There were fluorescent vests everywhere in the place. It wasn’t nearly dark or dank enough for my tastes but it was comfortable enough. We had a good time sitting there talking sipping some dark beer, which was decidedly not Guinness. George mentioned his dad had a 31-foot racing sailboat. His dad was out of the country at the time. When he gets back George said we might go for a sail. The adventure continues J

Cave Rescue Practice

So I realize that I haven’t posted in a while.  Let me summarize what has happened since my last post. I jumped around from hostels for a while after I left Jane’s house. I finally settled on one I liked. The Paradiso hostel was a nice place. Twenty dollars a night with a hot tub and a sauna is hard to beat. I spent the entire week searching for jobs in Nelson and worrying about stuff at home. There were some very cool people at the Paradiso including a Kiwi named Karl. He was extremely fun and seemed like a copy of Steve Wells and Scott Rapier but from half way around the world. After not finding a job by Friday I figured I needed a vacation. The west coast was the place to be.

A SAREX is a caving practice rescue in New Zealand. On the west coast of the South Island there was a SAREX this weekend. The way they run their rescues here is very different from the way we do it in the US. Cavers work together in a more formal manner. The government gives the cavers money to get rescue gear. This gives them access to some very cool equipment.

I arrived on the west coast on Friday to meet the cavers. I was pretty stressed due to not finding a job but I found Jane at a pub. Normally this would have been an amazing stroke of luck except that there was only one pub in town. Punakaiki is a very small town with two streets. One of those streets is dirt and is right on the beach. The town it’s self is flanked on one side by the Tasman Sea and on the other by a large limestone bluff.

The West Coast

This was the first time I had seen the sun set over the ocean since I was a young child. Everyone in the hostel mentioned seeing the green flash. I had thought that that was only something from Pirates of the Caribbean We all went out on the deck to stare at the sun for a bit. Right as it was about to happen some clouds obscured the sun; “Oh well” I thought, it was still a pretty sunset.

Some of the cavers and I stayed in a small hostel on the beach. There was a person named Carmine from Canada staying in the hostel. A bunch of cavers and I went to the pub and she tagged along. We had a few drinks and talked about the rescue to come in the morning.

The next morning I woke up to find a bunch of people around the kitchen table. They were all discussing techniques and rescues that had happened in the past. At 9:30 we were supposed to saddle up and head to a Department of Conservation hut for a briefing by the incident commander as to the Scenario. Since this was on the West Coast the cavers from that area were in charge. We took a few cars and went up to the cave area. To my surprise there was a large orange bus that said “Search and Rescue.” That money coming from the government seemed as if it was being put to good use.

At first I didn’t have any gear. All I had was the stuff I wore under my suit. I was sitting up at the surface for a long time looking listless when Alice noticed me. She came over and asked what I was doing. I told her of my plight and she started tasking me as she could. Then I was rescued. A large caver came and said he would lend me all of his gear. I got it on and went in on crew 11, which was tasked with basic stretcher handling. Once I got underground I was attached to the Hayphone team. This was a radio that worked through the moisture in the rock to send a signal to another of it’s kind on the surface.

Outside The Rescue Bus at Punakaiki: By Alice Shanks

We dragged the stretcher until the people on the surface called in and told us to come out. The cave, Xanadu as it was called, was a nice little cave but it was known to flood. We made our way out but there were many buffoon sumps to endure. This, for you non-cavers is a group of cavers getting caught in a bottle neck.

We left the cave and all met outside. As cavers are apt to do, we all had a beer on the outside of the cave to congratulate ourselves. We all got back in the cars and left the scene with the victims driving their own vehicle out. I was happy to have participated. Sitting on the surface with nothing to do would have been miserable. It was nice to be useful. It also made me feel like I was on equal terms with everyone around me. Being a strong young man makes it hard to let other people (even when they’re just as strong as you) carry a stretcher. We all went to the only pub in town and got a beer and socialized. There were people from all over the south island there who meshed perfectly. It was weird to thing that this was 90 per cent of the operational cavers on the south island. It was about the same size as a caver party pack home.

