NZ Cultural Insight: Drinking and Driving

After my shifts at the Top Pub I have to bike home in the dark. Although this town is quite safe, I am still nervous about biking home because here in NZ drinking and driving is not socially unacceptable like it is in the states. People drink and drive here more than they do in the states and it's not that big of a deal. It's scary to think that I'm biking home along the main road in town that most people would be taking home from the bar at the end of the night. I try to go fast and be careful when I can see card approaching but in reality there isn't anything that me, on my bike, could do if a drunk driver was coming towards me. I guess it's just fate that'll keep me safe. Either way, it's interesting to see how people are more relaxed about something so unsafe and stupid. 

On the drink and driving note, something interesting about NZ is that they don't have an open bottle law here like we do in the states. It is not illegal to drink in your car, as the driver or as a passenger. Weird, isn't it?! Here's a link to an article I found about this topic. 

Unrelated to drinking and driving, I may have made a few more connects at work tonight for some fun activities - oyster farms (a different connection than before) and pig hunting. The pig hunting one sounds really interesting as they go out into the woods with their dogs and chase down the pigs and then kill them with a knife, not a gun. One of the older men at the bar had told me he'd taken another girl out hunting before from Minnesota (Minnesota Margaret). I asked if he'd be up for taking another girl from MN and he seemed receptive. Next weekend maybe? My job at the cafe is really starting to cramp my style here as it takes up my daytime hours Thursday - Monday. I might have to stay in Coromandel another week somewhere not at the cafe just so I have free days to pack in all the fun activities I can't do while I'm working days.

More of the same on the schedule for tomorrow but who knows when something exciting will happen. I'll keep y'all posted. 

Best!

Upcoming Adventures

Today was the start of my work week. It runs Thursday - Monday with Tuesday and Wednesday as my weekend. I worked at the cafe this morning, which was really slow, took a nap in the afternoon, got started on Harry Potter #6, and then went to Top Pub this evening. The night at Top Pub didn't start off that great - I just didn't feel like doing anything - but by the time I left at 11:30 the bar was hopping. The usual crowd of older pensoiners left around 9:30 or so and then a bunch of young people came in. Apparently it was one of the busiest Thursdays in a while at Top Pub. I love working on night like that, it's just so much fun to be around a bunch of people that are having so much fun! I think bar tending may be my calling. Well maybe not really but it's just so much fun to be working at a bar with so many people enjoying themselves. This is probably something I could definitely do for a while. 

While I was at work tonight I may have secured myself two good adventures for the next few weeks. Exciting activity #1 - slaughtering a sheep. Hunchy, one of the regulars at the bar and the father of one of my fellow bar tenders (Taylor), apparently had sheep and slaughters them on a semi-regular basis. I asked him about it and he said I was welcome to attend, although he was rather surprised I wanted to see it. I'll likely take a video and I will definitely warm you all when I post it for those of you who don't want to watch it. Exciting activity #2 - scuba diving. A few of the younger guys at the bar, Luke and his friends, said they'd take me out scuba diving one morning if I'm interested. I didn't tell him I'm afraid of fish, I guess this would be a good time to challenge that fear. But I really have to just be game for anything on this trip and a free scuba dive is a great deal so I'll go if I can fit it into my schedule. He was thinking this weekend but I'm working doubles both days. I don't actual start at the cafe until noon on Sunday though so maybe we can go that morning. Fingers crossed that it'll work out!

Now for some reflection on last night - I went over to Gio's about 7pm last night to see if he'd cook up some of our fish from yesterday. I would've taken some home with me but I'm staying at a vegetarian cafe and am not even allowed to keep meat here for myself so I had to store my share at Gio's. When I got there he took me over to his neighbor's house for a quick chat. They have a smoker there and offered me some smoked Snapper, which was quite tasty. They also have sheep there and the wife, Dawn, took me out in the paddock and showed me the sheep. They aren't nearly as friendly as goats - they're actually quite shy - but she has them really well trained. They follow her around the paddock and she can move them form paddock to paddock just by clapping for them to follow her. It's quite amazing. While I was at their place I mentioned to Dawn that I am interested in seeing an oyster farm and she has a connection for me. A friend of hers, Mary, works at The Oyster Company right outside town. She told me to simply go and see Mary and she'll hook me up. I think I'm gonna try to get out there on Saturday and see if Mary can help. Fingers crosse again.

