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