Aaaaaand the moment you've all been waiting for: THE KIWI FRUIT THINNING BLOG!
Two weeks ago I wake up at 6 am to start working by 7am on a kiwi fruit orchard. And I'm told that everyone works 10 hour days. Wooooah. So, we work from 7-5:30, with two 15-minute "Smoko" breaks (from taking a smoke break, but we use it to refuel with food...) and a paid 30-min lunch. Yes, it is a long day. 10 hours is what you have to work, at $12.50 minimum wage, after taxes, to walk away with about $100 at the end of the day. I think out of the 12 days I worked, only 2 of them were ten hours, because the job is highly weather dependent. But even 8 hours of looking at kiwis all day is exhausting.
So, here's what we do: We stand under the kiwi vines, which is kind of like a canopy, so you kind of have to squat if the bay is too low. (the work area is set up in square bays, and many bays make up a row, and the set of rows make up a block, so the seven of us (six Germans and me) would work usually a row to ourselves, finishing a bay at a time, until the block was finished, then move onto another block.) You look at all the kiwis hanging down, for rows and rows and rows, and pick off all the "bad fruit". This is the fruit that doesn't look like what we see in the grocery store- perfectly oval, long kiwis. Turns out that kiwis can grow into all sorts of shapes, and this is pretty much what kept me slightly intrigued by the job after the first few hours. There are the kiwis that are too round or slightly square, but then there are crazy ones that look like pumpkins, or four leaf clovers, or decapitated snowmen, or Gonzo, or a bunny rabbit... seriously, we saw the weiiiirdest kiwis. We also had to take off ones that had 'hooks', which was like a little piece of peeling wallpaper that could break off in a crate of kiwis and make everything rot. Yeah, so thats bad and it needed to go. So if we see this bad fruit we need to drop it- which you cant do just by pulling, you kind of have to flick it from the vine, in a motion not unlike turning on a faucet.
We were all pretty amazed at how much fruit is left on the ground, it seemed really wasteful. We all wanted to know why we couldnt just let everything grow? But our boss says its not really up to them, its all of society that wants to buy a perfect kiwi or apple or whatever. And she's right to an extent- I know I look for the best bananas, but I also love getting big fruit, so I just wish we weren't conditioned to wanting to eat just one shape. Maybe an orange shaped like the White House would be hard to peel, but that would be so cool! I mean, in Japan they now engineer watermellon to be square, so, why not goofy kiwis?
The job is really weather-dependent. It rains a lot here, and if the vines are too wet, you cant work really, because you just get rained on every time you pick a kiwi, ugh. We often worked just 10 minutes drive by car (we carpooled from the hostel), but sometimes we would have to wake up at 5:30 to catch a 6:30 van to Edgecumbe, an hour away, to start work by 7:30. Going out to Edgecumbe always got us in a foul mood because we didnt get paid for the travel time, so could only work an 8 hour day when we always intended on working 10. But once youre out there youre stuck, so one day it starts pouring less than an hour into work, and we just had to stop until the rain did. But we didnt go home. Nope. We worked. And we all brought our rain coats but the water runs right down and onto your pants wherever the coat ends. So we all looked like we wet ourselves by the end of the day. The vines dry off within an hour of the rain stopping usually, as long as the sun comes out, but you're still soaked or really damp and unhappy for the rest of the day. Part of the joys of the job, I guess.
Thinning could be pretty nervewracking, though, because our boss, Rachel, would sometimes show up and look at the fruit we picked on the ground and come over with an armful of the good fruit that we had accidentally picked. For me, it was REALLY difficult to tell sometimes what was good and bad fruit- it seemed to look different on the vine than it did on the ground, and even sometimes on the ground I would argue that a fruit truly looked square to me. Rachel would always say 'If you're unsure, just leave it on the vine'. But then I would go too far and the next day she'd say I wasnt taking enough off the vine... argh! I just felt like I couldnt win! And honestly, by the fourth hour all the fruit started to look the same and it just felt so endless...
One day another supervisor actually had us do the fruit round up, where we went into each others' bays and do a line up of the good and bad fruits. On this day we all royally sucked and all of us had picked off waaaay too much good fruit. I didnt realize how bad it was- I just figured that because there was always tons of good fruit that would keep growing it wasnt a big deal, but our supervisor Penny let us know that if each of us in this one bay cost the orchard one tray of good kiwis picked too early, that could be as much as $20 in one bay alone. Multiply that by each bay in a row and all the rows in a block... it was not good. As bad as we felt, what it really did was help me to see how to look at the hanging kiwi fruit and make much better decisions about what was considered good or not, because I was honestly struggling with the work. I mean, this was a pretty boring job but we were making decisions the entire time so we really had to pay attention all day. But I WAS paying attention and still not getting it, so this day was really helpful. I actually wished we had done it sooner, because three days later we finished working...
And, truly, though it was boring, it could have been a much worse job. I was with really nice Germans (though some of them spoke German in front of me and then even the ones that were really great about speaking English to me and around me would sometimes respond in German and it was super awkward always asking whaaaaat or just feeling like I couldnt contribute to the conversation..) and our boss Rachel was really nice even when we sucked at the job. She would bring us treats a lot, like fresh watermelon and once she brought some smoked fish and pipis (mussels), and on a hot day she bought us ice cream cones, another day let us jump in the river with our clothes on, and on the last day she got us cream pastries. We loved her so much that we printed out a picture of all of us with the phrase 'Dont drop the good fruit!' and 'Kiwi Thinning Crew 2010' and all of our names signed on the picture frame. We brought it to her house and she was so pleased that she offered us all beer and showed us pictures of her daughter's wedding. She said we were like a second family, and reminded her of her daughters, so even though maybe we werent the best thinners she knew that we were earnestly trying and we were pleasant to talk to. She said we could come work for her come picking time again, and a few of the girls are keen to return, I think.