Okay, that's all for today. Another day of working tomorrow, followed by 3 more of the same. Hopefully a few good things will happen in there. I'll obviously keep you posted.

Best!

P.S. I met a customer tonight at the bar who is from Raglan, a big surf town here in NZ. He told me if I make it there he'll teach me how to surf. That's a pit stop I'll probably have to take. 

It's amazing how nice people are - opening their hearts and their homes to me as I travel around. Just wonderful! I really hope I have the chance to give back when I'm older and living somewhere where tourists come (probably not MN). 

Most Amazing Day of My Adventure, To Date - Mussel Barge!!

Today was the most amazing day of my trip so far, by far! Elli (Germany) and I spent the morning on a mussel barge, learning all about mussel harvesting, doing a little work ourselves, and catching a few fish. I literally could not be happier with the way the day is going. I am so excited I can barely even type. I can't believe how much fun I had. I was actually sad to leave at the end of the day. The crew was amazing, the weather was perfect, and the views were spectacular!

Let me get down to business now and start walking you through my day.

Giovanni, a manager at The Coromandel Mussel Kitchen and friend of Elli's, had arranged to pick me up this morning at 4:15 so I had set my alarm for 3:45. I was so excited about the trip - and so worried about oversleeping - that I woke up multiple times throughout the night and for the last time at 3:30, when finally I just got up. I had a quick breakfast, got my items together, and met Gio on the road at 4:15. We went into town, picked up Elli, and headed straight to the dock to meet the barge. We got there a few minutes early and had some time to hang out and chat with the delivery truck driver, Steve, who was dropping off seed for one of the other barges. Here's some photos of us with Steve and the mussel seed:

The barges pulled up shortly after and we loaded up ourselves and our gear on the barge we were going out on that morning. It was only about 4:45am at this point so I'm sorry the photos aren't that bright but here's a photo of the barge we went out on, taken in the morning, and a few more after it that were taken throughout the day:

Once we were all loaded on the boat we headed about an hour south down the coast to the first farm of the day. At that farm we packed roughly 175 sacks of mussels, at 25 kilos/sack. Each sack has about 400-500 mussels in it so we packed about 80,000 mussels. We were there maybe a hour and a half at that farm. Here's some photos of the equipment used in the mussel harvesting:

The mussel rope coming out of the ocean.

The mussels getting cleaned off the rope.

Ashley helping feed the rope into a bag after the mussels have been removed. The rope will be cleaned and then reused on another farm in the future.

The mussels coming out of the mussel washing machine.

Mussels going down the conveyor belt to where they are sorted and bagged.

Debi sorting the mussels and her pile of harvesting waste.

Chris bagging the mussels into 25-kilo sacks.

Mussels being sorted and bagged for shipment to Auckland supermarkets (Chris and Glenn).

After getting an initial feel for how the mussel harvesting operation worked, Elli and I got down to business fishing. Elli had never been fishing before and had a great first catch:

Pretty nice sized Snapped for her first fish, isn't it?!

I also caught a pretty good sized Snapper, but a bit smaller than Elli's. Here's a video of me reeling it in. Later I tried to kill the fish myself, by sticking a knife into it's brain, something Gio had been doing for us up until this point, but I didn't really do a great job. Here's a video of me failing at killing the fish, but kissing it afterwards :) 

Here's both of our fishes lying side by side on the deck of the boat. Mine is on the left, Elli's is on the right:

After we caught some fish Elli and I got to work helping sort the green mussels - what they sell - from the blue mussels, oysters, and other harvesting waste. Here's a video of us working. We did this at a few points throughout the day. It got much harder at the second farm we were at because they were pulling the rope up much faster and the mussels were going by in a larger quantity than your brain could ever handle. It was quite stressful, I just couldn't keep up! I think I may not be made out for mussel barge work after all...

