dechtu

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  • dechtu snapped a picture

    Here I am in the garage that we rented for 3 weeks for $90. Which is okay, because I think the room is rad and we can keep all of our luggage in here while we're backpacking through Stewart Island. Today we did a variety of things for preparation:

    1. Reservations for Cromwell to Queenstown Bus (Feb. 5), Two Nights of Accomodation in Queenstown (Feb. 5-7), Queenstown to Bluff Bus (Feb. 7), Bluff to Stewart Island Ferry (Feb. 7).
    2. Rented a storage (garage) for 3 weeks.
    3. Bought a diary, pens, and a pencil for blurbing/journaling/drawing/occupying myself during the 2-3 weeks without a computer. Bought garbage bags for keeping things try within my back. Bought a flashlight (or torch as they are called here), padlock for the facility, and full body rain clothes to keep our other clothes dry.
    4. We bought our full supply of food for the 12 day trek and sorted them into 12 bags (here you can see day one's bag). Most of the bags are the same, but there is a bit of variation between the days. Basically, for each day we have... raisins, dried fruit (bananas, mangos, apples), trail mix, yogurt covered raisins, peanuts, 1 chocolate cube, BBQ rice crackers, 5 cookies, 1 candy bar, 2 granola bars, 2 LeSnaks (each containing 3 crackers and cheese dip), powdered orange drink with Vitamin C. Hopefully that will keep us energized and what not, supposedly the water is safe to drink, I hope that is the case.

    So this will be the last booth until February 20-something. And from thence forth I'll double, triple, quadruple, or quintiple booth for a few days/weeks until I'm all caught up. I won't let my absence from the internet tarnish my perfect record of boothing for over 1 year and a half straight, and the blurbs will be hand written in my journal each day and the photos will still be taken on the individual days, they'll just be put together and uploaded a bit later.

    So with that I'm off, although not really since I won't be leaving until tomorrow afternoon. See you in a few weeks!

    1 comment

    1 week 2 days ago

  • dechtu snapped a picture

    Here I am on Stewart Island taking a photo with the elusive Stewart Island Brown Kiwi. Not really, I'm just outside of our room at the holiday partk with my stuffed kiwi named Stewart with real kiwi call action, BUT! This could be my booth in a week or so, only actually on Stewart Island with a real kiwi.

    Today we did a bunch of research for our trip and looked at blogs of people who did the same trek we'll be doing. All but one of the blogs encountered at least one kiwi, many actually had kiwi come up to them and smell them. So there is a chance that I could be this close to a kiwi. For those jumping in, we're about to head out on a 7-12 day hike (we haven't fully decided how long it will be) on Stewart Island, which is the best place to see a wild kiwi. Among other animals we may see (or were seen by bloggers) include the kaka (New Zealand parrot), weka (New Zealand wood hen), Hooker's Sea Lion, Leopard Seal, 5 species of penguin, stick bugs, beached pilot whale, narwhal skull, and many other smaller birds. After the Stewart Island trip we'll go through Invercargill, Dunedin, and Oamaru to see tuatara, sea lions, and penguins (but only if the numbers of the later two are low on Stewart Island) before returning to Cromwell to pick up our bags and continue north.

    Due to this trip however, tomorrow will be my last booth for 2-3 weeks. I'll still take a photo everyday and I'll write a blurb in a journal or diary or something, but I won't be uploading until when I get back to Cromwell, as my computer is staying in Cromwell. So when I get back, I may be doing 2-5 booths a day to catch up in a reasonable matter of time.

    Tomorrow will be spent preparing more for the trip, shopping, and renting out a storage unit in town to store our bags (since our hostel doesn't offer free baggage storage).

    EDIT: Forgot to mention that the reason this photo is time stamped is because my uncle promised me $100 USD if I can get a time stamped photo of a kiwi. Not that it does me much since the entire trip is going to cost me at least double of that, but yeah, $100 USD cheaper certainly makes things more affordable.

    6 comments

    1 week 3 days ago

  • dechtu snapped a picture

    Here I am in front of the Leaning Tower of Wanaka, part of Wanaka's Puzzling World. Puzzling World is a facility with several puzzles and mind tricks. Its primary puzzle is a large "3D" maze which has four towers and 3 bridges over it making it a little confusing. We went to Wanaka today with some ex-co-workers from the cherry job. First we did the maze, which I did in 37 minutes, the Hong Kong guy did in 48 minutes, the Hong Kong girl did in 60 minutes, and Stef a bit after that. After that we went into the illusion rooms. One was a room of holograms which was okay, but my favorites were the Ames room (where one side of the room is significantly smaller than the other, but from a viewpoint they look the same size making people appear extremely short or gigantic depending on their position in the room. Then we were in the tilted room where gravity was tilted by 30°, so we got to experience confusion and balls rolling up hills, etc. We did some puzzles in the lobby before going into the town.