It's funny, I've actually kind of missed working this week. there was something nice about the comraderie of waking up at the crack of dawn and groggily eating cereal and getting together smoko snacks and lunch for the day, and tossing each other random siamese twin kiwis that we found in our bay throughout the day. Im FINALLY leaving Opotiki tomorrow, we all waited for some of the girls to get packages from home, and it was a mistake to not work because we're all living at the hostel but not working, and theres not much to do here. Or, like, really anything. We've watched a lot of movies and gone swimming in the river, and been to the beach a few times, but its really time to go. At least in the down time Ive applied for the GeoCorps program to be a summer tour guiding intern in the US National Parks, and I just sent in an application to work as a tour guide at the Franz Joseph Glacier on the south island, so the down time wasnt completely useless. But it still would have been nice to make money, even if it is, as the only other non-German in the hostel puts it, a shit job.
Hey, at least I have stories. And a new appreciation for perfect fruit. Now I can look at the kiwi fruit in the supermarket and say tsk tsk, this is a bad fruit! Or see that it was picked in NZ and say hey, I helped!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Germans!
I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm pretty damn sure that there are no more Germans in Germany, because they all seem to be in New Zealand.
I currently live at Central Oasis Backpackers in Opotiki, because I am working on a kiwi orchard. Story for another blog. But almost the entire hostel is German: German owners, 8 long-term backpackers, and almost every night there are one or two more German backpackers that stay for just the night. Then there's me, the lone American, and it's the strangest thing to not speak the most spoken language in a backpackers in an ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRY. There's also Silvio, an Italian man that works on another orchard that stays here, and he speaks to me so thats nice. Not that the Germans don't talk to me or anything, I really like them! they just speak German to each other all freakin day and it gets a little frustrating, especially working on the orchard... There used to be another Italian, 2 French guys, and a Brazillian girl, but they all left for the East Cape on Monday, so Im stuck with all these Germans. And Silvio. And it's just funny.
We're all planning on caravaning to the East Cape next week, since we all really enjoy each other's company. Me and many Germans. Freddy swears they'll talk more in English, he's actually pretty upset that they're not trying harder to include me. He's so good to me. After the East Cape Freddy and I will stop by Napier/Hastings for a night, then down to Wellington for a while. It'll be my third time to Windy Welly, but it's okay since I didn't spend any time at the Te Papa museum, which deserves a full day. I will also have to deal with my ruined passport (bug spray exploded in my backpack on the Tongariro/Mt Doom trek, and you cannot see my face, it's completely blue. how pathetic. As my sister puts it "You really have no luck with passports, do you?" since this will be my second passport acquired abroad (my other was stolen in Argentina)) and my big backpack, whose zipper broke earlier this week (aaargh I just have no luck with THINGS! Did I mention my phone is broken too? argh argh argh) so I'll either have to get the zipper replaced or get a new backpack. But it shouldn't be too painful, and we'll get to stay with friends we met at Big Day Out, and then at some point I'll be headed to the south island again. Chances are Freddy and I will travel together until March, when he wants to start working as a fruit picker, and I'll want to start traveling with VIRGINA, who comes in that first week of the month, weeeeeeee! We're planning on doing all kinds of treks... tramping! Woo!
In my upcoming blog: all about kiwi fruit. Joy of joys.
I currently live at Central Oasis Backpackers in Opotiki, because I am working on a kiwi orchard. Story for another blog. But almost the entire hostel is German: German owners, 8 long-term backpackers, and almost every night there are one or two more German backpackers that stay for just the night. Then there's me, the lone American, and it's the strangest thing to not speak the most spoken language in a backpackers in an ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRY. There's also Silvio, an Italian man that works on another orchard that stays here, and he speaks to me so thats nice. Not that the Germans don't talk to me or anything, I really like them! they just speak German to each other all freakin day and it gets a little frustrating, especially working on the orchard... There used to be another Italian, 2 French guys, and a Brazillian girl, but they all left for the East Cape on Monday, so Im stuck with all these Germans. And Silvio. And it's just funny.
We're all planning on caravaning to the East Cape next week, since we all really enjoy each other's company. Me and many Germans. Freddy swears they'll talk more in English, he's actually pretty upset that they're not trying harder to include me. He's so good to me. After the East Cape Freddy and I will stop by Napier/Hastings for a night, then down to Wellington for a while. It'll be my third time to Windy Welly, but it's okay since I didn't spend any time at the Te Papa museum, which deserves a full day. I will also have to deal with my ruined passport (bug spray exploded in my backpack on the Tongariro/Mt Doom trek, and you cannot see my face, it's completely blue. how pathetic. As my sister puts it "You really have no luck with passports, do you?" since this will be my second passport acquired abroad (my other was stolen in Argentina)) and my big backpack, whose zipper broke earlier this week (aaargh I just have no luck with THINGS! Did I mention my phone is broken too? argh argh argh) so I'll either have to get the zipper replaced or get a new backpack. But it shouldn't be too painful, and we'll get to stay with friends we met at Big Day Out, and then at some point I'll be headed to the south island again. Chances are Freddy and I will travel together until March, when he wants to start working as a fruit picker, and I'll want to start traveling with VIRGINA, who comes in that first week of the month, weeeeeeee! We're planning on doing all kinds of treks... tramping! Woo!
