Victory Lap
May 22nd, 2010 | New Zealand | 3 Comments
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Here I go.
!..."In New Zealand, apple picking season begins in late February. Amongst the employed are locals, seasoned veterans, and transient travelers. I fall into the latter category. It is truly the ideal job for a peripatetic soul such as myself; temporary work, not too laborious, lucrative, and in many respects, fun.
This is how my day usually looks.
This is how I will look when I’m 46.
My day starts just before sunrise. This was an early morning rainbow I woke up to a few days ago. I have been staying in a shed that is owned by my orchard, Tyrella Orchards.
Now, the shed situation may sound grim, but it’s actually quite nice. It’s a converted storage shed fit with couches, a full kitchen, showers and the lot. It’s a bit breezy do to the lack of any sort of insulation but I’m far from complaining. Usually I take the van to the pick site but if I’m up to it I’ll ride my bike depending on the distance. The orchard owns about 6 – 7 pick sites, or “blocks”.
There is an art to picking apples as there is for most things. At first I sucked really hard at it but I’ve gotten much better and faster. One must be careful not to bruise or damage the apple. It is also of high importance that the apple be in good color. Often times only half the fruit on the trees will be properly ripened.
The work is contractually based and pickers are paid by bin. A bin is a huge wooden container (seen in the above animation) that contains generally about 2500 apples, or 400 kilograms worth. On a good day I’ll pick 6 bins. My best day was 8 bins. So, on average, it’s safe to say I’m picking roughly 1300 apples daily. The season lasts about 9 weeks. Do the math. In the end I’ll have picked about 1,000,000 apples, no lie.
Ongoing giant apple contest.
My orchard ships most of it’s fruit to the UK but also has a contract with trendy US grocer, Trader Joe’s. We sell them dehydrated apple slices for use in their name brand product of a similar variety. So go out and buy summadem chips and chances are I will have graced the same molecular space as said snack.
I will hold this job for the next few weeks until the pickin’ ain’t good no more. All in all it’s good work. I’m outside all day listening to music with no one bothering me. Often I’ll chuck on some sciencey podcasts to keep the ol’ wheels greased but other than that it’s daydreaming central. I moslty love it because It’d the exact opposite of the service industry; I’m working only for myself. I start when it’s most convenient, take much lunch when I want for as long as I want, and go home when I’m tired… the way all jobs should be in my opinion. I’m saving up for a multitude of plane tickets that will take me the rest of the way around the world in the coming months.
Feel free to pose any apple-related questions. I’m quite well versed now.
Much love,
Andrew
Some of this news is a bit out-dated but i intend on keeping my readers as enthralled with my adventures as possible. No details will be overlooked, no stories untold, and no photos hidden from sight. That’s right, this travelog has it all.
I’ve whipped up a new highlight video that covers the last 3 months. Have a look and let me know if you’d like any clarification on the whereabouts of each clip.
After completing the first South Island jaunt I quickly embarked on another circumnavigation this time accompanied by my darling mother. She and I traveled together for a week and a half in an attempt to see as many key features as possible. My mother learned quickly that, unlike Miami, you can not see New Zealand in a week. We stayed in what seemed like the finest 5 star accommodations but made sure not to leave a few nights to camp in the van.
Our first stop was the astonishing Lake Tekapo. Garnishing turquoise blue waters this lake village is said to be one of the best places in the world to see the night sky. It’s central island location and lack of light pollution combined with a big hole in the ozone layer allows for a crystal window to the heavens. I was immediately drawn here because my research found that they have built an observatory here designed to take advantage of the conditions.
The tour of the observatory atop Mt John was awesome. With a multitude of high powered telescoped trained on various celestial bodies visitors can see nebulae, planets, close-ups of the surface of the moon and many other things not visible to the naked eye. Using the deep space telescope I was able to see the polar ice caps of Mars and Saturn’s rings. The above shot was a 60 second exposure that was taken using a tripod-esque device that rotates mounted cameras in conjunction with the movement of the stars eliminating star trails that one might get with a stationary camera. Cool stuff.
We then high-tailed it to the ever-popular Milford Sound for a day time cruise. We were blessed with terrible weather in the form of torrential rain and horrendous winds. Being a fjord, Milford is like a wind tunnel allowing the storm-force gales to rip through its gully creating truly unique apocalyptic conditions. On this greyest of days I chose to shoot in black and white seeing as how there was very little color to capture anyhow.
At one of the wettest places on earth the cliff faces become so swollen that new waterfalls form before your eyes. They push over trees as they crowd the walls of the fjord in a chaotic attempt to find the best route down to the sea. Never before have I seen such disorganized waterfalls. There are a few clips of this activity in the video above.
