And so a new chapter begins in the Life of Matt Natti......
It has been settled apon, that although a great friendship and many great memories have been forged, Cris and I have grown in two different directions over the past year (or more) and are best suited to follow our own paths. I think the fact that even in the same country, we were unable to make time for each other was a sign from the get go.
It is actually more a releif to me (and her) than a disapppointment. The "limbo," the uncertainty, the constant self doubt is gone. We are both now free to get on with the great adventure of life. We both agree that having such a blank slate in front of us is odd, but at least for me I find it to be a breath of fresh air. As that I have faith Critin and I will remain friends through all of this, the big fear is the loss of a second family. I have gotten to know the Dwyer/ Chase (and friends) fairly well over the past few years and will be sad to see them no longer a part of my life. I had hoped that we would be able to continue to have a friendly relationship, though if sides need to be chosen, blood is always going to be thicker than water.

This Sunday was another eventful day for me. I got a lift to the Manawatu Gorge from Allister, the owner of City Rock (the local climbing gym). He was heading into the gorge anyway to throw 6 12-14 year old girls of a 22 meter bridge for a few hours (giant pendulum rope swing), and figured he could show me some of the local climbs while we were driving through... as well as at the actual bridge.
The cliffs are right along the water's edge. They consist of very rippled limestone which, although the rock appears very textured, offers very little friction. Some of the climbs are literally DIRECTLY over the water, so it is neccisary to abseil (rappel) off the top until you get to just above the water.
The local trick for a belay is to rappel down on a gri-gri which is a device which works like a seat belt.... it lets rope through, up or down, until it is quickly weighted which locks it up (x-mas gift anyone?). Once at the bottom, you simply start climbing up and pulling slack through the gri-gri every move or two, incase you fall. Once the season warms up, there is also some exellent overhanging sections that will make for great "deep water soloing" which is climbing with nothing but the water below you as protection (and incentive)!
So, I got in a few hours of good climbing, all the while being entertained by the high pitch screams of the wee ones being hurled of the bridge. After the birthday party crew left, Allister was nice enough to offer me a jump..... hell why not. The rush is in just throwing youself off, there is no real free fall as that the rope tensions quite quickly..... but it was a lot of fun.

It is Saturday evening.... I am eating a lamb curry wrap and enjoying a tasty cold Speights beer. I got out of Palmy again today and finally got down to Wellington to climb some sea side rocks! I got a lift from one of my co-workers down to "Hang Dog's" climbing gym, where I met up with Ryan.... an employee there who offered to show me around the local rock scene (thank goodness for internet climbing chat forums!).
Due to the fact that it had been raining the entire 2 hour ride down, my spirits were not at their peak. Ryan had told me that every Saturday a large group leaves from the gym to go out and climb...... as that it was wet and windy, they had not showed up either. It also seemed that due to a minor issue with staffing, Ryan was working his first Saturday in 3 months. I noodled around for a bit on their bouldering walls.... convinced that I was doomed to another day of indoor climbing when Ryan proved to be a truely compationate climber..... "Hey dude, the sun's coming out. Why don't you just take my car to the rocks and bring it back before the gym closes.
To be an honest guy, I left my trad rack there (which he later confessed was worth easily twice the value of his car) and accepted his offer. I was off to Baring Head, which is a cool bouldering area on the south east point of Wellington. The rock is know as greywacke (of the Torlesse Supergroup, deposited during the Triassic and Jurrasic eras between 250 and 140 million years ago!). It is conveniently located on a sandy beach which makes for superb landings. A lot of the climbs are short cliff style in the 5.6- 5.10 range (moderate difficulty) though there are some real test piece problems to work on. I also set up my rope on Ship Rock, which is the mother of all boulders at Baring Head. As that I had no belayer, I set up a sturdy single line and practiced my self belay techniques.
All in all, the climbing was awesome. I headed back to the gym, did a few more climbs to warm down and yaddered with Ryan, who turns out to hail from Kentucy/ Tennessee area! he offerded me a ride to the bus station so I could get myself back to Palmy..... and here I am. Damm, what a good day. I am going to go explore the Manawatu Gorge with the owner of City Rock (the Palmerston North climbing gym) tomorrow and hopefully get even more climbing in.