We weren't the only ones fishing off the mussel barge, however. Other fisherman came over to our barge and fished from their boats. Some of the waste, such as broken mussels, from the harvesting ends up in the water and attracts the fish like crazy. Here's a photo of one of the guys who was hanging near the barge:

And someone else was hanging around trying to catch some lunch as well:

A shag.

Here's part of our haul from the first farm. Each of these cages holds close to 50 sacks.

Can you imagine a view like this at work every day?

After we filled up the roughly 175 25-kilo sacks at farm number 1, we moved onto a second farm about 30 minutes back in the direction of town to fill up the 1 ton bags. It's maybe 7:30 am at this point. Imagine having accomplished that much by only 7:30 am? What a day! Here's a few photos from our time at the second farm:

Chris, showing off his very manly looking fish hook.

Another barge from the same company harvesting from a different line at the same farm.

Elli and I (below) enjoying the sun on our faces.

A cute little crab we found on the barge. They come out of broken mussels.

Elli with the crab.

As I mentioned before, Elli and I did some sorting of the mussels as they came of the line. Here are some of the items we found:

The two items on the left are Oysters. The third item, on the right, is a green mussel, what we were harvesting and selling. Gio and I ate these oysters raw. Here's a video of it.

This is something that grows on the lines. Nobody knows what they are technically called but they refer to them as "dog's balls" on the barge. Maybe that name isn't that far off...?

The mussels as they were coming off the line at the second farm. They were coming very quickly and there we so many, we just couldn't keep up! (When I was standing there trying really hard to focus on the mussels and find all the unwanted items to pull from the line, it felt like the mussels were stationary and I was the thing moving. When you focus that hard, and block out everything in the background, you have no reference point and can't tell that it's really the mussels that are moving past you and not the other way around.)

After we finished with the 4 1-ton bags at the second farm, we headed to a third farm, just north of our starting point to do another 50 25-kilo sacks before our morning was over. The water was smooth as glass on our way to the third farm. Here are a few photos:

On the way we ran across a group of birds on the water. As we approached they all took off in flight. Here's a video of them.

Now for some random photos from today:

Gio and Ashley. Gio took us out on the barge and Ashley was the "manly" man that worked on the boat. With his knife and cigarette and hard hat he surely fit the part of a hard working mussel fisherman.

Elli with a 1-ton bag.

Chris watching the fish in the water swarming the boat.

Elli with a 1-ton bag.

Me and the mussel haul.

Gio fishing.

Our haul, as seen from the cabin.

Us with the crew. From left: Me, Debi, Ashley, Chris, Elli, Glenn (Skipper)

Unloading the haul from the barge.

Loading the mussels onto the truck.

Leaving the boat was really sad. Here's a video of us saying goodbye. I didn't want to leave and really felt like a hug was in order but didn't know who to ask. It was such an amazing experience, it felt like it lasted for days. I'm sitting here typing this now, at 6:00 pm, only 7 hours after getting off the boat and it already feels like ages ago. I heard once that when you are having new experiences time slows down. I believe this to be true. Today felt like it was a week or longer - so many cool things happening constantly!

At some point during the day - maybe between the second and third farm - Ashley filleted 3 of the Snapper we caught. I ate some of the fish right off the bone as he was cleaning the fish. I also ate a raw mussel and a raw oyster today (see video above). 

After we left we all headed into town and Gio and I went to a friend of his' boat to fillet a few Trevally fish we didn't get filleted on the boat. Gio cleaned one fish and let me try the other. Here's a video of me filleting a Trevally fish.