The next day I got to drive back to Christchurch to find a job. I went back via Arthur’s Pass. At first the drive felt like I imagine costal California to feel. Then I broke into the mid west and finally the Rockies but all in the space of an hour. Driving up through the pass I was reminded of the Rohan scenes from Lord of the Rings. I thought that maybe some of them were actually filmed here.

The entire time I was looking for a Kia. This is a mischievous type of parrot that is known for tearing up cars. I had heard they were annoying but were also strikingly beautiful. Farmers used to shoot them but now they are protected. They have been known to bother livestock to the point of picking wool out of sheep. Sadly I didn’t see any.

What I did see were two people trying to hitchhike. I’ve been trained since being a little kid not to pick up hitchhikers but these were two backpackers up on the mountain and it looked as if rain was coming. They smiled as I pulled over. I noticed a familiarity as one of them said hi. I asked where she was from and she replied with Indiana and the guy said Colorado. That was a welcome relief. Hearing an American accent out here is kind of like reaching an oasis in the desert. I don’t miss them too much but when I hear them it feels good. They asked where I was going and I said Christchurch. They were more than a little excited at the prospect of a ride all the way home. We drove off the mountain talking about foot ball and the states in general. The girl in the back fell asleep almost immediately. They had just been hiking all around the hills in that region so I could understand. I was grateful for someone to talk to because I was a little tired myself.

We broke out of the hills and onto the Canterbury Plains. In the distance I could see the port hills. Behind us I could see what definitely looked like rain breaking across the mountains. I was glad I had picked them up. The hitchhikers said they had been considering setting up the tent again for shelter. I dropped them off at the University of Canterbury and went on my way. All the stress of finding a job flooded back but this time I had someone who could relate to my situation. The American I was going to meet about getting a job had been in my position before and was happy to help. I checked into a cheap hostel, which was by far the shittiest one I’d been at. I’d sooner sleep in the van than go back to that place. I got up the next morning refreshed and ready to go out and get a job in wasteland of Christchurch. It would be a nice city again someday, but that was a long time in the future. Hopefully I can help. 

Caving in Nelson

Living In Nelson

I shall start off by saying that barbershops are extremely difficult to find in Nelson. I was able to find one after much searching down town. During the interim time I was able to find cave clothes at a thrift store and go shopping at the New World store, which is much like a Food Lion.

Nelson is a very pretty town and is actually slightly reminiscent of Blacksburg. That is, until you find the bay with all the boats, ships, and mussels. The town is built into the hills in a very charming way. Once you get to the bottom of the hills there is a very pretty if not touristy downtown area. Nelson has a host of boutiques and shops. Just past the town is the bay, which has a very cool beach. The tides at Nelson change dramatically. The beach may be 30 feet or a quarter mile wide depending on what time you go.

I finally found the barbershop just in time to get a quick haircut before going to the bus station. I met Jane there because we were supposed to pick up a British caver named Tarn. We didn’t really know what she looked like so I was joking about saying, “we are looking for someone British” into the crowd. Luckily I didn’t have to do this because Jane mentioned her name as she was getting off the bus. She heard us and exclaimed, “Did I just hear my name?”

We did some touristy things that afternoon like going to the geographic center of New Zealand. That was a very pretty walk. The track snakes up a hill at the top of which there is a marker left by the rotary club. From there the entire town of Nelson can be seen along with the bay and the mountains across the bay. The mountains were capped with the last snow of winter. Coming down the hill I realized the communications problems we would have. At times Tarn and Jane would be talking and I’d have no clue what they were saying. All different combinations of that took place throughout the day. At one point Jane said there were Tomos around the cave hut but Tarn misheard and thought there were a lot of homos around the hut. Misunderstandings like this have been pretty common thus far.

After we got down from the center of New Zealand we walked to a shop down town so Tarn could get something for her boyfriend. Jane had to go to paddling practice so Tarn and I went to see the beach. The tide was out at the time so we were able to take a long walk around the tidal flats.

All this time we had been comparing languages. I managed to say fries again and once again I was corrected to chips. The whole thing was quite entertaining. We went to the supermarket to find supplies for caving the next day. I am bad at New Zealand supermarkets but we had fun looking for food for the next day. I educated Tarn about Beg Ben, his stunt utes, his women, and his meat pies. We went home in the Oddity and made calamari for dinner with “chips.” It was nice having someone else in the house. Tarn and I really had fun not understanding each other. At one point she figured out that I would be sleeping on the couch and she would be sleeping on the bed. This was in no way a problem for me since I would often sleep on my own couch in the apartment back in Blacksburg.

