Life is an adventure: MNatti in NZ

2009-04-05T15:43:00.000-07:00

The North Island sucks. Ok, that isn't true at all.... but upon leaving Wellington, the rest of the trip went a bit pear shaped. I got up to Palmy.... good old BORING Palmerston North. There wasn't much going on (as usual) but I did get to catch up with my good mate Claydon, Safwan and a number of the other Palmy locals and some of the old MUAC (Massey University Alpine Club) members. Cool. Then, the day I was leaving on a bus to head up to Taupo... my laptop and it's case was stolen from Claydon's house. The laptop was cheap, no worries. The only real loss there was a bit of music and ALL my pictures from the vacation AND the past 4 years worth of NZ! No worries. The case, however.... external hard drive (to back up everything on the computer!), my dvd writer/ reader, my US and NZ cell phone, my chargers (phones, camera, computer etc), a few hard to replace books/ magazines.... and... my passport. Yippie.
I got to Taupo. My mate forgot to pick me up, so I waited at the bus stop for almost an hour until he decided to check his phone.... ooops. So then, I had to call the US consolate to cancel my passport and make arrangements for a new one. Oh, they are closed for the weekend. "In case of a global catastropie, involving the immediate peril of a US citizen, please hold the line and leave a message at the beep." Great.
I did a bit of climbing and a bit of hotpool soaking to sooth my soul. It worked. Monday was drive to Aukland day. My mate Ryan was kind enough to drive me up... we made an adventure of it. $400 dollars and a day later ($200 for new passport, the rest was travel expenses), we headed back to the Waitomo region for a bit more "soul soothing" climbing. As that we arrived at the crag late, we decided to camp just down the road... so we could get an early start. As the second cup of coffee went down, we realised the car was dead and cell reception was spotty. Perfect. We had to sit around most of the day, waiting for a friend to come give us a tow as that the area was a bit to dodgy to leave the car alone while we went for a climb. Bummer.
So we eventually got the car fixed. We did get a bunch of climbing in, here and there.... but what a lot of twists and turns to get there! I managed to catch up with the rest of the crew... to say goodbye to those who I really needed to say good bye to. I managed to bolt and send a few new lines, here and there, as a fitting "farewell" to NZ. All in all, the vacation was awesome. I do wish all the bad stuff hadn't held off until the end of my 4 years of experiancing NZ.... but ah well. It is what it is.
After all was said and done, and the final hugs had been hugged.... it was time time to go. I flew, safely and with out any issue, to LAX. The flight was smooth, the booze was free and the movies were good. Even immigration was a breeze! In LA, my mates Jim and Angela Corcorin met me at the airport and we cruised around... catching up with friends around the area. It was fun... and a great re-introduction back to the states. After that... home. I'm back where it all started, safe and sound. I suppose.... it's time to "grow up" a bit. Time to settle down and start to worry about "what I'm going to do when I grow up!"
So.... now for the bad news. This means that, all though I will ALWAYS have adventures.... probably none will be as great as the trip to NZ. Also, as that I am around these parts, most of you will be able to see me (now and again) and keep up with me a bit more personally. So, it is with a huge sigh that I type (what is more than likely) my final post to the blog. I may keep up with an annual review.... but it will never again be as indepth as what I have done up to this point. My life just won't be that exiting anymore and I'd hate to bore you all with an "aveage life."
Thank you all for keeping up with my adventures to this point. I hope all of you who have read this continue to keep in touch. My email is mnatti@hotmail.com. My new cell is 978-879-6984.

Love to all of you..... thanks again, for everything!