I'm totally exhausted from writing this post now. It's taken me a few hours to get all the videos and photos uploaded. I'm done for now but may go back and edit this later with more information as I'm sure I won't have anything exciting to post in the next few days that could possibly top this experience.

Hope you've enjoyed the Mussel Barge as much as I have.

Up next - oyster farm, sheep farm, kayaking to Cathedral Cove, wild pigs. These aren't all on the calendar yet, but goals of mine. Let's see if I can make them all come to fruition!

Best!

P.S. I'm going to go back and edit the post from yesterday a bit if y'all are interested in checking it out. I just have a few facts to add here and there that I don't want to forget about Kiwi.

And now, some random facts from today:

The crew, which has been together as one unit for about a year, works 4 days on and 3 days off. Their days on are about 12 hours long - starting around 5 am and ending around 5 pm.

Last year they had a large contract for mussels that required them to do 2,500 25-kilo bags of mussels each week. (Currently they are doing 800 or so 25-kilo bags a week). With the larger haul they needed to utilize all the space on the barge and thus weren't using the carts to hold the bags. They had to hand stack all the bags of mussels as they packed them and then unload them all by hand when they made it back to shore. That's equal to almost 69 tons of mussels each week. Imagine moving that all by hand 2 times at least.

This leads nicely into another fact... the crew we were with today was mostly young. I asked if this was typical or not and they said that yes, it is, because an older crew just can't handle packing, stacking and unloading 2,500 25-kilo bags/week. Now that they don't have that contract anymore it's not as pertinent that the crew is young but this barge is still working with a young group.

The barge we were on can handle up to 50 tons of mussels at once. We did 10 tons this morning, which were offloaded in the late morning, and they were going back out for another 20 tons this afternoon. (The 20 ton load in the afternoon was going to be all 1-ton bags).

Some barges in the area do 100 tons of mussels per day.

The barge we were on was fairly new and cost about $2.5 million new, equipment included.

The 25-kilo sacks packed today were headed to grocery stores in Auckland. The mussel company sells them for about $30 NZD/sack. They are then sold to consumers at about $100/sack. The consumers buy them by the kilo, not the 25-kilo sack, but the math works out to roughly that.

The waste from the harvesting is sold to a local man in town, Steve Hawkey - the burley guy, who turns it into fish burley. Fish burley is minced up mussels (and whatever else comes out of the harvesting process) and is thrown into the water by fishermen to attract fish to their boat. I have actually gotten 2 rides from Steve in the past - one to the mussel kitchen and one into town. It's so weird being in a small town, you get to see the process full circle: Steve drives me to the mussel kitchen. I meet Gio at the mussel kitchen who takes me on a barge. I see the processing waste on the barge which is sold to Steve. How strange! It'll be cool if I get another ride from him, we'll have something to talk about!

Okay, I'm sure I'll come up with more facts later that I'll let you in on.

That's really all for now.

Best!

Tramping Through the Woods to a Kiwi Bird, An Afternoon at Little Bay, Re-Inking my Tattoo

Nothing exciting happened yesterday except that I finished the Hobbit. What a great book! And a relatively quick read - I don't remember it being so.

Anyways, onto today. So far, and it's not even 6pm, Alanna and I have had the most amazing of days! We left the cafe at 7:30 this morning and set out for Port Charles where we went on a bush walk in search of a wild Kiwi Bird, and were successful at finding one. We got a ride with our across the street neighbor, Natalie, who works at the local i-Site (information center). She is originally from LA and has lived in NZ for 5 years now. Her friend Ruth also joined us on the our journey.

The road up to Port Charles was a journey in itself. It is a very windy and hilly gravel road. In total the drive was almost 1 hour and both Alanna and I spent the last 30 minutes trying not to vomit. It was such a crazy drive, I'm so happy I didn't have the car and had to be in charge. The roads was only barely 2 cars wide and we always managed to come upon oncoming traffic on a blind corner. Yikes!