Kiwi pest control is as follows.... if something furry tries to cross the road, hit it. As a general rule there are NO native small mammals, so ANYTHING seen crossing the road offers drivers an opertunity to PERSONALLY help the fight against alien species. I have never before seen so many people swerve to NOT avoid hitting something! The big money targets are possums, which are Aussie natives imported to control gorse (which is an invasive plant imported to control errosion) and rabbits, which got here because someone thought they were cute and then they did what rabbits with no preditors do... reproduce.
The rats and stoats (weasle) are farily good at avoiding the roads. The hedgehogs.... which are cute and prickly are not very fast moving little buggers, so people often slow down to admire how cute they actually are before hitting the accelerator and making hedgehog smear road pizza out of them! Weher as in the US they claimed that the streets are paved with gold... kiwi streets are definitely paved with mammal bits.
Oh, and for those who are actually checking up on me, life is good, but keep the emails coming.

Oh yeah... a "small world" aside.... on the way down from the mountain Sunday morning, we ran into a few kids hiking up..... one of whom was wearing a B. Redsox hat. Turns out they were doing a semester abroad from Hobart College back home. The fella was from RI, but the 2 ladies were from westwern Mass..... I guess you are never TOO far from home!

Ok, the official post time keeps being reset on me, so... from here on in, add a day to all the posts. Where as the time and date listed is 9:55 am on Sunday, it is actually 6:55am Monday.
Ok, so I FINALLY got out of Palmerston North this weekend! A few Kiwis that I actaully met at the local pub, took pity on me and brought me up to Mt Egmont in the distict of Taranaki. This was the mountain peak used in the movie "The Last Samurai."
Pushing 3000 meters, she was certainly a good hike. We actually opted NOT to summit her as that the last 1000 meters above the hut we were staying at was still snow capped and VERY steep, so we decided that with out hte proper gear it would be silly to make a stab at it. We may go back next weekend, or we may head up a neighboring mountain.... honestly, I again care less WHERE we go, as long as we go SOMEWHERE!!! I did get a bunch of photos this time, so as soon as I figure out how to upload them... I will.

Week in review: The palm trees were moved succesfully. The "small" on weighed in at 26 tons, the big one was a whopping 31 tons! I was otherwise involved in "real" tree work for most of the day, but we did happen to swing by to see if they needed a hand just as the big one was going into the hole. There is something wrong/ awesome about assisting a 31 ton palm tree into a hole as it dangles above your head! The trees were actaully so big that the moving company that we were involved with JUST bought the crane we used. A 250 ton capacity monster freshly imported from Germany at a cost of $1.7 million, WOW!!!!
I have been slowly showing my fellow Kiwi climbers about toys. I feel bad for them, because gear is really expensive here, but they obviously NEED to have all the cool things that I use. I may have them make up a list when I go stateside again... but we'll cross that bridge when I get there.
Cristin has left for the south island. She is doing a week of travelling with her father, who has been here for a week already and LOVES it. After Mike leaves, she will be doing her work study down there at a dairy farm... oooooooh! I appreciate the need for a large animal vet to seei and do it all... but putting "suckers" on the tits of 1000 cows twice a day just CAN't be very exiting, poor thing.
I certainly plan on visiting her. We are still working out LOTS of "us" details, but it still seems to be a worthwhile investment. Besides, even just as friends (and as a long time, kick ass climbing partner) there is a ton of adventures to be had down there.... including Castle Hill Basin, which is a world class bouldering/ climbing area of which I have a rather serious "thing" for. Besides just rocks, there are more mountains and fjiords down there than any one person can see in a lifetime, but we are cretainly going to give it a shot!
So that's it for now. I need to pack as that I am heading up to Taranaki (est coast of North island) to try and bag Mt Egmont. It is still snow capped, has some incredible alpine rock, and like most good Kiwi hikes, has a very posh hut mid hike to stay at. If any of you have seen the Tom Cruise movie "The Last Samurai"... Mt Egmont was the Mt Fuji "stunt double" as that the whole movie was shot in NZ.

