Well... I've been VERY negligent in my blogging. Up until the hloidays, I was so wrapped up in x-mas and New Year's revelery.... I simply forgot. After that, I flew back to NZ... where I have encountered internet access all of 3 times! So, this will be a long one I recon! Let's start with...

December 08-

Ok, For a brief fade back to the end of November.... I got to have my first proper Thanksgiving in 3-4 years! It was (duh), AWESOME. The Natti clan may not be all that festive most holidays... but Thanksgiving the pull out all the stops. I ate and drank and napped and then repeated the process untill I swore (as me and my father do most every bird day) that I would never eat again, as long as I lived.
We had the usual fixin's... turkey, stuffing, gravey, candied sweet potatos, almond green beans, smashed parsnips and turnips.... well, we had lots of food. Due to a great hunting season (I managed to get 4 nice sized deer over the whole season), we also had a big pile of fresh venison with dinner.
December was good... work was fun, though a bit slow. I got heaps of hunting in and had plenty of time to relax and enjoy the company of both friends and family. My band, Machine 475 (check out machine475.com), had a great show at a cool little theater in Gloucester. We had an actual sound guy, lighting guy, interactive video guy and we played as good as ever... if not better than ever! I was stoked that a good portion of my family (both direct and extended) where able to see me play.
The highlighht of the month was, of course, Christmas. Due to my lack of a "proper" x-mas in NZ the past few years (Hello, it's summer there in December! At least we had snow on the the ground this year.), I took full advantage of having my family, both direct and extended, so close to me. On x-mas eve I had dinner with Greg Theriault's family (my sister Diana's husband). On x-mas day I got to watch my neice and nephew open prestens at Diana's house and then my mom arrived from New York with her whole clan for a proper x-mas feast. That night I drove back to Gloucester. Boxing day was spent at the Natti compound opening gifts, followed by another extrodinary feast. Lastly, I spent boxing day evening at Cape Ann Tree Service, celebrating with my work mates and saying good bye to the whole crew before I headed out.
With a bit of sadness in my heart... I hoped on a plane on the 27th, heading for NZ. I had a 22 hour lay over in LA, where I managed to catch up with Yakov, an old karate mate from a good 8 years ago. We caught up, drank beer and (of course) went to In and Out burger. Life was good.

January 09-

The flight to NAZ was painless (as a 14 hour flight can be). As usual, the food on board was exellent and the booze (of which I had a fair bit of) was free. I caught up on a number of new (ish) movies and actuall managed to catch a few houirs of sleep. Apon arriving in Aukland, I was mnet by Jess, one of my good climbing buddies. We bummed around the city a bit and visisted one of my mates, who was sadly in the spinal rehabilitation center after loosing the use of his legs. He had been climbing a few weeks back and had a accident involving an 80 foot ground fall. Despite his condition... he was in great spirit and is eager to make the best of the new life he has before him.
On a side note, I would again like to point out the magic of the NZ welfare system- After his accident he was flown, by helicopter, to the hospital. He received all care for free. He was then given enough money (due to his inability to work for almost a year) to put a down payment on a house, which the state is paying to refurbish with ramps, handi-capped accesible bathrooms, refurbished kitchen (lowered counters, stove fridge etc) . They have also given him his choice of a car which they will pay for and will also pay to be retrofitted with all hand controls. Now THAT is something that makes a socialized health care system sound pretty damm appealing to me!
So, after a day of hanging outy with Jess, it was back to the airport. I flew from Aukland to Christchurch, the main city on the South Island. It was New Years eve. I was met at the airport by Claydon, Ben and Jeremy... 3 of my best friends and climbing partners. From there, it was off to Castle Hill Basin.... one of the top 5 bouldering destinations in the world. Apon arrival at the free camp, 5 minutes down the road from the actual rocks, I was greated by chears and loads of hugs and high fives from most of my climbing mates in NZ (as that had all planned a major trip together for the holidays). It was great... we drank and drank and told stories and played drunkin', headlamp hackie sack. At what we could only guess was midnight, we made the 10 second countdown and cheered and drank. We did this 6 or 7 times over the next hour.... just to make sure we were getting it right!
The climbing at "the hill" is amazing. It is a limestone landscape that looks like something out of the mind of Dr Zeuss. Massive, white and grey blobs of rock in all shapes and sized adorn rolling green pasture land. Although the actual surface area of the bouldering area is not more than a few acres, the density of boulders strewn about make it impossible to actuall see everything there with out running around like a wild man all day! The climbing, incidentally, is also amazing.
2 weeks later, tired, sore and in love with th world... I had managed to get up a few hard problems (2 v6s, more than a handful of v5s and heaps of v4s) as well as countless easy problems, which despite there "not as challenging" nature offered extreemly good value. I was also fortunate enough to be able to meet up with Cristin Dwyer, who, after graduating Vet school, had gotten a job down on the South Island and was keen to hang out for a few days. It was great to see her again. After that, it was time to head back to the North Island.
I have so far spent 2 more weeks up North. Most of the time, I spent being a dirtbag climber at my favorite crag... Mangaokewa in the Waitomo region. It is MY crag that I helped create... so I feel a very deep connection with it. Apart from that, it is a magical place to hang out due to the cool forest that surrounds it. Many of my friends showed up to hang out and climb. I managed to develop 5 new routes over the time I was there and generally enjoyed being a bum. I also met a Swiss gal (Shoosh! she's just a girl.... nothing more!Can't a guy, even a cute, flirtatious guy like me hang out with a cute Swiss gal with out all of you getting exited and starting rumors!?!) who is planning to travel the SI fore a month, being both a climber and a tourist. She asked if I wanted to tag along and as that I have no plans but to have fun and see the contry... I said yes. I fly down on the 27th. I'm in Palmy now, at Claydon's house. I promise... there will be many more adventures to follow!!!