Things have been good. Really good. I’ve spent the last week or so with Liz in and around Kaikoura, a small surf town on the South Island’s east coast. We landed at a beautiful free camp on the beach with just enough time to meet some excellent traveling companions that would soon become our family for the week. We had a gluttonous, glorious hot holiday on the beach in New Zealand. Below is a video recap for those too lazy to read or scroll down.

This is me in front of the gorgeous mountains that butt right up to the beach on one of the first days at the camp. There was about 14 of us total camping in Kaikoura for the days surrounding the holidays; some British, some French, some Scottish, some American, some Dutch, and some German. A healthy mix.

As expected, we dutifully celebrated the second annual Ephemeral Day and spread the love onto our new comrades. For those of you who don’t know, Ephemeral Day is a holiday I invented that traditionally takes place on the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere; the shortest day of the year.

Groups all over the world come together and work to build structures that are designed to burn. This was our structure; a pentagonal prism built of driftwood and adorned with a sun-bleached goat skull.

As the sun sets on the shortest day of the year we burn our structures in unison to acknowledge the ephemeral nature of each day and many other things in life. This year, the holiday couldn’t have been more appropriate. A group of strangers came together for a few days, built together, cooked for each other, ate together, and became friends only to disband shortly after never to see each other again.. ephemeral friends.. ephemeral as FUCK.

Christmas eve I collected bits of cash from the crew and went to the town butcher to buy as much of a pig as I could with the intention of roasting it on the beach. He gave me a huge pig log stuffed with apples and sage and stuffing… enough to feed 20…mmm. I built a spit and a fire pit and we slow roasted the sucker for 4 hours whilst basting it with honey and soy. SOO good. Along with that we also had fresh caught New Zealand crayfish and a beach-smoked fish caught in the brackish water near camp. Not so bad.

This is the sunset god gave us on Christmas eve… no photoshop.

After Christmas the majority of the crew departed and Liz and I hoofed it to Arthur’s Pass for some tramping. On the way back we found a cave system with a river flowing through it that took about 45 mins to meander through. This is liz at the entrance. It was so beautiful down there. Kinda freaky with no guide or idea whether or not we’d survive.

The New Years Eve blue moon was particularly incredible for me. Right as the sun was setting the huge, blazingly bright lunar orb began rising over the horizon exactly opposite where the sun had just rested. The spotlight kept us well lit all night as we pranced through the foothills to the beat of secret drum and bass gatherings. This is a 40 second exposure of the full moon (notice the constellation Orion showing up nicely above the moon).

Liz and I achieved our goal of staying up all night for the sunrise. New Zealand is the first country in the world to see the sun rise each day. I am so happy to have seen the first view of the sun that 2010 had to offer.

Now I am in Christchurch taking care of some business and waiting for Christina to get here so we can get back on the travel train. SOOOOO excited.

And here’s what I’ve been listening to:

Surfer Blood – Swim

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Atlas Sound – Shelia

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Yeasayer – Rome

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