2009-03-12T19:00:00.000-07:00

We made it back to the North Island safe and sound. Wellington was fun... I got to catch up with a few old friends and do a bit of climbing at the local gym. I also spent a good day wandering around the capitol city and just seeing the sights. After 2 days there... I headed up to good old palmerston North, my first home here in NZ. Wow, it's really boring here!
Over the past weekend (before I got up here), there was a terrible accident at "Freshers." This is the Massey University Alpine Clubs "getting to know you" event, held out in the Manawatu Gorge. The day usually involves a BBQ, music, rock climbing, a bit of paddling/ swimming and the highlight.. the bridge swing. This is run by a long time supporter of the club who owns the local climbing gym as well as running various outdoor oriented activities. he has thrown well over 10,000 people off this bridge. Sadly, this weekend was his (and the club's) worst nightmare come to fruition... something went wrong and a young girl fell to her death.
as a friend, I've stuck around a bit longer to try and help where ever I can. Alister, the man in charge, is devistated and although he has seen a HUGE outpour of support from the community... I wanted to do my bit as well as that I consider him to be a true friend. After a long sit down together, he seems to be doing ok... but I suppose in the light of what happened, ok is actually really good. I am meeting up with a huge group of club members tonite (both old and new) to catch up and have a bit of a bonding session with everyone.
Besides that bit of bad news... all is well. I'm off to taupo tomorrow to meet up with the old crew up there and do a bit more climbing and developing. I can't beleive I've only got 2 weeks left here! Although I knew 3 months wasn't really that long... it flew by WAY faster than I could have imagined. i do, however, look foreward to heading home and starting the next chapter of my life. I'm building a house in gloucester. I hope to buy Cape Ann Tree Service. It seems, it is time to grow up a bit and embrace responsibility. rest assured... I'm still Matt Natti. The adventures will never stop, they'll just have to slow down for a bit. There is always time for a quick boulder problem or a short walk in the woods. Life is too short to not savor it when ever possible.

Luvs you all for continuing to read this hippy rubbish! Keep living the dream.

2009-03-05T14:08:00.000-08:00

From the Darrans, it was off to Queenstown. This is, by far, New Zealand's adventure tourism capital. There were SO MANY "extreem" adventure shops... it was a bit silly really. There were bungi jumps, bridge swings, skydives, parasailing, rafting, kiaking, flying foxes (zip lines), cave tours, guided rock climbs, even a place you could drive an actual "Monster Truck!!!!"
The town is set up for tourists. There are more hotels and backpackers than actual houses! Thankfully, Tomasz and I were able to avoid the temptations and managed to have a very cheap stay there. We got in a few days of great climbing at Wye creek (shist, very similar to Wanaka and Rumney) which had plenty of fun sport routes in a beautiful setting. The "Jardines" was a cool roadside bouldering destination which, after only a few hours of climbing, left us totally beat up! The highlight was heading out to "Chinamen's Bluff" near the base of Mt Aspiring. We went to do 1 climb... "Ravages of Time." This was our second BIG climb of the trip and although it was no where near as commiting as the Boen-Allen corner at the Darrans, we still ended up doing the final few abseils to the base of the climb with our headlamps. Thankfully, the track out was well marked and after the first 10 minutes or so, it joined a fire road for the 40 minute hike back to the car. Dinner was served at 11:30 PM... and DAMM did it taste good!
The next stop was Dunedin, which is a historic little city with a Scottish flair to it. The stay there was fun. We stayed at a mate's house and managed to get in a bit of beachside climbing at "Long Beach" (between intermittent rain showers). We did, however, manage to have one "good" adventure...... We arrived in the morning. We needed to replace the tires on the car and get an aleignment (general ware and tear), so we went to a garage and then to a cafe to have breakfast while we waited the 1 1/2 hour for the car to be finished. And so the story begins!
I ordered a "Big Breakfast," which consists of eggs, hashbrowns, toast and a grilled tomato. I also got a (very expensive) squeezed orange juice. Tomasz wasn't hungry yet, so he started to read a book. Afetr about 15 minutes one of the male owner/ manager came over to the table and put down a reserved sign on the table and told us it was reserved in 15 minutes. No worries. Tomasz was now hungry and so he went up and ordered a breakie as well... then sat down at the counter to allow the table to be free. I joined him and started to read my book. This was not what the owner had in mind.
The female owner/ manager came over to the table with a scowl on her face. "You are going to have to leave. This is not a library! I am sick of you backpackers stealing my mid-day business.... get out or I'll call the police!" Tomasz and I looked at each other in confussion. I pointed out that both of us had paid (quite a bit) for food, that the cafe was far from full and that Tomasz hadn't even finished his meal. She looked at her watch and told us we had been there almost 40 minutes and that our time was up. I politely (with a bit of a spiteful tone) offered her $20 for the privilage of staying in her cafe while I read and Tomasz finished his meal. She stormed off.
A few minutes later, the guy came back and said he wasn't messing around anymore... if we didn't leave he would call the cops. Tomasz and I said "ok, call them." He didn't like that. She came running over and started screaming at us to leave. Then, the guy actually grabbed me and yanked me out of my seat! Being a good karate guy... I quickly escaped his grasp and cocked back a fist. Tomasz said no one needed to get phyical.... we were not going to leave now until they actually got the police down there. Tomasz actually called the police himself to tell them we had been assualted- physically and verbally.
The cops showed up. They talked to us, they talked to them. They were very polite and sympathetic to us... but said we were going to have to leave. No worries. To be honest we just wanted to make the cafe owners do a bit of work and have to actually deal with the "Law." We didn't actually enjoy the last bit of hanging out.... we just wanted to perform a bit of civil disobediance for being treated so rudely. After that I wrote a good acticle about the event and hope to have it published in the Dunedin local paper. Justice served!
Besides that, the rest of the trip has been quite tame. We are currently in Chareleston, doing some climbing on some amazing seaside cliffs. Tomorrow we head to the top of the South Island and by Monday we'll be back in Wellington. I wonder what adventures the North Island will bring?!?