Well I’m going to do my first New Zealand cave tomorrow with a Kiwi Caver and a British digging caver. I guess we’ll just have to see how I stack up with the international crowd.

19-9-12

Well two days of caving have been done in NZ now. We went into marble caves in the Takaka Hill region. My caver companions were Jane, Rod, and Tarn. The first cave we did was accessed through “Simply Sumpless,” a little access hole just above a big cave diver entrance that sumped out. The big marble cave was very pretty with lots of walking passage and huge bore hole. The marble is easy to get cut on so gloves were highly recommended which I am not used to.

The entrance to the cave was squeezy passage with lots of down climbing. After it opened up there was a large scree slope with a creek at the bottom. I was informed that if the water was higher than the rocks that the upper part of the cave would be completely flooded.

All in all it was a very fun trip. The caves in NZ are where the caves in the US were 30 years ago in terms of exploration. Most of the really easy stuff has all the trunk passage mapped. This makes for some extremely sporty trips because a person can stroll into a cave and go off the map without crawling very much. We did just this.

Tarn, being from the UK, was very keen to put herself into little holes that I wouldn’t even think of attempting. More often than not she would find something interesting. I was walking and felt some serious airflow going into a little hole near the bottom of the wall. I unsuccessfully pushed it but Tarn went in and said she could hear water as it petered out. We went to the next hole and pushed that too. Rod found another hole on the side of the passage and Tarn was immediately in it like some sort of hungry weasel. I found her light and went down to the passage myself via a different route. We pushed on until we came to a canyon that seemed to run parallel to the main chamber. Tarn and I went down this passage exploring leads and doing down climbs as we came to them with Rod and Jane on our heels. Later Jane mentioned to us that if we had managed to find anything interesting it could have lead to another close cave system. This would have doubled the size of the cave and made international caving news since these were huge cave systems to begin with. As it was, we found about 200 meters of un-surveyed passage and some really cool leads. Not bad for a sport trip.

Jane and I Surfing Simply Sumpless

The even better aspect of the trip came when we were all together in the car. We had noticed that we had different words for EVERYTHING. The Kiwis and Brits have a similar lexicon but American English can be a different language. Instead of rappelling the Kiwis and Brits abseiled. Instead of pits they had pitches. We went through these words as we heard them in speech. I was especially fond of the way Tarn said the word party. She described it as a very posh way of saying it, which I can only assume means she says it fancy-like. I told her that Americans actually loved British accents. It is sort of a secret American pleasure to hear British people talk. Every now and then Jane and Tarn would say something that sounded like it was a foreign language to me. At one point she said “upper class” and I responded with “Apricots?!?” These little language snafus caused the whole feel of the trip to be very whimsical.

On Wednesday we went into Summit Tomo and did a bit of vertical (SRT) caving. Tarn did not usually do SRT work because in the UK they don’t have many large pitches. Most understandably, Tarn was a little uncomfortable with the pitch at hand. “Why not?” I thought. It was a rather large pitch (over 100 meters) with a re-direct and a re-belay. She didn’t feel comfortable going down so I bounced it with Jane and we came back up. Tarn was apologizing the rest of the day but I actually thought more of her for the whole thing. After all, every caver that is worth anything has had those moments. She called it a white whale in reference to Moby Dick. I suppose we all have our white whales. Mine is a certain cave in Scott County VA called Wonderland. Anyway, for all of those non-cavers out there, I say it takes much more guts to say you’re not comfortable with something than to get in over your head and that is the life lesson for the day.