In my upcoming blog: all about kiwi fruit. Joy of joys.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Big Weekend Out
Weds Jan 13: Travel from Nelson to Picton, then take the interislander ferry from Picton to Wellington. It's so sunny and I sit outside for a while taking pictures of the Marlbourough Sounds as we pass. I try to breathe in the fresh sea air, but it just smells like french fries. I read my awesome book. Arrive in Windy Welly around 9pm, share a taxi with two girls from the Netherlands into town. German friend Julia picks me up, after texting several times "I'm already drunk, and climbing up a mountain pretending to be Golem..." and we drop off my things in her room. It's surprisingly warm in Welly tonight, so I put on a dress and I'm completely fine. We walk to Mt Victoria, which has a gorgeous view of the city, and I meet some of Julia's Kiwi friends. We have a dance party waiting for other friends to join us. We go back to Julia's apartment for cookies and ice cream. Ugh, I've eaten crap all day, and I have no real food left, ugh, but it's soooo good. Julia wants me to stay out all night, it's already close to 11:30, but I push aside sleepiness to party. We hit up the Basement (bar under BASE hostel), The Library (REALLY awesome jazz club, but we missed the last set :( we get 2 for 1 drinks, several rounds of a delicious peach thing called a Sweetie Pie, and a "Randy Savage" which tastes like a gingerbread cookie) (also there are actually shelves with books on the wall, I like this bar and want to go back..) then 3 bars in a row for dancing, but around 1:11 am I'm exhausted and need to crash. Julia is disappointed, but we say we will get breakfast in the morning.
Thurs Jan 14: We wake up at 10, hoping to get out quickly, but it's after 11 when we finally leave the house, and we say we just need to go to the train station since my bus leaves at 12. It's half an hour's walk, and the weight on my back starts to make my arm go numb. But we get to the train station, my bus is at platform 9 (and there's a Platform 9 3/4 there!) and I see the girls from the taxi the night before. Say bye to J, and get some trail mix from the in-station supermarket, and start my long, hot journey on the bus to Rotorua. I talk to the girls from the taxi, they say they are headed to Taupo to do the Tongariro Crossing, and I tell them it's super awesome (I don't think I ever posted about that, did I? Some time I'll have to do a massive post with all the stuff I've forgotten to blog about...) and then they're headed to Auckland for a night and then off to Thailand. I am wanting to go with them. Meet Sean on the last leg of the bus ride (I'm sweating so badly by the 3rd hour, imagine hour 6...) who asks what I'm doing in NZ, and I say I've just applied to a job at the glaciers on the south island. "Aren't you going the wrong way?" he asks. "Yeah, but I'm going to Big Day Out." "REALLY? Me too!" and then we geek out about all the bands we want to see. He tells me about Kasabian, and I tell him about Girl Talk and Peaches, neither of which I've seen but have heard pieces of (thanks to Ben Sullivan and Lisa :D ). We part, saying maybe we'll see each other at Muse, but know we really won't.
I finally get to Rotorua, and text my friend Freddy "Smells like Rotorua!", because of all the sulfur in the air, yummmm eggs. He picks me up and we just rush each other in pure happiness that we get to meet again and FINALLY get to BIG DAY OUT! We get fish and chips and I feed him in the car. We catch up, only getting to tell each other parts of our stories since last we saw each other 2 months before, on Halloween. We also realize that we've only really known each other for like, 2 days, but we somehow feel like we've known each other forever. How cool is that, feeling like I've met my little brother, but he's German? Anyway, we pull into Mission Bay around 11:30pm, where our English friend Helen lives, on Komaramara Road (aaargh Maori street names!)- it's the rich part of town. She's snagged an amazing job in an architecture firm, and is renting in a GORGEOUS house. She has saved us some leftover BBQ from her friends that night, who came up from Wellington, also to go to the concert tomorrow. We are all ecstatic to see each other, I also saw Helen last on Halloween, but she and Freddy traveled together for several weeks, so it was less long for them. We go to bed (me sharing with Helen, Freddy on the floor) so excited for the next day.
FRIDAY JANUARY 15
OMG it's really here.
We wake up at 10 am, make pancakes (which are really crepes, but all those European-types call them pancakes..), take our time, and are eventually out the door just before 2pm, which was a little stupid since the concert started at 12pm. We don't make it to the stadium until after 3pm, and though we didn't miss anyone that we wanted to see, I still wish we had gotten up a little earlier so I could have checked out some bands I'd never heard of. Those are the best, sometimes, really. But, anyway, we figured we'd beat some of the crowds this way, so it wasn't terrible getting there by bus and train from Helen's house. We walked quite a ways, but the crowds weren't too massive. That is, until we get inside.
We are met by the fairgrounds of Big Day Out, and dear god is it big! 45,000 people. (Not sold out either- all the next BDO's in Australia are completely sold out... woah.) There are 7 stages, but the three main ones are in the center of the grounds.The Boiler Room is a big tent, where all the body heat gets trapped, and it's just a huge rave. The Orange and Blue stages are literally right next to each other on the field, and as soon as one band ends on Orange the next one starts on Blue. It's a pretty great system.
We wait in line to get "drinking age verified" wristbands, which I end up not even using because alcohol is expensive and very difficult to obtain (so many lines...), and head over to the Blue Stage to see Kasabian, who Sean had told me about. They were pretty good, and I wished that it wasn't so loud so that I could actually hear more of it. My Welsh roommate Gaz, from BASE, was already at the stage, and it was really good to see him again. Met his gf from Argentina, but there was no time for me to try to talk to her since it was loud and, well, I didn't really care right then about practicing mi espanol.
