1/3/14
My bus ride from New Plymouth to Wellington was a pretty uneventful one. I got to do lots of reading and a bit of writing. I had six hours to kill between my bus arriving in Wellington to when my ferry left. I didn't really have any plans while I was there. I thought maybe I would grab a beer someplace and do more writing. This plan changed however when the bus driver announced that we would be taking an insubstantial detour from the normal route due to the Rugby World 7's tournament happening in Wellington. I understand that for most of you this might not mean much, but for me this was an epic happenstance.
During my years at University, though a friend of a friend, I had grown close to a young man named Trevor Richards who during this time played a bit for the US rugby 7's team. Well through the years Trevor and I became good friends and eventually moved to Seattle together where we lived with our buddy Steve for nearly two years. During this time I grew an interest in ruby and especially 7's which is quicker and more exciting than the more well known, but slower, 15's.
So here I was on a bus to arguably one of the most famous cities to hold this tournament. Within the rugby community it's known as the city where the fans get the craziest, and I had six hours there. :) When I arrived the weather was shit, cloudy, cold and rainy, it reminded me of Seattle. But in the streets it was like Halloween. People were dressed up as anything and everything. From banana costumes to power rangers. This tournament seemed to be an excuse to dress up and get piss drunk. When I got off the bus I went straight to the ferry terminal dropped my big bag off and headed to the backpackers across the street for some food and a beer. I was barely through the door when an Irishman with a cape, checkered tights and suspenders came over and asked if I would like a beer. I replied “shit yeah” and we sat down with a pint. I had only been in the city maybe fifteen minutes and I already had a pint going. I wasn't about to catch up tho, it seems like most everyone else had been drinking since 3 or 4. I got some pasta from the hostel kitchen and shared it with some German girls who were trowing glitter on people next to us. They bought me a pint as well. After the food and the second pint the German girls were ready to move on, and since my Irish friend was now sitting in the booth with ONLY his cape on, yelling at another German girl about his tattoo, I was ready to move on as well.
Soon I was walking down the street with three young, very drunk, Germans trying to asses the madness that was around me. They were chugging some kind of wine out of a pepsi bottle, and one of the girls was telling me about how so many people needed to be told what to do, at which point she decided she needed to pee, dropped trow and simply went in the street. Some people stared, but most of people were dressed as pirates or some sort of other crazy thing and were just as pissed (drunk) as she was, they hardly took notice. It was like something out of clockwork orange or mad max. It was a weird dream that was actually happening, It was great :) We walked maybe four or five blocks which took us the better part of 45 minutes since my party was pretty wasted at this stage. We arrived at our destination, which was a street rowed on either side by bars and clubs. The street had been closed off, just for this occasion. It is impossible to describe the scene (I've taken videos which I will happily share :). Imagine four blocks lined on either end with bars and clubs. The streets are filled with people, most of them had been drinking all day, and all of them were dressed as something crazy. It was madness. It was like I was this sober observer in a drunk surrealist's dream. I had had enough to drink by that point in order to blend in but I was dead sober compared to nearly everyone around me, outside those checking ID's.
Once my three German compaddres were inside the closed off street we headed to the nearest bar. There were more drinks had, more glitter bombs, and random drunken singing and dancing. After about an hour of this, and after I realized I had spent just as much on drinks in the last 2 hours as I had on food in the last week. I left my drunken German friends to their own devices. I wish them the best, and doubt they will even remember me :)
I proceeded to make my way back to the ferry terminal, taking my time since it was maybe 11:30 or 12AM and my ferry didn't leave until 1:30AM I had time. At this point the rugby tournament was over and there was a sea of drunk, costumed people moving in the direction opposite me. It was such a crazy experience. I was the only one dressed normally and the only one, outside of the taxi drivers that was not wasted. It was a strange phenomenon that most people would hardly notice me or would notice how sober I was and pay me no attention. Moving against this sea of people, I hardly bumped into anyone, people were falling down in the street and somehow I barely had move around anyone, it was like I had this bubble of sobriety around me that no one wanted to enter less they actually realize how wasted they really were. It was one of the most unforgettably surreal experiences I have ever had.