After summit Tomo we went and did another cave (summit cave I think). This was one that we entered by following a stream through one hill, out the other side then into the next hill. We went about 200 meters until it sumped out. I was in the back when I was told to shut off my light. I did so and looked on the roof to see hundreds of “stars.” These were glowworms. They were very helpful for figuring out the outline of the cave even with all the lights out.  I have to admit I did get a bit sentimental at that moment. Sitting there looking at the glowworms my mind started to drift back across the ocean to Virginia. I missed my fiancé Ellen, my family (Sasquatch included), those two knuckleheads Peppy and Rapunzel along with all the other tubas, and of course all my VPI cavers. My kiwi friends were wonderful but there is no substitute for looking to your left and seeing El Cabron while being flanked on your right by Awesome Bill from Dawsonville.

Of course then the lights came back on and Rod’s smiling face was there (remember Rod? This is a song about Rod. [10 points for getting the reference].) We caved out and walked back to the car. All in all it was a very enjoyable day of caving. Riding home in the back of the van Tarn apologized again for not wanting to do the pit. I thought, “if only you knew how many holes you went down that I wouldn’t dare touch.”

After a short time in Summit Cave we left and cleaned up the hut we had been staying at. The Nelson Speleological Group (NSG) has a hut on top of Takaka hill. Takaka is near Abel Tasman National Park on the South Island. We had been staying at the hut while we were in the area. After we moved out we went to look around the park. Most of the area seemed to be a mixture of dry bush and tropical rainforest. Climate changes don’t happen that often in the US so the whole thing was very novel. We wanted to go to a tourist attraction called the split apple rock. When we got there Tarn exclaimed that it looked like a pair of breasts in that way that only a British person could. Apparently you have to go around the beach to make it look like a split apple. 

The beach at split apple was totally deserted. Jane, Tarn and I took full advantage of this fact and went traipsing all over. The sand was a black and tan color and on the north side of the beach there were little sea caves. We wondered around the area a little while and took some pictures. We were being tourists after all!

Tarn and I at Split Apple

We finished up in Abel Tasman and got some Chinese take out. To keep the food warm we put it on the dashboard and turned up the defroster to keep it warm. The Oddity has a defroster that would boil water given the chance. This is one of it’s many redeeming qualities. We got back to Jane’s house and watched “The Men Who Stare at Goats.” During the movie Tarn told me about her boyfriend back in Britain and how she missed him. I thought about Ellen. I’m having fun but I’ll be having more fun when she shows up.

On Wednesday it was time to clean gear. Jane showed Tarn and I the hose and we washed it all off. We were as careful as you would expect young college aged people to be. As a result we were pretty wet by the time we got done. Tarn was supposed to leave that day so I had agreed the day before that it was madness to catch a bus to Blenheim early and then wait around for two hours at the train station. Instead we took the Oddity so we could have adventures. We were driving along up route six when we saw a sign for Hori Bay. It was 14 km and it said you needed a four-wheel drive. Luckily for us I happen to know that the Oddity is the pinnacle of off-road technology. Nothing the Japanese made in 1995 can compare with it’s awesome Minivan power. It has a brush guard for God’s sake! It really is the honey badger Narwhal vehicle of the east.

Tarn said, “Hori Bay! Do you think there are whores there?” I replied, “Only one way to find out!” and off we went. We wound up through the hills to a mountaintop on a road that was not much different than the forest service roads of my childhood. It was much like going up to Sarver’s Cabin in the Jefferson National Forest. We got to the top of the mountain and found what appeared to be a skid pad. Being a young male I decided a handbrake turn was necessary. (As a side note to Ellen, I know how you’ll react to this but I assure you that I know you think handbrake turns are the coolest things boys can do. Your denial of this fact just proves my point further.) It has been proven by top scientists at “Top Gear” that females love the handbrake turn. Tarn did the obligatory eye roll and we continued on down the mountain

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The view was stunning. There was the Tasman Bay to the left and Cook Strait in front of us going out to the Tasman Sea. There were mountains sprinkled on the scenery of deep blue water. As we drove down the mountain we could see Hori Bay, the anticipation was growing. “Why would they choose to put a 14 km road through the wilderness if not for something grandiose” I thought? We got down to the bay and discovered a little pebble beach with a creek running through it. Tarn and I both broke out laughing. It was the most mundane beach we had ever seen. Still, we had a rock skipping contest which I won with a total of one skip (we both suck at skipping rocks apparently). We hopped back in the Oddity and went on to Blenheim stopping at another park on the Pelorus river. Here Tarn showed me a sliver fern. I realized that I had been looking for actual silver ferns this entire time but actually the silver bits were on the bottoms of the leaves. Not my most intelligent feeling moment. We saw a woman meditating next to the river and decided to slink away so as not to disturb her. We got to Blenheim bitter cold rainy afternoon. To kill time we got baked goods at the shop near the bus station. I tried a custard square for the first time and we had our last argument about what custard was supposed to be. We had been having little arguments about pronunciations and word meanings since we had met. As the bus came I helped her load her humongous rucksack and gave her a quick hug.