So I just realized I had not adjusted my blog time, so all the previous post are dated a bit earlier than they were written. Everything from here on in will be up to snuff. Oh, and I forgot a VERY imoprtant bit of information about my trip here..... On the flight to LAX.... "MINI-ME" was sitting up in first class!!!! Not to be mean, but I honestly never would have seen him if I hadn't taken my time getting off the plane..... he waited until almost everyone was off and then got an escort with some of the more attractive female attendants! My brush with fame, so cool.

So today is another day... ahhh Mondays! So Saturday was a wash.... literally. I did my laundry, dishes, and cleaned up around "home." Sunday set out to be uneventful as well as that Cris was studying like a woman possed for her final exam today.... so I went out on the town to see what I could see.
I stopped in at Starbucks for a cup a jo' and it turned out that I had previously met the coffee gal behind the counter (Rebecca) at the pub a few nights back with her husband, Scott. Scott is a climber and they are both the action/ adventure type. She was just getting off work and as that it was VERY windy, she and her husband were heading down to the "local" beach (30-45 minute drive) to go blow carting and thought I should tag along. Blow carts are very simple and very fun. A cloth seat is slung onto a low frame with 3 wheels (2 in back, 1 in front), a stearing wheel controls the front wheels direction, and a single rope and pully control..... THE SAIL!!!!
So there I was, strapped into this contraption with nothing but a climbing helmet, a seat belt and some sunglasses (I WAS clothed!). It had a really fast learning curve..... pull cord, tighten sail, move like a bat out of hell until I scared myself.... let go of cord and slow down. Turning took a little bit, but after blowing a few 180's and 360's I learned how to let of the sail just long enough to make the turn and snap back into it. Apparently the little buggers have been clocked up to 90 km!! Pretty cool, I'm still picking bits of sand out of my ears.
Today (Monday) was a new adventure at work.... we prepped 2 30 foot tall, 3 foot diameter phoenix palmtrees for transplant. This involved a heavy crown reduction, and then prepping tie in points for the 250 ton crane to pick them up from! Thankfully all the pruning work was done from a rented lift, more importantly I got to stay on the ground... I still hate palm trees! Inside the canopies we found a combined 15 bird nests, 1 shoe, a rock or piece of a cinder block and a native tree trying to grow out of the top of one of them. Ah palms, they are never dull! Wendnesday we move them.... it promises to be a hell of a day.

Ok, so the truth of the matter is....... no matter how good you are at a specific job, as the "new guy" on the cew you ALWAYS get the snot beaten out of you. Day 2 at on the job involved a HUGE gum tree to be safety pruned. The tree was big enough to warrent 3 climbers, two in the nice straight up and down, well branched side.... and me in the big open, horizontal spans with the EXPENSIVE landscape plants underneith. It was a fun tree, the view from the top was incredible, but definitely a good test of my climbing ability. They also gave a tree to top that was half way own a nasty, gorse laidened hillside with NO access. I had to rappell of a fence through old brush piles, weeds, vines.... the works. Ahhhh...... I'm definitely the new guy!
I still haven't gotten to climb any outdoor rocks. It is sort of depressing not having a car, there is so much good rock around but it is all at least an hour drive from me. The indoor gym is managing to keep me in shape.... but it is more like a methadone clinic really, just not quite the same fix. To be honest, after my first to days, my body is happy to sit in the park and read a book, but I am going to need an adventure soon...... I'm anxious to get out of Palmerston and explore.
On the "life is an adventure" note, Cris and I have been talking a lot. We are doing a really good job of re-establishing the old us, but the big test will be incorporating the "new" us into the relationship. She has changed a lot.... but then again so have I. We both want to make this work.... it is just a matter of figuring out each others new boundries I guess. I am eager to get out on some adventures with her, but until finals are over she is the same old Cristin..... FREAKIN OUT!!! She came over the other night to hang out and watch a movie, but between all of her studies and my first two days of work, we both just fell asleep! Oh well, even that felt pretty good.

