100 Gallions of Fuel

In downtown Auckland a flotilla departed that is in opposition of deep sea oil exploration drilling. The New Zealand government approved exploratory drilling last year before the Gulf of Mexico disaster. 200 people attended the sendoff today.  I am guessing that 2/3rds of them were just rubbernecking and not part of the protest.  There was a large Maori group singing and dancing and a half dozen speakers.  The flotilla included about 8 sailing yachts that averaged 60' long.  Each boat has a diesel engine that will probably use at least 100 gallons of diesel just to get to Cape Runaway where the proposed drilling will take place.  I was tempted to ask the participants how much of the junky consumer products that they use have some form of crude oil in them. If the protest in prolonged, the boats will undoubtedly have to re-fuel, maybe they could pull next to the exploration vessel?  The East Cape region of the north island does need some economic development, this could be a start.  Oil is not an answer to sustainable energy, but nether is driving a diesel fueled yacht in circles.

How Many Guns Do You Have?

Have been employed for 3 weeks now by boat labor company.  Most of the days go by with my hands scorched by 150 grit sandpaper as I hand sand the entire sailing vessel Athena with 20 co-workers.  Tradition says that a yacht hull must be hand sanded and not faired by any electrical device.  This helps unemployment.  On my way to work at 7 am every morning I listen to podcasts of This American Life and muse about thelemic inopportunities of past travels.  When I arrive I am in a good mood, until someone asked me "Are you from America? How many guns do you have?" The only answer that I could give the workers satisfaction is something like: "Uh ya, I keep them in my pickup just in case the wild injuns come down from the hills." this is mildly amusing from most of the people who ethnicity are Maori, and Pacific Islanders who listen to rap music from the ghetto blaster and complain  that last night's UFC fight was not hardcore enough.  When people I meet at a party ask me what I do for a job I tell them that I work on super yachts. If they only knew that it is not much different than working in Nebraska for Labor Ready.

Documentary Edge Festival

I decided to stay in Auckland and I found work very quickly.  Monday I applied for my tax id number and set up a bank account, Tuesday I worked for the yacht Yannakee Too, and Wednesday I was hired by Boat Boys, a boat labor contractor.  I am renting a camper van behind a lady's house in the Ponsonby neighborhood for a good price. It is only a 20 minute walk to the boat yards.   Last night my landlady invited me to a showing of I am the River, the award winning documentary on Maori photography.  The documentary won the award for the best New Zealand Feature in the Documentary Edge Festival.  The showing was one of the final showings of the festival and the director, Luigi Cutore was present and fielded questions from the audience after the film.  It turns out that Luigi was friends with my landlady's friend and the 4 of us ended up meeting for a drink after the show.  Luigi is very nice and told me that being a film director is like being a starving artist, sometimes not getting paid for years at a time.  The rest of the conversation was about middle-aged bars, ect, and I was off daydreaming.  Everyone was nice and the night was short.  Its going to be strange settling into a routine for the next few weeks.