I have to admit I felt pretty low. Tarn had been a fun companion the past few days. She was very friendly and always up for a random adventure. It was easy to hang out with her too because she had a very committed boyfriend back in the UK who she was obviously very excited about seeing. We found comfort in each other’s missing of a significant other. I had mentioned to her, for instance, that every time I saw a plane touch down at Nelson airport I thought, “I wish Ellen was on that plane.” But alas, NZ is a land much like Gatlinburg. To the law of fast friendships we all must abide. I exchanged email addresses with her and we made plans to visit each other (I told her to bring her boyfriend to the VPI Cave Club float trip, he and I could bro out while her and Ellen rolled eyes, standard procedure). It was nice having someone gracing the passenger seat of the Oddity. But it was now empty and the next new friend could have their chance to ride the mighty AWD Oddity. In a few months it would be Ellen but until that, who knows?

Tarn, Rod, Jane, Me, at the entrance of Summit Cave. 

Blenheim and Nelson

Well I finally have some internet that will allow me to upload things without booting me! The following is a lengthy and largely unedited set of notes that I've taken from Blenheim. It's all I've had time to do. You will also be happy to know that a camera charger has been procured! Sorry for not blogging too much but the internet hardly exists in New Zealand. I'm in the Nelson Library right now so I have enough bandwidth to actually upload! Here are the notes from Blenheim.

Going to Blenheim

10-9-12

This morning I went to the library as usual. I decided that I was tired of Christchurch for a little while. I saw a job painting a hostel in Blenheim. I figured what the hell. Might as well get out and see some of the country. I hadn’t done that yet so it seemed as if the time was ripe. The drive to Blenheim was beautiful. Rolling up the coast I passed mountains and picturesque seasides. Most of the little inlets had a very pretty town in them. As I drove I noticed the weather getting worse until I hit Blenheim. The weather here changed for the worst quite quickly. I got to the hostel and checked in. The lady at the desk told me that they wanted me to do two hours of painting per night I stayed. I have to say that I imagined this little cool seaside town. Blenheim is not a cool seaside town. Cool yes, but it’s a working town. The major industry there is wine making. There is a lot of work but its long hours at minimum wage. Often it rains which made it even more fun here. I talked to the landlord and the two hours I would work should have been paying me 14 dollars an hour. Rooms at this place went for $24 a night or so. Not a bad deal really. The hostel was run down but not too bad for what you were getting. They washed your bedding for you and provided showers wash and a place to cook with all the accouchements.

The people at this hostel were very cool. The first thing that happened were a group of people asked me if I wanted to go to Domino’s for pizza. The car ride to the $5 dinner was a hodge podge of nationalities from British to Argentinean and everything in between. We entered the Domino’s from the parking lot exit since we were degenerate backpackers. As it turns out these people were all there working on vineyards wrapping vines. Very hard farm work so I felt kind of bad that all I was doing was painting. At dinner I met some Irish people and some English. The general coconscious was that people wanted to leave but weren’t savvy to the jobs down south. I talked to an Englishman named Chris for a few hours then went to bed.

12-9-12

After staying there a few days I began to realize the method to the madness. There is a day and night shift. Some people sleep at day and work at night and vice versa. The ones there during the day were preferable. I also found out that if you are English this is a form of servitude that can win you an extra year in NZ. Working in the agriculture industry for three months gives you an extra year if you’re from the UK. All the people were there paying their dues (except the Germans, I have no idea why they were in Blenhiem.)

