Wet West

 

Our ride south has brought us to the small town of Hokitika, home of odd collections, ancient eels and one of New Zealand’s most iconic art mediums, Pounamu.  The sock museum and teapot collection were added bonuses, but what made us decide to stop and stay was the presence of the National Kiwi Centre, where we could be nearly assured of a seeing a live kiwi, or so we thought.  For those who have not visited New Zealand, I will share with you that the kiwi bird is not only rare but grumpy, sleepy and shy.  This seems to be true for kiwis in enclosures as well.  After looking into a darkened enclosure for about half an hour and a return trip, neither of the kiwis decided to wake up, even when poked by a friendly staff member.  So instead, we consoled ourselves by feeding the giant eels, some of which were said to be 130 years old.  That one they called Grandma, she had a hunchback.

 If you think the eels were old though, we also saw dinosaurs.  Real dinosaurs.  New Zealand’s only indigenous reptile is the Tuatara, which has not evolved in 150 million years.  To show this is true, they have a third eye, which is more like a light sensor, but still, how many animals can say that?  Hokitika’s other main draw was the famous greenstone, known as Pounamu.  Pounamu is a green nephrite stone, a kind of Jade; 80% of which is found within a 20 kilometer radius from Hokitika.  While this town was once a massive port for gold mining, the history and importance of the greenstone for Maori has a much deeper history, making this part of the west coast a significant area for trade and art.  Being one of the hardest materials to which the Maori had access, the stone was of great value and the finest tools, weapons and art were made from it.  

These were extremely valuable for family life, ceremony and trade.  Gift giving is an integral part of many aspects of New Zealand’s native culture, especially so when visiting neighboring iwi (tribes).  Items that were rare to a region were especially important gifts, be they food or material, thus Pounamu would have flowed from the south island to the far parts of the country, facilitating friendships far from its home.  The variety of its coloring and beauty of its sheen also have led to its becoming an art medium closely linked to New Zealand’s national identity.  We were amazed at its presence here, as every other shop housed masterful carvings and massive boulders of unfinished greenstone.  We also came because we heard it was so plentiful, you could find it on the beach, and although not the highest quality of samples, we struck it green.

On the Road, one last time

 Must be woodworkers about - Greymouth

So it's been nearly eight months of surf, sand and sun and the seasons down south are changing into late Fall.  This leads us towards the end of our journey as we're looking forward to our third summer in a row, and have finished working and are selling most of our large possessions.  Unfortunately, this includes our surfboards, wetsuits and beloved chariot Lucy.  She will be missed along with all her character.  We have run across a fantastic way to travel this country though, the delightful Magic Bus.  No it can't fly, but it will give you a lot of info on everything Kiwi on your way.  Honestly, I was skeptical at first, as other backpacker buses have garnered reputations for being parties on wheels that do not have much respect for the culture (one even having the colloquial name of 'the giant green f*** truck).  But the polite and informative nature of our driver and the opportunities to stop at many of the little out of the way sights along the way quickly won me over.  I am also very grateful to Magic for granting us discounted travel in exchange for blog links and photos, of which we are happy to provide.  So, its a whirlwind tour of the South Island starting with the wild west coast.  Yesterday: Pancake rocks, tomorrow, greenstone (Jade) hunting.  The limestone sea cliffs here have fantastic erosion patterns, in one location so striated as to look like stacks of flapjacks (American flapjacks, as that's a chewy granola bar over here).

The amazing scene at Punakaiki looks as if you're living in a landscape that was printed from a linoleum cut art piece and is made only more spectacular by the presence of giant blowholes!  Sea stacks, blowholes,  and giant sunken tidal sinkholes emerge out of a maze of tall flax plants, an eerie bass thud-whoosh drawing you towards the sandy limestone.  Although none of the blowholes were exploding that day, I realized this probably kept us dry as they were massive and although our viewing platform was 45 feet above the sea level, we looked at the postcards and saw spouts that were easily another 20 feet above where we had been standing.  We determined that the bass notes were coming from the undercut cliffs, when sea waves or sinkhole wash fills them up and launches out horizontally.  Even on a day without large tidal shifts, it was a spectacle.  Also, missing my board as the west coast has a ton of surf, even on an off day like today, you can see the potential in coves and along the vast beachy stretches.  I was also consoled by Weka, a native flightless bird that looks like a wild penguin chicken.  Lord knows I love quirky animals.

A Practical Approach...