We rounded up our excursion in Kaikoura with a dolphin swimming tour. Here, a company takes paying visitors out to a giant school of Dusky dolphins, 400 strong, and chucks them in the water for a little play time. The dolphins generally take a great interest in the intruders and give you quite a bit of attention. This was one of the most majestic experiences of my life. Unfortunately I couldn’t photograph the interaction between the dolphins and I, but was still able to get some nice shots from the boat.
This is my happy, wet mother. She was a trooper. She endured the rain and cold with out so much as a complaint for a toilet and upon leaving I think it’s safe to say, as she might, that she was a happy camper.
After my Mom’s abrupt departure I immediately shot north to hunt for work. There I was able meet up with my good friend Lennart to practice some tunes for busking. We played on the street for the first time this last weekend and earned 8 bucks! Next weekend will be better, I’m confident.
We’ve been camping on and off and seeing some of the finest sunsets to date. This is Lennart’s van, Bertie. I was able to find work picking apples but I will detail all that in another post a little further down the road.
And here’s what I’ve been listening to:
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Much to my dismay, the polarmuse has returned from whence she came and alas, I am left to my vices. I give you today a very brief summary of the time spent under the last half-moon.
Above we see the illusive yellow-eyed penguin, one of the rarest penguins in the world. This one is on his way to work. He was spotted in the Catlins at the petrified forest as we rounded the bottom corner of New Zealand’s South Island.
We got really good recently at cooking with flour. It’s SO easy and saves heaps on bread/pasta costs etc. We perfected the van crafted tortilla most recently. Tortillas mean burritos.
We fed these Germans their first burritos. One the lefts is Julian’s first bite. On the right Lennart enjoys refried beans thoroughly. They will now go tell Germany about tortillas.
Thanks to Christina’s persistence we made it safely back to Kaikoura to go whale hunting (with our eyes). Here is a sperm whale going on a deep deep dive.
Now it’s time to find work. It’s looking like I’ll be picking fruit. Peaches? I hope.
And here’s what I’ve been listening to:
The Monkees – Long Title Do I Have To Do This All Over Again
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Well as you might have assumed, my faithful followers, I have been involved in an in-depth liaison with my good friend Wünderlust for the better part of the last two months. Accompanied by my polarmuse, Christina, Wünderlust and I have explored the darkest crannies and the most illuminated knooks of New Zealand’s south island. As usual, there is simply far too much blabber required to sufficiently detail the precise events that have made up our journey. So, in an attempt to keep you all jealous and keep your eyes watering I’ll leave you with the following photographic highlights and a rough play by play. And just so you know, I am well.
After an over-indulgent week in Kaikoura we dove deep into the petrol-deprived tangles of the Marlborough sounds. Good tramps, free camps and plenty of lovely views abound. Following this, a week or so was spent in the grips of Golden Bay counting rock archways and flirting with Abel Tasman National Park. The above photo is an image of the actual Fairyland at dusk (it happens to be located in Nelson Lakes National Park).
Eager to leave the bush (and escape the sandflies) we made a push for the west coast. As it turns out, the west coast is the best coast in more than one country. We camped numerous nameless beaches working our way down to glacier country. Above is the much-loved Franz Josef Glacier in all of its receding glory.
The glaciers were DAMN impressive and only a short drive to the nearest beach! My kind of ice. I was a little disappointed in the lack of activity in which the glaciers took part. It reminded me of when you visit the zoo and the damn panda is just sleeping in the corner. DO SOMETHING you lazy panda! sike. I loved them, and in all reality they were very active; landslides, glacial melt and whatnot. This is a close-up of Fox Glacier.
And what would a season in New Zealand be with out your own private glow worm party? Just a minutes drive south of the glaciers we discovered a beautiful wooded dell. A nights stroll reveals a secret bioluminescent disco. Above is a 60 second exposure taken of the root cluster of a fallen giant.
If you look in the center you can see his little glowing butt. He’s been decorating all day.
The next few days were consumed by the Copland Track, a 7 hour, 11 mile hike up the luscious Copland Valley. The trail follows the aquamarine colored K— river nearly up to it’s origins in New Zealand’s Main Divide and ends at the Welcome Flat hot pools. These beautiful snagglies are members of the Sierra Range and would reveal themselves from behind the puffies from time to time.
That’s right, I said the hike ends at a series of sexy natural hot pools that are all varied in temperature to fit your soaking needs. This is a view from one of the hotter pools looking out across the valley. Thanks Zeus.
The water pouring out of the spring was attractive to this blood red algae. Truly bizarre. I’m not sure nature gets much more magical than this.
And here I find myself today, in Lake Wanaka, a lovely lake town. This is the lake itself reflecting up a storm (no pun).
From here we will move south to the very very bottom bottom of the south island. Christina leaves in 2 weeks which will make me a sad panda. Shortly after her departure my mom comes! We’ll run around a bit but I’m running out of money and soon I’ll need to find a job. Anyone wanna hire me..? I’m crafty..
