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.

NZ Young Farmers

My farm host Marty took me to the Helensville A&P(Agriculture and Pastoral) show where there was the regional New Zealand Young Farmer contest was happening.  The Young Farmer contest is hosted by the Young Farmers social group.  The competition is open to anyone in the group aged 18-30, and it is a most strenuous event.  The participants have to go through many practical tasks such as build a fence gate, use a chin saw to make a boot, make a irrigation hose setup and put wheels on a 4-wheeler.  After the day activities, the contestants are in a game show type question and answer section.  The questions ranged from politics, sport, and many technical farm questions.  The winner of the competition goes to a national competition.  The prizes the people get are amazing.  The regional winner got a mechanical water pump, $100 in new clothes, Echo power tool vouchers, and $1000 in cash.  The National winner gets up to $100,000 in cash and a new pickup! 

Farming is the biggest industry in New Zealand and people take it seriously.  The quality of produce is valued highly.  No BGH is used in dairy cows, and no genetic engineered seeds are planted.  Most of the farms are family owned, there is little corporate farming. Small business are thriving all over New Zealand.  Small towns have main streets at full occupancy, a nice change from the states. 

I am in Auckland, getting my tax number, setting up a bank account and looking for yacht day work.  If I don't find anything by Friday, I will be leaving to go to Tauranga, in the Bay of Plenty and look for farm work.  Jobs are become scarce in the cities. Many people are leaving Christchurch looking for work in other parts of the country.   The summer season is winding down to a close.  Below are a few pictures of the Young Farmers contest and the A&P show. 

Work Visa, At Last

I have been waiting for my work visa for several months now, but finally have it.  I had to log onto immigration NZ's website to find out that I actually had the visa approved yesterday.  I had no e-mail verification from my case officer, but oh well.  I now need to apply for a IRD number, a New Zealand tax identification.  This will seem strange to me.  I have not had to look for a job since the spring of 2008.  I have always been working at Sea Base or odd jobs.  For the past week I have been cleaning up the farm, but the owner, Marty took me caving with school children in the middle of the week to take a break.  The kids were from Auckland and had a outdoor day that included caving, rock climbing, and repelling.  I wish I had the chance to do these things when I was their age(except I did and was too scared to do it).  I am going to a agriculture show wih Marty this weekend, then off to look for work, most likely in the Bay of Plenty, fruit picking.

Christchurch Earthquake

 

The earthquake that rocked Christchurch was in the middle of the south island.  I am about as far as possible from the epicenter.  Kaiwaka is 1.5 hours north of Auckland.  

Farmageddon

The past weekend included a party at the farm I am staying on called Farmageddon.   The party consisted of  a 130 meter water slide, BMX bike jump into a pond, jet ski ramp, dirt bikes driving around everywhere, 4-wheeling trucks, a car that drove it self into a pond, a tiki bar, one band, 2 DJs, huge bonfire, 100 kiwi rednecks, and party crashers at 2 am.  Those items don't necessarily go in chronological order.  The party crashers were local Maori teenagers who decided it would be a good idea to steal a bunch of CD's from the DJ.  This idea did not go as planned and the kids were in a fight with the DJ's friends, and the police had to be called.  Just another day in New Zealand.