    In town we got some expensive fish and chips and sat by the lake to enjoy a nice lunch on a nice day. We ended up feeding some of the seagulls (lakegulls?) and I got some nice shots of them taking fries out of my hand. We walked by the lake for a bit and went into the i-Site to look at tourist-y things and then we hopped back in the car and drove for about an hour to a fruit stand outside of Cromwell and they sold real fruit ice cream which was delicious, I had mixed berries mixed with vanilla, nom nom. They then dropped us off at New World so we could get a few things and then we went home. All in all a great day, now for two days of nothing before the grand tour of New Zealand begins.

    3 comments

    1 week 4 days ago

  • dechtu snapped a picture

    Possibly the final Cromwell ice cream booth, so I boothed in front of the Old Town store, where I've been getting my triple scoops. Maple Shortcake (top), Gold Rush (left), and Rum & Raisin (right). Other than that a very lazy day, we ended up sleeping 13 our so hours (apart from the 2 hours where there was a raging party outside and there was loud music), we were so tired we went to bed at 6:30 pm last night.

    Today we watched One Piece, Glee, and I worked on the game. Tomorrow, we're probably going to Wanaka for a day trip.

    2 comments

    1 week 5 days ago

  • dechtu snapped a picture

    Picker 11044 signing out. Last day at the cherry job! Hurray! The 60 hour work weeks slaving away at a constant battle between quality and quantity (and speed and thoroughness) are finally over. We went in at 6:30 am and worked until 12:30, which went by pretty fast and then there was a beer & BBQ celebration. I ate 6 sausages which was nice, but obviously the two of us skipped out on the beer (and were 2 of the 4 people in total who took soda rather than beer), and Stef couldn't even have anything to eat being a vegetarian.

    Several other things to note:
    - You can see the gate in the photo, it is the way to get in. After you pass a censor, the gates open ala Jurassic Park, sort of weird.
    - The barcode I am holding is what the company uses to distinguish who did which buckets, so we get paid accordingly, so they give us sheets full of these barcodes.
    - We went and did our last shopping trip at New World today and got a bunch of noms as well as a celebratory footlong sub for later.
    - We got references for future jobs, potentially Kiwifruit packaging in the North Island, it would be nice. We shall see.
    - Tomorrow will be a rest day, with a possibility of laundry and ice cream as the most exciting events of the day, Thursday may be a bit more exciting with possibly leaving Cromwell for a day trip (we shall see).

    2 comments

    1 week 6 days ago

  • dechtu snapped a picture

    See the vehicle in the distance? It's Mr. Whippy (the local ice cream truck)! This is the like 3rd time in my life I've been able to catch one and receive ice cream (as a child they never went through my neighborhood). I got a big waffle cone with caramel syrup and some of the nommiest soft cream I've ever had. While it was good, not sure it was quite worth the $5 that it cost.

    Today was the moving day, we moved rooms within the holiday park today which was annoying, but meh, it is over with and at least the new room doesn't make the whistling noise when the wind blows and the sun doesnt heat up the room at night when it sets. Tomorrow marks the last day of the orchard job, we hear some rumors that it is a long day and some rumors that we'll be done around noon. Then supposedly there will be a beer and barbecue party, which will be awkward for us as we don't drink and even worse for Stef as she doesn't eat meat (but I can eat meat, so yay nom-nom). Then we will enjoy a few days off and finish off any activities nearby before heading off on the New Zealand grand tour.

    Do you get ice cream truck ice cream?

    2 comments

    January 30th, 2012

  • dechtu snapped a picture

    Not too special of a booth, but eh. We had a somewhat normal day at work, with two to follow, but then we came home for the upsetting news of the day (seems like there is some everyday as of late). It turns out we have to move out tomorrow (despite having working two days from now still), due to a new booking. So tomorrow after a full day's work, we have to move all of our belongings (scattered across the room), food, etc. across the grounds to a new room. We ended up pay through to Sunday as it was cheaper than just getting two days added onto the end of work. So we may or may not stay all of the days, but we'll at least have the option of staying a little longer.

    Tomorrow, penultimate day at work and moving to the new room.
    Tuesday, final day of work.
    Wednesday-Sunday(?), activities nearby Cromwell and relaxing.
    Sunday(?)-onwards... Queenstown, Stewart Island, Dunedin, Franz Josef glacier, Christchurch, Kaikoura, Blenheim, and then the North Island.

    While I'm really excited for all of the adventures of this next month, right now I'm just antsy to finish this job, the 60+ hours a week is killing me.

    0 comments

    January 29th, 2012

  • dechtu snapped a picture

    Today's booth was pretty close to looking a lot different, but more on that later. Today's flavors are Pure Passion (top) and Orange Chocolate Chip (bottom). I believe I have boothed with all the flavors now at the one Fish & Chips shop, but there are at least 5-6 more at the other Takeaways, we'll see if I can get one more booth from there before we leave.

