Ladies and Gentleman.....!!! In this corner, out of hiding for over TWO MONTHS..... it's Matt Natti!!! G'day y'all. Ok, I guess I have a LOT of catch up to do. To start, I've moved. I know live at 15 Hereford St in Palmerston North, Manawatu, (thankfully still in) New Zealand. My phone number is still +6406 354 1266. My cell, in case you get good text rates and just want to say a quick "hi" is +64021 023 61 726. The +64 is the international code. I beleive you dial 00 64 blah blah..... but I'm not sure.
My new flat is pretty good. I am oly 5 blocks away from my old place, so I am still walking distance to town and stumbling distance from the pubs. I am living with Claydon (my partner in crime) and Jenna.... a climbing partner who moved up from Wellington to take a job as a nurse. Living with 2 other climbers is good. The first piece of "furniture" to go in was the finger board, to do finger pull ups over the living room door! Those of you who knoiw me may not beleive this.... but there are also plans afoot to put a bouldering gym in the living room (we have 13 1/2 foot ceilings!)!!!
Not that I am trying to justify my on-line absence.... but ol' Claydon fancies himself a bit of a computer guy. Apon moving in to the new pad, he had "the best way" to set up our internet." This lead to almost a month of VERY sporadic computer use as he stewwed, grumbled and cursed MY computer, as that HIS computer was obviously perfect and the only reason we couldn't get the internet up and running was that MY computer didn't want to "talk" to HIS computer. Ah well..... it's sorted now and here I am! Anyways, I digress.
Let's see. Work. Work is.... well it is what it is. I am still having tons offun playing in the trees and the boss has finally come round to the idea that I can take a tree down better than he can (which is good considering he a. is VERY competitive and b. has come a bit to close to breaking things a few times!). For our X-mas weekend out, the boss shouted a weekend of white water rafting, 2 nights at a remote riverside cabin/ retreat (fully equipt with a hot pool, sauna (yes a proper wood fired one!) and a bar with cute bar tenders!). We also took a day to go rock climbing at a small local crag and soaked in the natural thermal pools for a few hours after it was all said and done. I have to say... it really wasn't to shabby.
So X-mas break rolled around and the company shut down for 3 weeks. For my end of year bonus, the boss gave me a STACK of gas vouchers. "At first I thought this was a bit of a cheesy gift for you Matt, but I have a feeling that you may appreciate them more than most people." ROAD TRIP!!!!!!! Ah yes, 3 weeks, no work, no worries about fuel, and an entire country worth of virgin rock..... Life is good.
My mate Claydon and I packed up and headed to Napier, a nice touristy beach town on the east coastsof the North Island. Over the past 8 months we have been developing a great bouldering area out there (on perfect, overhanging limestone) and word had started to get around. We had been contacted by Ivan Vostinar and his lady friend Tereska (both originally from the Chech Republic and also some of the strongest climbers in the country) for a tour. We spent our first 5 days showing them around and feeding off there energy. HEAPS of new problems got sent as well as a bunch of good ol' goofing around. X-mas was spent climbing. I DO miss the family and friends..... but x-mas at the rock wasn't THAT bad. The only bummer for this portion of the trip was a minor fall which resulted in me twisting my back a bit TOO much. It hampered my climbing a bit and actually led to my going to a physiotherapist to have a few disks put back in place! Ah well..... gotta pay your dues, right!?!
The next stop was the Taupo region. The big selling point there being the massive amount of geothermal activity..... which when you have a sore back is NOT a bad thing. In preperation for this leg of the trip, I had gotten my hands on a cordless hammer drill and a fair amount of bolting gear to start the development of a newly discovered ryolite (almost like granite) cliff band just north of Taupo. The routine was simple: pick a line that looks fun to climb, install bolts at the top to anchore your rope to, clean the route, place bolts for protection ONLY if the rock didn't have features which could be protected with traditional gear (ie stuffing things into cracks, etc.), then climb the route. Sure, a lot of the routes turned out to be a bit hard, so there was a fair amount of falling onto the rope, cursing, bleeding as well as a fair bit of laughing, but after all was said and done.... all was healed with a cold beer in a HOT natural thermal pool!
So.... that's me to date, I guess. I still have a week left on the road (right now I am enjoying 3 days rest at home so as not to TOTALLY burn myself out) and then we are heading back up north to meet up with a good crew of friends and check out yet ANOTHER new area! Merry X-mas and Happy New Year to everyone.