...to changing your life, and maybe even just the world.

http://scienceblogs.com/casaubonsbook/2011/04/10_ways_to_go_seriously_green.php

Just ran across this and I thought it was very reasonable and reflects a lot of what I've been trying to enact in my own life.  Check it out.

Kaikoura Magic!

 
As I will be soon be returning to my beloved Portland, and since I have spent the last two months living surf starved in Nelson, it was high time for one last, good, surf-related road trip.  Unfortunately, the forcast was truly crap.  Undeterred by incoming rain and onshore winds, I steered the faithful surf campervan south to the legendary and gorgeous Kaikoura peninsula.   Kaikoura has a well deserved reputation as a surf and tourist hub.  The highway here hugs the coastline in and out of town, while gorgeous mountains loomed straight out of the surf.  I cannot describe how wonderful it is to drive with seal colonies on one side, lush hills on the other and sit in a line up staring at snow capped peaks in a sunset light.  This is the beauty of the place.  The town is small, but has lots of hiking and walking to do in town and nearby.  For those with more savings than us, this is also a hub of whale watching and dolphin swimming, so it really is a town where you shouldn't get bored.  As for me, I was looking for one last good surf and found it in a big way.  I already mentioned the view, but even with a shifty, small, somewhat onshore forecast, I pulled up to several small breaks, none of them working, until we parked on the side of the highway north of town and walked across the railway tracks to Mangamaunu.  The initial glance looked a bit junky but as I watched the solitary surfer out, I was amazed as he whipped his longboard through sharp turns for over 200 meters on a beautiful 4 foot point wave with a seemingly endless shoulder. 

Paradise found!  I ran back to the van and squeezed into my now battered suit not caring how many semi trucks drove by, I had to get out there.  I was rewarded by the longest rides of my entire trip, on waves from two to four feet in size.  Kaikoura is known for its point breaks and Mangamaunu (say that five times fast, or once for that matter) is a classic, with several sections and regularly reports rides of over 400 meters.  Over the two days I surfed there, I regularly saw the locals getting rides so long they would get out and walk back up the point.  Although I wasn't scoring rides that long, I put in my fair share of turns and got plenty of time to practice my cutbacks, including a truly fantastic head over heels dismount.  Two days of gorgeous views and waves, well worth the trip, I highly recommend stopping in for a few days if you're ever in this neck of the woods, even if you don't surf.  Although I find it easy to recommend this popular spot readily, I have long been struggling with an issue close to the heart of many surfers and I believe is extremely important to any surf writing, mainly, when to keep a spot secret.  If you have noticed a gap in my blog, it is because I spent a while in a fantastic surf region that is somewhat off the tourist map.  For me, it is in part so genuine and worthwhile because its not a tourist town, and I believe it is important it stay that way as long as possible.  If you come to New Zealand for surf or any travel really, you will not be disappointed and with a little effort, may find your own out of the way place.  So I will share a few stories from the past months that have yet to be included, but I may not include break names or even specify a region.  Each of us must keep up our own search, respect the locals and the effort that pioneered the breaks we arrive at, if we are to keep the magic of surf travel alive.