    Work was more BS today. First off, early in the morning, our old supervisor, now sort of an assistant manager came by and told us our bucket numbers were too low for Thursday and said if we didn't double the number of buckets today, we'd be fired. Seeing as it would be nearly impossible, even working my fastest, I decided that I'd just as soon quit (as I have never been fired before and don't intend to start). Stef and I are always the first couple at work among the hundred plus pickers, I've consistently had superb bucket quality, often 0% rubbish cherries, where as most people have between 5-7%, and I always fill my buckets to the top rather than some people who do 2/3 of a bucket, even though they aren't supposed to. I even leave breaks before anyone else, and it just made me upset that they were about to fire me despite the manager's word that we wouldn't be fired for the number of cherries picked, just not showing up, picking bad cherries, or damaging trees. So I talked to Stef and we decided we'd quit, only an hour later for the manager to walk by and assure us we wouldn't be fired, they just want us to go faster and said he'd like us to stay until the end of season (Tuesday). As if that wasn't enough, we were told today was a short day and we'd be off at 3 pm, we ended up going to just past 5 pm, making it almost a full long day and then it turns out tomorrow s going to be until 7 pm, terrific. Only three more days of this BS.

    After work we went to New World for groceries, Subway for a meatball footlong, and Fish n' Chips for the aforementioned ice cream.

    5 comments

    January 28th, 2012

  • dechtu snapped a picture

    I'm not a huge fan of texts, but I don't mind getting ones like this (cue a day off). Another day of nomming, programming, and being with Stef.

    I've been thinking a lot about experiences and future experiences and creative projects involving my experiences lately, a lot specifically dealing with New Zealand. The trip is a little over half way now.

    So far I have hiked the port hills and walked along the beach in Christchurch, I rubbed grape vine buds and hiked the wither hills in Blenheim, I saw fur seal colonies, seagull colonies, tide pools, and whale tails whilst befriending llamas, half-blind sheep, border collies, and a wallaby in Kaikoura, and I have visited old gold mining sites in my spare time between working 60 hours a week at a cherry orchard in Cromwell. All of that was in the first three months of being here and I've only skimmed the South Island so far.

    So what is in store for February, March, and April? We have a few places nearby we'd like to see (Wanaka and Queenstown), after which we would like to visit Stewart Island (New Zealand's third largest island) and do a 9 day hike through beaches and mud with hopes of spying the endangered Stewart Brown Kiwi. Take the route back up North and see Franz Josef glacier, where there's plenty of snow and ice to be seen as well as the Kea, New Zealand's alpine parrot. Stop off at Christchurch for another day or two to get our luggage, go up to Kaikoura to say farewell to our barnyard friends and spot the seals again one last time, and then we head up to the North Island where we hope to find a dairy farm or another fruit picking job (preferably not grapes or cherries), stay at an organic farm for a few days, see Wellington and Auckland, and of course see the Shire and climb Mt. Doom (the beginning and the end of Lord of the Rings). If all of that goes down as well, there will be no regrets to our New Zealand trip.

    3 comments

    January 27th, 2012

  • dechtu snapped a picture

    I haven't boothed with a shot of me actually picking cherries, so I figured I would. This is a Stacatto cherry, the last of the four varieties at the orchard (the others being Lapins, Romance, and Sweetheart cherries). Today was another long one, 6 am to 6:45 pm, although tomorrow looks promising with either a day off (due to rain) or a 6:30 to 2:30 day. Only a few days left on the job and it can't come soon enough, today I had an "incident" with the supervisor.

    The supervisor is more or less the New Zealand version of a redneck, not only has he never worked in an orchard before, he started this job after me, and has worked less hours than me since he started. He knows next to nothing about picking or cherries and wastes company, pickers, and pack house people's time with stupid games. Today we were told by the managers that the priority is on getting as many cherries off the trees as possible before the rain comes. So everyone is going fast and were told to leave the waste cherries (split, wind damaged, too light, too small, too ripe/leathery) on the trees. I followed instructions and then he had a fit and he pointed at a huge bundle of cherries still on the tree and said I was missing too many cherries, 95% of the cherries were unusable and he put them in my bucket and yelled say I was "f*!%ing" him off whatever that means, he then spent the next 10-15 minutes picking all of the waste cherries off all of the trees in my row convinced they were all usable (and of course, as many people saw, 95% were rotten/unusable cherries which I had to throw out). No one respects him because he runs around doing nearly nothing and never has answers for our questions for him. He only got the job because his cousin is one of the higher-ups.

    ANYWAY, glad the job is almost over.

    2 comments

    January 26th, 2012

Chris R**** is a 24 year old male from New Zealand.

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DeChTu (deck-two):
Traveler, photographer, zoo keeper, English teacher, video game designer, boyfriend, drama addict, multilinguist, college graduate. Musings of a man born on the east coast, raised in the midwest, and living abroad. I love getting to know new people, so feel free to comment, subscribe, or whatever. :D Also, my Skype is: dechtu. Also-also... @MyOwnPrivateVertigo is pretty awesome, so check her out.

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