We parted at the end of the set because I wanted to head to the Boiler room for the end of Girl Talk and then stay on for Peaches right after. aaaaaaaaaaaah it was so amazing! I'm telling you, this stage was like a rave- the body heat was intense, and as soon as you step into the tent you're hit with a wave of sweat and hot people. You just get used to being kind of sticky, and it doesn't matter much where you end and the next person begins. Girl Talk is just one guy that does mash-ups of existing songs, so like putting Kelly Clarkson up with the beats of Usher, or 50 Cen't lyrics with Elton John in the background. It's insane! And really good. The whole crowd was rocking out, it was like 40 minutes of seamless dance music. And the guy was rocking out on stage too, pulled lots of people from the audience to dance on stage with him, and it was an amazing party. I would see him again in a heartbeat, a sweaty good time.
Peaches was CRAZY. She's what Lady Gaga wishes to be. She comes out covered in army netting so you can't see her face and does her first song completely covered, only her legs show. And her band is in this weird S&M get up so you can't see their faces either behind the leather strips... And she takes off the net after the first song and she's got like half shaved head and bleach blonde mohawk hair... she was nuts, and such a strong "EFF YOU" personality, and a good voice. Man hater rock. Kicking over monitors just because. I like that from time to time. Would definitely see her again. Only caught 3 songs because I had to pee, so i waited in line for the toilet, then waited in line for water, then waited in line for greasy food.
Then I braved the crowd to head down to the field, where I was meeting Freddy so we could camp out to see Muse at 9:15pm. It was about 6:30pm, but we knew eeeeeveryone was going to see Muse, so we needed to get our spots early. It was quite a mission to get there though; forging through the crowd was the most intense experience. It was literally a sea of people, and I couldn't move. I just moved my feet and moved with the crowd. Kind of like the EAC in Finding Nemo where the current just takes you along and then drops you off somewhere else... it was weird. Find Freddy and Helen and a bunch of friends of each, our "crew", and we head into Blue Stage.
Dizzie Rascal was playing on Orange, and the crowd was "Jump! Jump! Jump!"-ing like nuts. And they were wearing Lakers jerseys so I felt like I was in LA, which was surprisingly welcome. Lily Allen comes on from 7-8, and we were heading into Blue then, but for Muse, and I say "I hope no one thinks I'm heading in for Lily Allen..." We get jostled and squeezed through the turnstiles and into Blue stage, "Yes! We made it! Now we just hold our ground here and wait for Muse..." and had to try to creep around all the tall people. It ended up not being an issue, the crowd eventually settled into the right arrangement so that we could all see the stage.
Lilly Allen was...interesting. I don't love her music, I really can't stand the Cockney accent, but damn are her songs catchy. She was D-RUNK on stage, which I found disrespectful, but at least it was entertaining. She shows up in a pink dress, leaves in her hair (wood nymph attempt?) and these TALL black stilletos, which came off after only a few songs. And she lit up two cigarettes throughout her set. Whatever. I found myself amused from time to time, as she was stumbling all over the stage. And she would ramble on introducing her songs "So, this song is what you might dedicate to someone who's really pissing you off. A boss. A boyfriend or ex girlfriend. A best friend... whoever..." hahahaha you're wasted, Lily! I got Freddy on my shoulders at one point, that was kind of fun. Anyway, it just passed the time for us. Then Mars Volta played from 8-9, and I HATED IT. Noise, and not good noise. I sat down at one point because it was slightly quieter on the ground, all the people block some of the sound, and also I'd been on my feet all day. Again. Just passing the time. Freddy was freaking out, like, all day, but as we got closer and closer to the real show time, he was really wiggin. I mean, we all were.
And we had good reason to be.
Muse.
Was.
AMAZING.
wow wow WOW. AAAAAAAAAAH and the lead singer- best guitar player I've ever seen live. And he played the keytar and a white piano and just wow. Crazy jam sessions between the bassist and drummer. OMG the drummer was so so so so good. And they had LED screens behind them with incredible animations, and the best lightshow EVER. Man it was a good show. The crowd was so good too, you were literally lifted off your feet as everyone jumped in time to all the songs- don't fight it, just jump! I was smiling the entire time, so mesmerized by the music. I don't know Muse that well, but I deeeefinitely appreciated the music because it was gooooooooooooood. I thought Freddy was going to keel over with happiness. He was predicting which song they were gonna do next, and freaking out at the encore. At one point I had to SHUSH him because he was singing to every song and I'm going "Hey, I came here to hear Muse, not YOU!" but it was really adorable. And man, I can't say enough how good this show was. They were real musical entertainers, I would also see Muse again. "Why not play for two and a half hours, I mean, come on, it's not that long, I want more!" says Freddy, and I agree. It was 10:45 when they finished, and I was on a Muse-ical high. It was a great feeling, wow, what a day full of amazing music!
We caught the tail end of Groove Armada at the Boiler Room, but they ended 10 mins early which was pretty lame. We made the long trek back to the trains, and were cows in a herd again. We didn't get back to Auckland until around 1am, where me, Helen, and Freddy went to Globe Bar (site of Halloween) to meet up with friends from BASE that were leaving the next day on the Kiwi Experience bus. We only met up with one of them, which was too bad, and we got drinks and danced, but we were so tired that we didn't stay long. We got back to Helen's after 3am, and looked at pictures from their cameras and watched the videos Freddy took until 4:15am, when we finally had to turn out the lights, Freddy in the bed and me on the floor. We did not shower, we couldn't be bothered.