I made it back to the ferry terminal without incident. At this point I could feel a small hangover already setting in from my five or six pints, wine and glass of whiskey that I had just consumed in a matter of four hours. When I said sober before, I meant relative to everyone else around me ;) I chugged some water and fell asleep on the floor. When I woke up the terminal was full and they were beginning loading. I chatted up a couple girls in line and one of them it turns out was from Portland and had been living in Christchurch for the last three years. We boarded the ferry, found a place to spread out and soon all three of us were asleep on the overnight ferry to Picton.
We arrived in Piction at about 4:30 AM, maybe 5, from there I got off and took the shuttle into town until the last stop, where the bus driver suggested the best place to hitch hike. It wasn't long, maybe fifteen minutes, before someone from the ferry headed inland picked me up. He took me as far as Blenheim, where he dropped me off at a gas station and said I would have good luck catching a ride to Nelson. It was maybe 6 or 630 at this point and I was tired but running of the excitement of my journey. I went into the gas station, grabbed a muffin and a chocolate milk and placed myself next to the road with my thumb out. This early in the day the traffic was light so my ride didn't find me until about 730 or 8. It was a nice young German couple who were living in Blenheim and doing a day trip up the coast and would be passing right near to my next WWOOFing spot. Finally I would be arriving at my new home north of Nelson.
Nelson
When I arrived at my new WWOOFing place my hosts, Verena and Scott, were actually gone to a music festival and the other WWOOFer, a German named Amadeus, greeted me and showed me to my new digs. The main house was made of mud brick and had big windows facing he northern sky. I would be staying up the hill behind the house. My accommodation was an old gypsy truck that Verena and Scott stayed in while they were building their new home. As soon as I entered the truck I immediately felt at home. It had running water, a little spot to cook, a table a small couch and a lofted bed above the cab of the truck, all of which was made of wood. It was a cozy little place with loads of character. It had drawings that Verena's daughter had done, little pictures and post cards that other WWOOFers had left, books, a stereo and a box of crayons which for whatever reason I was compelled to open and use. The first evening in my gypsy truck I spent drinking tea, listening to music, and coloring. It was such a welcome transition from the chaos that was Solscape. I finally had my own space where I could spread out and really sink into a space, and make it my own for two weeks.
When Verena and Scott arrived the next day they were very worn out from the festival. It was five days of trance music for 24 hours a day, intense stuff. That night we all had dinner together and talked about what we might be up to the next day. Verena was born in Switzerland but came to New Zealand when she was 16 to do some WWOOFing. Her first host was an earth builder and she became drawn to the practice. Shewent to school near Nelson and finally emigrated when she was twenty she has been here ever since. She is raising two really bright children and has owned her own business making earth bricks for about four years now. Her partner Scott was a forty one year old traveler who was finally settling down someplace. He has long dreads to the bottom of his back, has a quite cool, and is a patient teacher and a really kind guy.
Our first day Amadeus and I spent the day mixing and laying a clay floor for a second little building they were making. It was hard work in the sun but I learned a lot that first day. Most everything made from the earth is just clay, sand and some kind of binding element, like straw or sawdust. With the combination of these things in different ways you can make just about anything. That second night Verena's friends were coming over for dinner, one of them worked for Green Peace and the other was a musician from New Zealand. That night we all had wild pork roast which was hunted and killed by a local hunter and given to the woman from Green Peace. It was delicious. We ended the night with a splif and Matiu the musican played music into the night.
That week was a mixture of flipping and stacking mud bricks that had already been made and applying a clay plaster wall the the new building. Matiu had told about a music festival that weekend in Nelson called Evolve, so I thought I would check it out. Evolve was a little hippie festival that was only twenty five dollars for three days of music and work shops, this was possibly one of my only chances to go to music festival in New Zealand and I had a little bit of spare cash from my work at Solscape so I thought I would indulge myself a little bit and go for it. It would be a decision that I would not regret and never forget.
Evolve......