Painting the doors of the place was a fun job. Very relaxed since I really only HAD to work two hours a day. I worked more to build up nights of stay. Since Chris had lost his car due to engine failure I figured I’d just give them to him. I offered to take him south but he liked the job security he had there. I’ll see if I can find a job opening for him then try again before I leave. There is an urge to take as many of these people as I can when I go. It’s a pretty sad place really. The people are exceedingly friendly though. The owners of the hostel are very friendly and I could tell they were doing everything they could to provide quality housing while still turning a profit. The other people staying there thought it was pretty bad though, at least compared to what they were used to in places like Auckland.

The mix of different people in the hostel was interesting as well. One of them was an Iranian. Me being from the US and him being from there made things shaky at first but then I realized that he was just a little off. The Iranian was a really nice guy but he had a tendency to talk to people who weren’t there. Generally everybody was a little nervous of him.

All the people from the UK and America usually hung out with some of the Germans. There were also a couple of Mexicans and an Argentinean. You couldn’t help but like them. Everyone working under such adverse conditions seemed to make them closer in Blenheim. Dinners were a lively affair and everyone got along really well. The hostel also had no divisions of boys and girls. I happened to be in a room with two other boys but girls and boys shared rooms and even one big bathroom.

On the night of Sept. 12 I made a big pot of chili. People went for that really well. The English and the Germans especially liked it. The other American also made biscuits and gravy. This greatly interested our European counterparts. As we sat around eating biscuits and gravy with chili I reflected on the different nationalities around the room. Every continent was represented in that room. It was a very refreshing scene. We discussed euphemisms late into the night.

A few days later I got invited to go to an Irish pub by the weekend manager. It was just like going to the London Underground back home. The pub was a very relaxed place. We had beer and talked at length about our respective homes and families. We walked home by the river that runs through Blenheim, which was a very pleasant place

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On Friday I walked up into the hills. I was originally only meaning to go a little way because I had a mountain bike to pick up at 4:00 PM so I was really just killing time. The day was pleasant and I saw a person up the hill from me. Now it was a race. It wasn’t to him though so I caught him rather quickly. The guy was a Malaysian as I found out when we got to the top. The other cool thing about the top of that hill was that I could see the north island from there. Another interesting thing was that there was a water fountain at the top of the mountain. This was helpful since I didn’t have any water with me. I took a look from the top and started down. The boots I had just bought from the Warehouse (which is basically walmart) were total crap, I thought as I made my way down the mountain. Luckily they only cost $30 so I could afford to try again. The way back down took a long time so I went to get the bike and then went straight back to the hostel. I got there just in time to paint “The Zoo” on the door before everyone got home.

We had a nice party that evening but the next morning I woke up and realized that it was time to be in Nelson. I gathered my things and said my goodbyes  then departed Blenheim. I realized, as I left, that I would miss it more than I had thought I would. Driving out through the wine country was a nice end to my stay there. I drove through the mountains and eventually arrived in Nelson. I got some fish and chips for lunch and then went to find a caver named Jane. When I found her she took me to see some other cavers in the region. We ate dinner with the president of the NZSS. The weather was extremely rainy and abysmal but the company was very nice. I did miss the people at the hostel though.  

This ends the poorly written notes. They were mainly just late night scratching and spare time thoughts. 

Today (16-9-12) has been a really nice day. Jane and I woke up and talked for a while about the ways of the world then we went to town. We walked around to the numerous outdoor stores looking for a sleeping bag, which I was too foolish to bring. I thought before coming that I would just buy things when I got here but as it turns out NZ is much more expensive than the US. Also they don't have hot sauce... damn. Back in the hostel in Blenheim a guy went so far as to spend $100 to get a gallon of Franks Hot Sauce shipped to him with some Bisquick. The internationals were awestruck by biscuits and gravy. 

Nelson is a beautiful town. It is in a large protected bay. On the other side of the bay is the Able Tasman national park. Near this park is Takaka hill which is where the Nelson Speleological Group has their hut. We are going over there this week to do some caving. Yes I am finally going caving. The NSG has vertical gear for a very reasonable price for hire so I am able to go vertical caving on the cheap. 

Nelson is also where I am settling down and looking for serious work before Ellen gets here. I will probably end up across the bay looking for a kayak tour guide job or something. 

The next upload should have pictures so I can finally show people what NZ looks like!

Dan