Sat Jan 16: Spend the morning lazily, Helen freaks out because her 3 friends from Wellington thought they could stay with her that night but she also told me and Freddy we could stay too. We tell her not to worry, we'll sort it out later. Spend the day with her buddies Simon, Amy, and James from the UK, and Simon is from Norwich, where Megan lives! So now I have two friends to visit :) Amy is from the North somewhere, and James actually moved to NZ when he was 7, so I guess he's sort of a Kiwi. We go back into Auckland and wander about while Freddy took care of some stuff online. We lounge in a park for a while. We go to dinner at BurgerFuel, which serves bonafide American-sized portions for a decent price, and are *almost* as good as California burgers, but not quite. Nothing beats Barneys. We head toward the water to this Mexican (?) bar, I get a beer and write a travel itinerary for Amy, who's headed to the states in a few months and wanted to know what to do. I tell her CA is the way to go, but maybe fly into New Orleans, rent a car, and then drive west toward the golden state, and spend time in SF and LA (to a lesser extent..). We all have a beer and then head back toward Mission Bay.
We exit the bus a little too far from Komaramara Road, so we decide to spend a little time on the beach. We look up at the stars and see the lights of Auckland, and we are all exhausted and fully happy from the weekend. It's a warm night with a breeze, and I'm so comfortable and delighted that I'm getting along with people again. Suddenly Freddy is stripping and running into the water, and it looks so refreshing that we all follow suit. The water was surprisingly warm, and I dive in with such joy, washing away all my worries. We can't believe we're all in our underwear in the water at like 11pm, and when we stop swimming around after a minute we're in a circle, shivering, and Simon's going "Right. Now what?" We put our clothes back on, and we all realize that we should have gone "Skippy Dinning" as Freddy calls it, because now our clothes are wet and sandy. Oh well, say la vie. We make the long walk back up K road, and once we're moving again it's not that cold, it's actually really nice. We consider crashing a party or two along the way. We see lots of churches ("Jesus can turn your EFIL around") and we finally tiptoe into Helen's place after midnight. We take off our clothes in the shower so as not to get sand everywhere. We put 4 on the floor and me and Helen sharing the bed, and I think to myself "Helen should start running a hostel from her room, and make more money!" We look over pictures from the day again, and marvel at how wonderful our weekend has been.
Sun Jan17 and beyond
I've spent about 2.5 hours online, talking to mom and dad, and updating le blog. Life is good.
Freddy has gotten me a job working with him on a kiwi farm, so I'm headed back to Opotiki, where I spent Thanksgiving, to do some orchard work! Just minimum wage, $12.50 an hour, but it will be really good to make some more money. I'll probably see Lynn again (who I wwoofed with), and we'll most likely be there for 2-3 weeks, then head down to the south island for travel. And maybe look for more permanent work, at least for me, since Freddy's been working for a few weeks now and has a bit saved up. I'm happy to be with my little German brother, we're having a great time! Hope you all enjoyed this long blog, hope to be online next weekend :) Love you all!!!
check out pictures from Big Day Out on my facebook, under "pictures of caitlin"! thank you Freddy!
Thurs Jan 14: We wake up at 10, hoping to get out quickly, but it's after 11 when we finally leave the house, and we say we just need to go to the train station since my bus leaves at 12. It's half an hour's walk, and the weight on my back starts to make my arm go numb. But we get to the train station, my bus is at platform 9 (and there's a Platform 9 3/4 there!) and I see the girls from the taxi the night before. Say bye to J, and get some trail mix from the in-station supermarket, and start my long, hot journey on the bus to Rotorua. I talk to the girls from the taxi, they say they are headed to Taupo to do the Tongariro Crossing, and I tell them it's super awesome (I don't think I ever posted about that, did I? Some time I'll have to do a massive post with all the stuff I've forgotten to blog about...) and then they're headed to Auckland for a night and then off to Thailand. I am wanting to go with them. Meet Sean on the last leg of the bus ride (I'm sweating so badly by the 3rd hour, imagine hour 6...) who asks what I'm doing in NZ, and I say I've just applied to a job at the glaciers on the south island. "Aren't you going the wrong way?" he asks. "Yeah, but I'm going to Big Day Out." "REALLY? Me too!" and then we geek out about all the bands we want to see. He tells me about Kasabian, and I tell him about Girl Talk and Peaches, neither of which I've seen but have heard pieces of (thanks to Ben Sullivan and Lisa :D ). We part, saying maybe we'll see each other at Muse, but know we really won't.
I finally get to Rotorua, and text my friend Freddy "Smells like Rotorua!", because of all the sulfur in the air, yummmm eggs. He picks me up and we just rush each other in pure happiness that we get to meet again and FINALLY get to BIG DAY OUT! We get fish and chips and I feed him in the car. We catch up, only getting to tell each other parts of our stories since last we saw each other 2 months before, on Halloween. We also realize that we've only really known each other for like, 2 days, but we somehow feel like we've known each other forever. How cool is that, feeling like I've met my little brother, but he's German? Anyway, we pull into Mission Bay around 11:30pm, where our English friend Helen lives, on Komaramara Road (aaargh Maori street names!)- it's the rich part of town. She's snagged an amazing job in an architecture firm, and is renting in a GORGEOUS house. She has saved us some leftover BBQ from her friends that night, who came up from Wellington, also to go to the concert tomorrow. We are all ecstatic to see each other, I also saw Helen last on Halloween, but she and Freddy traveled together for several weeks, so it was less long for them. We go to bed (me sharing with Helen, Freddy on the floor) so excited for the next day.
FRIDAY JANUARY 15
OMG it's really here.
We wake up at 10 am, make pancakes (which are really crepes, but all those European-types call them pancakes..), take our time, and are eventually out the door just before 2pm, which was a little stupid since the concert started at 12pm. We don't make it to the stadium until after 3pm, and though we didn't miss anyone that we wanted to see, I still wish we had gotten up a little earlier so I could have checked out some bands I'd never heard of. Those are the best, sometimes, really. But, anyway, we figured we'd beat some of the crowds this way, so it wasn't terrible getting there by bus and train from Helen's house. We walked quite a ways, but the crowds weren't too massive. That is, until we get inside.