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:
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wow. What month. I’ve been traveling pretty much non-stop since late august and have seen the majority of New Zealand’s North Island. Most recently, I joined some friends on a last minute romp back up to Northland (the peninsula that sticks way out up top). I had already been up there but it was just so slap-me-in-the-face beautiful the first time I was compelled to jump on the bandwagaon when I heard there was a group going that way (even though it was ridiculously out of my way). The Northland is comprised of gorgeous beaches lining the bays that spot each coast and luscious, rolling farmland, sandwiched in between. We did a bit of surfing at ‘Shipwreck Bay’ on the west coast and nearly got destroyed by a tsunami. Then we did a bit of fishing on the east coast and caught a delicious Hoki but threw it back because we thought it looked poisonous. Here’s a photo re-cap.
Would you eat that?
The campsite next to our fishing jetty.
Some happy campers using Gerty to her fullest on the shores of Maitai Bay, way up north.
On the way back up north we made a pit stop to visit our old friend Tane Mahuta. I was driving with some new travelers that hadn’t seen the giant Kaori trees yet so it was nice to be wowed with them. This fella is the actual Tane Mahuta himself, posted by request.
This is another shot of the massive Mt. Taranaki. I spent sometime in New Plymouth, a surf town at the foot of this monster, before heading way back up north.
Psychedelic dead cow-pig.
So the plan is to hang out in Wellington for a few months and get my wallet poppin’ again. I’m house-sitting for a co-worker of my father’s whilst they’re out on business. It’s indescribably nice having a hot shower at my disposal among other household luxuries. Wellington is a rad city and I’m really looking forward to settling in a bit and seeing what it’s all about. I’ll also be polishing up some songs I’ve been working on and doing a bit of album art for the new Chairy Arms EP. Expect heaps more posts about tunes and art and other goodness.
My travels will begin again in December when my super awesome friends, Liz and Patrick come to get mind-fucked with me on the South Island. Following their visit, the rocket-ship babe from outer space, Christina “yer dad” Shapalis will be hoofing it wit me for a good 2 months. Yessss. Then, my Ma will be making the trek out here as well for her own mom-style NZ adventure.
And here’s what I’ve been listening to:
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Hot Boyz ft. Dear Nora
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of Montreal – Kissing in the Grass
listen to that bass line. and, um oboe intro? clarinet maybe? brilliant.
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Seriously! I was driving south aimlessly along the west coast of the North Island and saw that there was small town tucked away in a harbor that might make for a good place to have my lunch. I entered this town (of which I wont repeat its name to retain its anonymity) to find that it was dead. The one café in town was closed on this Monday afternoon and there was not a soul to be seen. There was a precarious sign pointed out of town in the opposite direction marked ‘Ocean Beach’. I love beaches named Ocean Beach because you nearly always know exactly what to expect, except in this case. I drove a good 5km out of town towards Ocean Beach until I arrived in a gravel lot with a trash can. The hike to the beach led over a huge dune and proved to be a bit cumbersome. The beach was gorgeous, not a soul in sight, but as suspected it was just a beach, by the ocean. I spent a few minutes reflecting and headed back to prepare my lunch and decide where to go next. Whilst in the middle of preparation a campervan pulled into the lot driven by an older couple. The man driving popped out and asked me if I had found the hot water. Confused, I said I’d hadn’t and then realized what he was talking about. Apparently some Maori bloke had told him that when the tide was low enough, at this specific beach, a beach surface hot spring was revealed. And the tide was low that day, my friends, let me tell you.
This is a shot of the pool I went back over the dune to dig right before sunset. It was impossible to photograph the temperature of the water but I assure you, it was hot. Like, HOT hot. I sat there, all by myself (the old couple merely put their feet in and left) and watched the sunset. In my own secret beach-side jacuzzi. Unbelievable.
A nice photo pf the dunes before the beach.
Mt. Taranaki from Ruapuke Beach south of Raglan.
This photo of Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings) was actually taken a few months ago on a bus trip up to Auckland right before I bough Gerty… thought I’d share.
Just for the uber-curious, I’ve made a google map of my travels thus far. It’s a roughing out of the road traveled with little markers along the way of some of my stops. The map needs some refinement but you’ll get the basic idea.
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Needless to say my sprits have picked up almost immediately following the smash-smash incident; one can’t dwell on these things for too long.
My last few days in Rotorua were excellent. I met some nice Kiwis that took me to some secret local hot springs about 20 km outside of town. The spring was piping hot and flowing perpendicular into an icy cold river creating a warmth gradient in between. You could move in close to the spring and get really hot and then just slide down closer to the river to cool off. It was perfect, especially at night with the stars smashing down.