Like many surfers, I am a fan of the Endless Summer films, but the original holds special value.  To travel around the world and spread the joy of surf in a time when America was changing and foreign countries were really unknown landscapes to the average surfer is hands down amazing.  When I watched the film, one remote exotic location stood out to me and its gentle peeling point wave has been in my mind ever since.  I am not huge on the idea of conquests, and try to enjoy surfing and improving my water related abilities through fun more than goal setting, but I have always wanted to make it to Ahipara.  The draw of Shipwreck Bay was huge and as we aren't horribly likely to be on this side of the Pacific for a while, I got to fulfill a thirteen year old dream and surf the spot.  To get there, we had to visit the Far North, an area which has a reputation for being wild and even lawless.  Leaving your car unattended is mostly out of the question.  Given that this reputation had come from other surfers we had met who had their own possessions stolen, we were a bit nervous.  This is the backcountry, with high poverty, biker gangs and some tourist destinations that are a two hour drive from the nearest hospital.  Pulling off the highway, we quickly learned that the village was divided in two, with the local, mostly Maori population living somewhat separately from the stretch of vacant beach houses.  Even in such a famous surf spot, road sections were unpaved and steep, including a drive down a riverbed to get to the beach.  We parked, walked out and were greeted by the local pig, taking a stroll down the beach.  When we got down to the beach, we discovered that the waves were only about 2 feet tall.  No matter, they were beautiful!  Even at such a size, the point broke perfectly over a smooth sand bottom.  The ride was a miniature ball of cruizy fun and the tiny waves had a fantastic wall to sling across.  I wish I had an Alaia there at the time, it would have been a fantastic proving ground.  As the day's sets were sometimes far between, I had the opportunity to strike up a conversation with a true local, born and raised right on the hill above the break.  Jade is a local surfer, Maori and all around great guy.  Like many who live there, he lives off the land and sea, surfs as often as he can (he primarily stays over the sand bottom Shippies rather than rocks out of consideration for his young family, a choice I find honorable), and was truly hard.  Busted a hole in your knee?  Big ugly looking scar?  Why go to the hospital, it'll heal.  When he found out we were living out of our van, he didn't hesitate to invite us to stay in his yard and make use of his home.  We stayed for three days and had an amazing time.  Our host shared his quality life with us and made a hallowed, intimidating at first glance place grow into an area familiar and full of depth.  Before we left, we exchanged gifts from what we had with us, expressing our gratitude and our hope to have left a mark on each other.  As he had mentioned wanting to do more body surfing, I left him my first hand plane, and hope he enjoys it on the smaller days.  More than any time on this trip, I felt the spirit of the place I was in.  I am thankful for my host and his sharing with me the life of Tangata Whenua, the people of the land, with a great love for the place and the sea that that surrounds it.

Projects on the Go

Just because we're on the road, doesn't mean I can't get my hands stuck into a piece of wood and make some art, car improvements, etc.  Here's a few of the projects that have been keeping me busy on my trip around Aotearoa.

A few rainy weeks that drove me insane with lack of surf produced a decorative wooden spoon, with Maori style waves and a land/sea/sky creature known as a Manaia.  Pretty good for a pen knife project.

Here's a false headboard taking shape from driftwood, an endeavor to leave my artistic mark on our current colorful abode in Nelson (South Island).

It's not all wood- a snapped fin has been repurposed as decorative hood ornament.  Well roof ornament really, as this sucker is now epoxied to the roof of our full of character van, Lucy.  Yeah, that's not coming off any time soon.  Nor is that paint.

Alright, we did a lot to the beloved van, but we needed more storage space, so we made the dash into a small shelf.  While we have been here we have had a lot of success in keeping our projects green and affordable.  We sourced almost all of our materials from items we already had, scraps, found pieces and paints and tried to pay homage to the art of the land we are in.

Power to the Purchaser!

And we’re back with a quick post about responsible shopping.  Using the existing economic forces to show we care about our environment and social causes is one of the quickest and best ways to begin changing our world for the better.  I’m not saying things shouldn’t change on a large scale with the way capitalism is currently running, but while we’re doing that, lets utilize the positive side of what we already have.  For an example, I hate buying shoes, or spending time buying clothing of any sort really; I wear things into the ground as much out of laziness as I do because of frugality or a responsible lifestyle.  So when I must buy shoes, it makes sense that if I have to put in the effort, I should put in the effort to do it well.  My latest purchase is a from the Oboz brand, partially because they were on clearance (yay) and also because the company plants a tree for every shoe they sell (double yay).  Check out their in-depth ethics program here.  A while back I also received an excellent gift of Guyot Designs MicroBites Utensils from a family member.  Love of sporks aside, the gift would be well thought out for any conscious consumer as the small spork and spatu-knife set (which are light, handy and click together in a possibly postmodern spoon spooning? Anyhow) are actually carbon negative to the tune of 25 pounds CO2 through the company’s purchasing of carbon offsets.  This is in addition to using sustainable labor and a closed loop waste cycle.  While on the subject of gifts, I should mention that I am definitely a child of the suburbs, and as such have had a long love of Stuff.  Learning to live with less and avoid impulse buying and receiving has not been easy for me, but I have found joy in one great alternative: the gift of donation.  In either giving or receiving, donating to a good cause is a way to show you care for a person, a cause and avoid cluttering life with things we don’t really need.  You can send your loved ones a gift of carbon deposits, charity donation, or one of my personal favorites, purchasing livestock to assist families in the developing world through Heifer International.  Besides the fun of having your name attached to a goat in Africa, Heifer makes sure the recipient families know how to care for their stock/ flock and achieve increased independence and long-term financial improvement from your gift. Who said responsibility had to be boring?