We are met by the fairgrounds of Big Day Out, and dear god is it big! 45,000 people. (Not sold out either- all the next BDO's in Australia are completely sold out... woah.) There are 7 stages, but the three main ones are in the center of the grounds.The Boiler Room is a big tent, where all the body heat gets trapped, and it's just a huge rave. The Orange and Blue stages are literally right next to each other on the field, and as soon as one band ends on Orange the next one starts on Blue. It's a pretty great system.
We wait in line to get "drinking age verified" wristbands, which I end up not even using because alcohol is expensive and very difficult to obtain (so many lines...), and head over to the Blue Stage to see Kasabian, who Sean had told me about. They were pretty good, and I wished that it wasn't so loud so that I could actually hear more of it. My Welsh roommate Gaz, from BASE, was already at the stage, and it was really good to see him again. Met his gf from Argentina, but there was no time for me to try to talk to her since it was loud and, well, I didn't really care right then about practicing mi espanol.
We parted at the end of the set because I wanted to head to the Boiler room for the end of Girl Talk and then stay on for Peaches right after. aaaaaaaaaaaah it was so amazing! I'm telling you, this stage was like a rave- the body heat was intense, and as soon as you step into the tent you're hit with a wave of sweat and hot people. You just get used to being kind of sticky, and it doesn't matter much where you end and the next person begins. Girl Talk is just one guy that does mash-ups of existing songs, so like putting Kelly Clarkson up with the beats of Usher, or 50 Cen't lyrics with Elton John in the background. It's insane! And really good. The whole crowd was rocking out, it was like 40 minutes of seamless dance music. And the guy was rocking out on stage too, pulled lots of people from the audience to dance on stage with him, and it was an amazing party. I would see him again in a heartbeat, a sweaty good time.
Peaches was CRAZY. She's what Lady Gaga wishes to be. She comes out covered in army netting so you can't see her face and does her first song completely covered, only her legs show. And her band is in this weird S&M get up so you can't see their faces either behind the leather strips... And she takes off the net after the first song and she's got like half shaved head and bleach blonde mohawk hair... she was nuts, and such a strong "EFF YOU" personality, and a good voice. Man hater rock. Kicking over monitors just because. I like that from time to time. Would definitely see her again. Only caught 3 songs because I had to pee, so i waited in line for the toilet, then waited in line for water, then waited in line for greasy food.
Then I braved the crowd to head down to the field, where I was meeting Freddy so we could camp out to see Muse at 9:15pm. It was about 6:30pm, but we knew eeeeeveryone was going to see Muse, so we needed to get our spots early. It was quite a mission to get there though; forging through the crowd was the most intense experience. It was literally a sea of people, and I couldn't move. I just moved my feet and moved with the crowd. Kind of like the EAC in Finding Nemo where the current just takes you along and then drops you off somewhere else... it was weird. Find Freddy and Helen and a bunch of friends of each, our "crew", and we head into Blue Stage.
Dizzie Rascal was playing on Orange, and the crowd was "Jump! Jump! Jump!"-ing like nuts. And they were wearing Lakers jerseys so I felt like I was in LA, which was surprisingly welcome. Lily Allen comes on from 7-8, and we were heading into Blue then, but for Muse, and I say "I hope no one thinks I'm heading in for Lily Allen..." We get jostled and squeezed through the turnstiles and into Blue stage, "Yes! We made it! Now we just hold our ground here and wait for Muse..." and had to try to creep around all the tall people. It ended up not being an issue, the crowd eventually settled into the right arrangement so that we could all see the stage.
Lilly Allen was...interesting. I don't love her music, I really can't stand the Cockney accent, but damn are her songs catchy. She was D-RUNK on stage, which I found disrespectful, but at least it was entertaining. She shows up in a pink dress, leaves in her hair (wood nymph attempt?) and these TALL black stilletos, which came off after only a few songs. And she lit up two cigarettes throughout her set. Whatever. I found myself amused from time to time, as she was stumbling all over the stage. And she would ramble on introducing her songs "So, this song is what you might dedicate to someone who's really pissing you off. A boss. A boyfriend or ex girlfriend. A best friend... whoever..." hahahaha you're wasted, Lily! I got Freddy on my shoulders at one point, that was kind of fun. Anyway, it just passed the time for us. Then Mars Volta played from 8-9, and I HATED IT. Noise, and not good noise. I sat down at one point because it was slightly quieter on the ground, all the people block some of the sound, and also I'd been on my feet all day. Again. Just passing the time. Freddy was freaking out, like, all day, but as we got closer and closer to the real show time, he was really wiggin. I mean, we all were.
And we had good reason to be.
Muse.
Was.
AMAZING.
wow wow WOW. AAAAAAAAAAH and the lead singer- best guitar player I've ever seen live. And he played the keytar and a white piano and just wow. Crazy jam sessions between the bassist and drummer. OMG the drummer was so so so so good. And they had LED screens behind them with incredible animations, and the best lightshow EVER. Man it was a good show. The crowd was so good too, you were literally lifted off your feet as everyone jumped in time to all the songs- don't fight it, just jump! I was smiling the entire time, so mesmerized by the music. I don't know Muse that well, but I deeeefinitely appreciated the music because it was gooooooooooooood. I thought Freddy was going to keel over with happiness. He was predicting which song they were gonna do next, and freaking out at the encore. At one point I had to SHUSH him because he was singing to every song and I'm going "Hey, I came here to hear Muse, not YOU!" but it was really adorable. And man, I can't say enough how good this show was. They were real musical entertainers, I would also see Muse again. "Why not play for two and a half hours, I mean, come on, it's not that long, I want more!" says Freddy, and I agree. It was 10:45 when they finished, and I was on a Muse-ical high. It was a great feeling, wow, what a day full of amazing music!