On my way out of Rotorua I stopped at Agroventures, a big extreme sports company that owns a huge piece of farm land where people go zorbing and jet boating and bungee jumping and all sorts of shit. This emu was hanging out.. Magnificent animal. Although Agroventures was tempting, I couldn’t bring myself to throw down heaps of cash to roll down a hill in a ball. This also meant skipping the Shweeb (bike-powered monorail race track).. SORRY WILL. maybe another day.
The following morning I woke up in a farmer’s front yard and made my way into Waitomo to do a bit of glowworm caving. I signed up with a badass company that took it’s patrons on a 5 hour tour of the legendary caves which included abseiling down into a huge dark crevice, spelunking through tiny lava tubes, blackwater rafting on underground rivers and gazing upon magical glowworm displays of epic status. It was incredible. The glowworms appear like tiny blue stars on the cave ceiling; a milky way of bioluminescence, and they only enumerate as your eyes adjust. Making loud noises ups the quantity quite a bit as well. Apparently they respond to the vibrations in the still air and think there is a moth flying by. Coolest ever. The above shot is from inside the cave looking out at the entrance and below it is an open exposure of yours truly taking a gander at the spectacle.
That evening I drove out to a towards the coast and stumbled upon a small town called Raglan. It’s a quiet surf town with a focus on sustainability and organics and crap like that. The above shots are of sunset at Manu Bay, a world renowned surf spot. I like the one shot through my shades.
I managed to mind a dream-like hostel called Solscape that lets me park Gerty for a reasonable price. They also have a million dollar view of the sea and rent surf boards and bikes for day use. There are tons of hip kids here and good vibes all around. The other day some WWOOFers build a clayfire pizza oven. It had to have a fire burning in it for 36 hours to dry properly. I’ve been here for 3 days now and will probably be here for a few more. I really like it here AND I went surfing yesterday AND I got UP!. I’m going out again today for like 12 hours. yesss.
Sufjan Stevens – Introductory Fanfare For The Hooper Heroes
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The Polyphonic Spree – It’s The Sun
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The following pictures are the photos I took for the police report. Gahh. That’s right, Ol’ Gerty got her face smashed in. Some asshole took it upon his or herself to treat my van like a free bin outside of a second-hand store after smashing my passenger window and breaking in. To answer the obvious immediate questions you might have before getting too far into the story: I’m perfectly fine, unharmed, and all they stole was my passport and my external hard drive I was traveling with. Bummer.
I arrived in Rotorua 3 days ago. It’s a respectable town with not too much going for it outside of the incredibly high concentration of geo-thermal activity in and around the city. The town smells of rotting eggs and everywhere you go someone is trying to sell you some mineral-rich facial mud or a questionably yellow cure-all sulfer pill.
My first night here I managed to make friends with some Kiwi locals and a few kids from the hostel I had checked into, Cactus Jacks. They were making moves out to the bar but I was exhausted from a day of travel and decided to call it a night a bit early. At 3am I was awoken from a blissful slumber by an Israeli named Ayal. He told me my van window had been smashed in and all my shit was out in the street. I had no idea what was going on. I pulled myself out of bed to figure out if what he had told me was true or if it wasn’t exactly what he was saying or if I was still dreaming. Unfortunately for me and my belongings, it was raining. Also, Ayal wasn’t lying. He had noticed my broken window on his way home from the pub and rushed in to tell me.
They had kicked in the door handle, jamming the door shut. They broke the window and unlocked the other doors. I had brought most of my stuff into the hostel with me earlier that day based on a hunch that leaving my van on the street might not be a great idea, but there were no other places for Gerty to sleep. In the van still was heaps of clothing, all my cooking gear, some electronics, my big backpack, and my passport. They had pulled all of the latter out into the street and made a big muddy, glassy, terrible mess. Bummer.
From there it was just a matter of seeing what was missing and cleaning up the mess. After all my items were re-cataloged it turned out that they only got my passport and my terabyte external hard drive. I still have my computer, camera, money, credit cards and all that crap. The door they bashed in was done for so I had to find a scrap yard with a full-on new door. No one had a grey door that matched so I had to settle for a gold one. Gertrude now sports a gold tooth.
It was a really crappy experience with tons of bullshit to sort through, hours of phone calls to police officers and insurance assholes (no they didn’t cover it), and not much sleep. It’s all over now and I’ll be back on the road in a few hours. The incident has left a bad taste in my mouth with regards to Rotorua that goes beyond the taste of rotten eggs. The one redeeming quality the town has to offer is that there are hotsprings everywhere. I spent the last day or so soaking all my concerns away and smearing mineral mud on my face to improve my complexion. I’m sweet as now and ready to move on.
Much love,
Andrew
Here’s something beautiful to leave you with. It’s a panorama I made from Hahei Beach up Coromandel way.
And here’s what I’ve been listening to:
Discovery – I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend (ft. Angel Deradoorian from Dirty Projectors)
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