So... today was the first day at "Guardian Tree Service." It was a good day involving a crane assisted takedown of a big pine tree over a shed, a few "nip and tucks" on a red gum (eucalyptus) and a poplar tree, and then removing a VERY large widow maker from a town tree at the end of the day. Thankfully I was on the ground for the crane job, but I did get airbourne for the euc' and the big pine hanger.
As that I don't have a car yet, I have been going a bit stir crazy with out work to keep me busy. As most of the people reading this know, I am VERY active and high energy so sitting around on my duff was definitely getting to me. I have walked around the majority of the main city enough already to assure I will never get lost in it! The rock gym has been a good outlet for me, but spending a good solid day hiking up trees and hauling brush is what I really needed.
To reward myself for a good "honest" day, I am currently woofing down a plate of "classic" New Zealand food.... a mega-plate of fish and chips. The fish/ Chinese take out joint down the street offers a fish plate special which consits of 2 fish fillets, chicken nuggets, french fries (chips) and a hotdog, all for $6.50 kiwi dollars!!! Icky (my pet tape worm) is in tenth heaven here! But wait, there is more..... as if we thought a hotdog was a nasty little morsel of questionable health value before.... they DEEP FRY them here!!!
I flirted my way into a handfull of climbing posters from the local climbing store the other day. It is nice to have more than just blank walls to look at now. The corker is that they are all pictures of these great international climbing destinations...... it wasn't until I got home and was putting them up that I realised one of them was Rumney! The home turf is represented....Yeah Dog! Even in NZ, land of adventure, New England rock still RULES!

Ok, so my little hostel "apartment" consists of a 16'x12' room with a chair (not a compfy one), a desk (dorm style) a queen bed (which is actually quite nice), a small fridge/ freezer, a small pantry, a closet and a VERY small bathroom with a sink, loo and stall shower. It also has a smoke detector, which is very sensative, which is connected to the ENTIRE HOSTEL, which needs to be shut of by the Palmerston North fire department.... who are very keen on offering free cooking lessons to me down at the station if I would like to learn how NOT to burn my toasted bagel. At least when everyone had to leave the comfort of their rooms they got to meet the new tenant (damm Americans!). Ah, another "adventure" packed day in Palmy!

So here I am. Matt Natti has broken free of the clutches of Massachusetts once again. Sure, living in LA was an adventure... but New Zealand!?! Nothing like be 12,000 miles away from everyone you know and love to make you appreciate just how big this world of ours really is. My "hop, skip and a jump" from Logan airport, to Las Vegas, to LA, to Aukland to Palmerston North was almost a 36 hour endevor! Oh sure... I had a 8 hour lay over in LA (mmmm, double double burger at "In and Out Burgers!"), but it was still a long haul.
I have truely thrown myself into a blind adventure here. There is so much that could go wrong, but the chance to make it all work and have the adventure of a lifetime certainly makes it a worth while gamble. I look at it like this, home will always be there, and if I'm gonna screw up, why not do it in a country as beautiful and interesting as New Zealand!
So that's the intro to m first blog. I don't even really know what a blog is, but I'm sure it will become more aparent to me as time goes on. I miss all of you already. I hope you ALL keep my spirit alive back home. Stay off the couch (exept for Tucker and Lily), get out and do something in the great outdoors. If the sun is shining and you know that I would be calling you to go out and play if I was there.... GO OUT ANYWAYS!!!!!