We caught the tail end of Groove Armada at the Boiler Room, but they ended 10 mins early which was pretty lame. We made the long trek back to the trains, and were cows in a herd again. We didn't get back to Auckland until around 1am, where me, Helen, and Freddy went to Globe Bar (site of Halloween) to meet up with friends from BASE that were leaving the next day on the Kiwi Experience bus. We only met up with one of them, which was too bad, and we got drinks and danced, but we were so tired that we didn't stay long. We got back to Helen's after 3am, and looked at pictures from their cameras and watched the videos Freddy took until 4:15am, when we finally had to turn out the lights, Freddy in the bed and me on the floor. We did not shower, we couldn't be bothered.
Sat Jan 16: Spend the morning lazily, Helen freaks out because her 3 friends from Wellington thought they could stay with her that night but she also told me and Freddy we could stay too. We tell her not to worry, we'll sort it out later. Spend the day with her buddies Simon, Amy, and James from the UK, and Simon is from Norwich, where Megan lives! So now I have two friends to visit :) Amy is from the North somewhere, and James actually moved to NZ when he was 7, so I guess he's sort of a Kiwi. We go back into Auckland and wander about while Freddy took care of some stuff online. We lounge in a park for a while. We go to dinner at BurgerFuel, which serves bonafide American-sized portions for a decent price, and are *almost* as good as California burgers, but not quite. Nothing beats Barneys. We head toward the water to this Mexican (?) bar, I get a beer and write a travel itinerary for Amy, who's headed to the states in a few months and wanted to know what to do. I tell her CA is the way to go, but maybe fly into New Orleans, rent a car, and then drive west toward the golden state, and spend time in SF and LA (to a lesser extent..). We all have a beer and then head back toward Mission Bay.
We exit the bus a little too far from Komaramara Road, so we decide to spend a little time on the beach. We look up at the stars and see the lights of Auckland, and we are all exhausted and fully happy from the weekend. It's a warm night with a breeze, and I'm so comfortable and delighted that I'm getting along with people again. Suddenly Freddy is stripping and running into the water, and it looks so refreshing that we all follow suit. The water was surprisingly warm, and I dive in with such joy, washing away all my worries. We can't believe we're all in our underwear in the water at like 11pm, and when we stop swimming around after a minute we're in a circle, shivering, and Simon's going "Right. Now what?" We put our clothes back on, and we all realize that we should have gone "Skippy Dinning" as Freddy calls it, because now our clothes are wet and sandy. Oh well, say la vie. We make the long walk back up K road, and once we're moving again it's not that cold, it's actually really nice. We consider crashing a party or two along the way. We see lots of churches ("Jesus can turn your EFIL around") and we finally tiptoe into Helen's place after midnight. We take off our clothes in the shower so as not to get sand everywhere. We put 4 on the floor and me and Helen sharing the bed, and I think to myself "Helen should start running a hostel from her room, and make more money!" We look over pictures from the day again, and marvel at how wonderful our weekend has been.
Sun Jan17 and beyond
I've spent about 2.5 hours online, talking to mom and dad, and updating le blog. Life is good.
Freddy has gotten me a job working with him on a kiwi farm, so I'm headed back to Opotiki, where I spent Thanksgiving, to do some orchard work! Just minimum wage, $12.50 an hour, but it will be really good to make some more money. I'll probably see Lynn again (who I wwoofed with), and we'll most likely be there for 2-3 weeks, then head down to the south island for travel. And maybe look for more permanent work, at least for me, since Freddy's been working for a few weeks now and has a bit saved up. I'm happy to be with my little German brother, we're having a great time! Hope you all enjoyed this long blog, hope to be online next weekend :) Love you all!!!
check out pictures from Big Day Out on my facebook, under "pictures of caitlin"! thank you Freddy!
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
I've paid for hostels 2 out of 10 weeks in NZ. Just a thought.
I do apologize for not having a consistent ability to update! I really should have bought a nice little laptop to bring with me, free wireless is fairly easy to come by in the south island. The smart travelers have the mini notebooks that weigh nothing. Oh well, next time i go to NZ I'll do that.
It's been very strange not sleeping under the same roof (or tent) as Jackie and Lisa. We broke off about a week ago when they found cleaning positions at a hostel in Nelson. There were only 2 available so Justin and I went to the International Rainbow Gathering 40km south of Murchison. That was really crazy. Stephen Bent, if you're reading this, you need to find a way to get to this some day, because it's right up your alley. At one point there was someone playing a banjo to my left and three jugglers to my right, with caves that people slept in front of me, and a tree house behind me. Music 24 hours a day, drum circles, guitars, flutes, violins, singing; fire dancing; general dancing. Communal meals at Food Circle 2x a day, where everyone holds hands and sings before eating. Beautiful walks to waterfalls. Very very nice people. A bonafide Hippie Gathering.
That was good, but there was lots of car trouble and shenanigans (ie leaving my guitar behind... goodbye Sunday for driving 3 hours each way...) and I've been staying at different hostels because the one J/L work out is super full all the time (curse you, Magic Bus!). Also dropped JLauf off in Christchurch, and had a very silly but fun time picking up hitch hikers for a few days. Not sure if I would want to go to Christchurch again, but there seem to be a LOT of cleaning jobs (work a few hours for accomodation, sometimes one meal a day) there, so I might be forced to settle there. Because now I'm thinking of settling somewhere. Dude, traveling is exhausting! I'm not as enthusiastic as I used to be about seeing things, I've really needed these past two days of basically doing nothing to recover, just so I can be my sunny self when I see my Germans :)
I've put in an application to work at a hostel in the Franz Joseph (glaaaaaaaaciers!), so if I go there I may be apart from the Oxy ladies for a long time. This job is asking for between 1 and 3 months commitment! Wouldn't that be so cool to be living near glaciers for, like, a quarter of a year? Since I'm also applying for the parks internship back in the US, it could be very useful. Especially if I can somehow weasel my way in as a park guide at the glaciers... mwahaha. I'm a little nervous about the internship, I don't know how they'll reach me, since I'm so far away and my phone is stupid. This is another good reason to settle somewhere, so there is a landline that they can contact me on...