Anyways, once we got to the reserve, we got down to business pretty quickly. This was also when I noticed my camera wasn't charged. I had made all efforts to charge it before leaving but something must've not worked - thank got Alanna had hers! We left for the bush by about 9:30, after washing our shoes to prevent the spread of Kauri diseases, and then headed into the bush. Here's a video of us shortly into our hike. We hiked for about 1.5 hours and then came to a resting point. We were tracking a specific Kiwi bird that had a transmitter on it. It has had a transmitter for I think like 10 years but I'm not sure if they're ever attempted to catch it before today. We were on a mission to catch the bird, check it's health, remove the transmitter, and then re-release the bird.

After the first 1.5 hours of hiking, the guides left our group of 16, and went off to see if they could actually find the bird's exact location before brining us all further into the bush. They did find the bird and one of the guides, Tommy, stayed next to the bird's burrow, while Diane came back to get the group. We had a bit of a rough hike getting to the bird but once there we got to see it, and Alanna got to hold it. Here's a video of the female Kiwi bird we tracked.

After we spent some time checking the bird's health (while I recorded the measurements and observations) we headed back to the road. We followed a stout line, a line where they try to trap/kill stouts (a ferret-like animal), so the track was a bit easier. Emphasis on the "bit" because it was hard trek back, but faster. We finally made it back to the road about 2:30 pm, so in the end we spent 5 hours in the bush. No injuries to speak of - from anyone in the group - and thankfully no wasp nests or razor sharp vines which we were on the look out for all day. We did however, end up on our bums more than once as there were a few very steep parts of the track - too steep to hike - that we had to slide down to avoid an accident from happening.

Here are some photos from our hike:

Me, ready to head out.

Diane, our guide, trying to get a read on the transmitter from the Kiwi.

Alanna and I. Natalie is photo bombing us, in the middle, and Ruth can be seen off my left shoulder.

Me holding pig poop. A young girl in our group had said it was a spider's nest. I wasn't keen on holding it but the woman in front of me made me take it. After I grabbed it I said that is for sure not a spider's nest. Later, Tommy, our guide, confirmed it was pig poop. Yuck!

Tommy, our guide, holding a cicada borrowed in the ground.

The cicada. Sorry the photo isn't super clear.

Our Mauri guide, Tommy.

The hill we hiked down. You can't see it all that well but it was pretty big.

Diane with the Kiwi.

Look at how cute it is!!

Measuring it's beak. 130.3 mm. Most bird's beaks are measured from the tip to the nostrils, which are up towards it's eyes. On the Kiwi, however, the nostrils are at the tip of the beak (so they can smell worms and suck when they stick their beak in the dirt) so the beak is just measured up to when it meets the face.

Me scribing all this important information down.

Weighing the Kiwi. 2.1 kg.

Alanna holding the Kiwi.

Close up of the head. That brown mark on the side of it's head is it's ear. Can you see the eye, that is mostly closed, just in front of the ear?

Look at those feet/claws!

After the hike we drove a different, but just as windy and hilly, road back toward Coromandel town. We stopped at a beautiful beach, Little Bay, on the way. Based on both the view and the quality of the beach homes, I would say this is where the rich and famous vacation. Some of the homes have helicopter pads for quicker in/out. It sounds nice too to be able to avoid the wicked roads the lead to this small bay/community. Here I am at the beach:

When we got back to the cafe I went and got me tattoo redone. The ink on two of the dots didn't stay well so James redid it. Hopefully this time it will take.

And this just in: tomorrow morning I will be going out on the mussel barge. This has been many weeks in the making but apparently the weather will be okay tomorrow so we'll be able to get out on the water and see what this mussel business is all about. I am getting picked up at 4:15 so it'll be an early morning, but well worth it I'm sure! With that I have to get to bed. Talk to y'all soon.

Best!