These are all things I cannot fix by thinking about them. I've taken that first step and I just have to wait for a response. If I hear none, then I keep looking. So no big deal! I'm very excited for my concert, I hope to update this weekend or early next week to let you all know about it! Hope everyone is doing well, enjoying their New Year and January.
It's been very strange not sleeping under the same roof (or tent) as Jackie and Lisa. We broke off about a week ago when they found cleaning positions at a hostel in Nelson. There were only 2 available so Justin and I went to the International Rainbow Gathering 40km south of Murchison. That was really crazy. Stephen Bent, if you're reading this, you need to find a way to get to this some day, because it's right up your alley. At one point there was someone playing a banjo to my left and three jugglers to my right, with caves that people slept in front of me, and a tree house behind me. Music 24 hours a day, drum circles, guitars, flutes, violins, singing; fire dancing; general dancing. Communal meals at Food Circle 2x a day, where everyone holds hands and sings before eating. Beautiful walks to waterfalls. Very very nice people. A bonafide Hippie Gathering.
That was good, but there was lots of car trouble and shenanigans (ie leaving my guitar behind... goodbye Sunday for driving 3 hours each way...) and I've been staying at different hostels because the one J/L work out is super full all the time (curse you, Magic Bus!). Also dropped JLauf off in Christchurch, and had a very silly but fun time picking up hitch hikers for a few days. Not sure if I would want to go to Christchurch again, but there seem to be a LOT of cleaning jobs (work a few hours for accomodation, sometimes one meal a day) there, so I might be forced to settle there. Because now I'm thinking of settling somewhere. Dude, traveling is exhausting! I'm not as enthusiastic as I used to be about seeing things, I've really needed these past two days of basically doing nothing to recover, just so I can be my sunny self when I see my Germans :)
I've put in an application to work at a hostel in the Franz Joseph (glaaaaaaaaciers!), so if I go there I may be apart from the Oxy ladies for a long time. This job is asking for between 1 and 3 months commitment! Wouldn't that be so cool to be living near glaciers for, like, a quarter of a year? Since I'm also applying for the parks internship back in the US, it could be very useful. Especially if I can somehow weasel my way in as a park guide at the glaciers... mwahaha. I'm a little nervous about the internship, I don't know how they'll reach me, since I'm so far away and my phone is stupid. This is another good reason to settle somewhere, so there is a landline that they can contact me on...
These are all things I cannot fix by thinking about them. I've taken that first step and I just have to wait for a response. If I hear none, then I keep looking. So no big deal! I'm very excited for my concert, I hope to update this weekend or early next week to let you all know about it! Hope everyone is doing well, enjoying their New Year and January.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Songs in my head will get annoying
I decided not to buy Jackie's iPod, so on this morning's run I listened to the last of her tunes. I dropped off my guitar and a small bag with my growing rock collection off at Brady's to keep for the week. Because... I'm headed back to the north island!
It's going to be quite a mission. Weds: 2pm- bus from Nelson to picton. 6pm- ferry from Picton to Wellington. 9pm-arrive in Wellington, hang out with German friend Julia and sleep on her floor (and maybe actually get to experience Welly nightlife, seeing as the last time we were there the town was dead) Thurs: 12pm-bus from Welly to Rotorua. 7pm-drive with other German friend Freddy to Auckland. 10pm- attempt to crash on someone's floor.
FRIDAY: BIG DAY OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've been planning this, no joke, since my second day in New Zealand. I. Cannot. Wait.
It's much less the concert itself, and more the seeing friends from over 2 months ago. I really feel like i've made good friends here, not just the cordial hellos that I've been exchanging with everyone lately because I'm so exhausted. I think it's indicative of my travel exhaustion. I'm going on 10 weeks now... holy moly.
Started reading a Nevada Barr book about a park ranger. Even within the first 20 pages there's so much reference to geology and it makes me happy.
I'm applying for some jobs to try to extend my stay by increasing my wealth :) Wish me luck!
Ummmmmmmmmm.... hope to post soon? But will never promise, sorry.
It's going to be quite a mission. Weds: 2pm- bus from Nelson to picton. 6pm- ferry from Picton to Wellington. 9pm-arrive in Wellington, hang out with German friend Julia and sleep on her floor (and maybe actually get to experience Welly nightlife, seeing as the last time we were there the town was dead) Thurs: 12pm-bus from Welly to Rotorua. 7pm-drive with other German friend Freddy to Auckland. 10pm- attempt to crash on someone's floor.
FRIDAY: BIG DAY OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've been planning this, no joke, since my second day in New Zealand. I. Cannot. Wait.
It's much less the concert itself, and more the seeing friends from over 2 months ago. I really feel like i've made good friends here, not just the cordial hellos that I've been exchanging with everyone lately because I'm so exhausted. I think it's indicative of my travel exhaustion. I'm going on 10 weeks now... holy moly.
Started reading a Nevada Barr book about a park ranger. Even within the first 20 pages there's so much reference to geology and it makes me happy.
I'm applying for some jobs to try to extend my stay by increasing my wealth :) Wish me luck!
Ummmmmmmmmm.... hope to post soon? But will never promise, sorry.
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