Loves to the lot of ya... I'll be back home by April. Keep living the dream.

2009-02-22T18:48:00.000-08:00

From Lake Tekapo we headed south to Mt. Cook (NZ's largest peak). Neither Tomasz (my polish travel partner) or myself could care less about mountaineering, so we opted to play on some of the roadside crags in the area for a few days. The pick of the litter was Sabastapol Bluffs, which are a group of greywhacke cliffs ranging from 15- 200 meters in height. Though some of the routes are protected with natural gear (trad), most have no cracks so they are all bolted. The rock was impecable quality and the views were to die for.
From Mt Cook, we headed further south to Wanaka, which is a quirky little mountain village located next to a beautiful lake. Of course, there is also heaps of good climbing there. The weather was not always on our side, so we had a few rest days (or half rest days) but the climbing we did get in was great. The rock in Wanaka is Shist, which makes it very similar to the climbing in Rumney, NH. I felt right at home crimping away on bad holds and sharp cracks.
From Wanaka, we headed to the Darrans. The Darrans is NZ's only "world class" climbing destination... though as it turns out... it is more a mountaneering destination due to the long, uphill hikes to get to the solid rock. There are a few cool roadside sport crags which offer amazing rock with great views... so we concentrated most of our week long trip at those types of areas.
Two of the other days were very memorable- The first day that really stands out was a reast day. We headed into Milford (the local "town") to do a bit of sight seeing. As that Milford is part of "Fiordland", we decided to due a boat tour to see some of the fiords and check out the Tasman sea. By a stroke of luck, we met a gal who needed a lift from the hut we were staying at into Milford. By an even bigger stroke of luck... she worked for the boat company. After a wee bit of flirting (not really THAT much, she practically offered of her own accord), she hooked us up with two free passes for a 2 hour boat cruise which included a 45 minute stop at "Milford Deep." Milford deep is a "first of its kind" aquarium.... though rather than looking into tanks, you walk down a spiral staircase into a large room 30 or 40 feet under the water, which has huge windos 360 degrees around the walls. It was really cool.
The second adventure was.... well, more adventuresome. As that we were in NZ's mountaneering capital, we decided to try to bag on BIG route. We opted for the Boen- Allen corner, which is a beautiful 8 pitch (1200 foot) wall of granite situatied ontop of a 4000 foot ridge. We did the hike in sweet. We did the climb sweet. Then the bad weather came in and we were forsed to spend the night under a boulder with nothing but our climbing gear, 2 tins of sardines and a bit of water. We didn't die. Actually.... although I would never have signed up for it.... it was actually quite fun.

Hope all is well in the world.... luvs ya all!

2009-02-07T17:21:00.000-08:00

WOW!!!! Ok.... once more, WOW! The South Island is pretty rad. I've been averaging 5-6 days of climbing per week since I got down here. My mate Tomasz met up with me and Monica (the Swiss gal) in Christchurch and the adventure got underway. Thankfully, Tomasz has a car.... though it is a bit cramped.
The first order of buisiness was bumming around the Christchurch crags a bit. Although there is nothing real tall... there is loads of fun little crags to play on (both sport and trad). While in C'church we managed to find availible couches to crash on at the house of Anna Dwyer (no relation to Cristin.... that they know of), who is a friend of Tomasz. She is a strong climber, a fiery red head, a Chalky Digits model (climbing/ outdoor clothing line in NZ) and geneally an all around cool cat. She actually ended up tagging along with us for a few days of the trip.... wow, as if the car wasn't tight already!!!!
Next on the list was a bit more time at Castle Hill basin and Mt Somers, which is an alpine crag requiring a 3+ hour hike in (thankfully there is an alpine club hut at the base of the cliffs to camp at). The rock at Mt Somers was cloumnar basalt. It offered both amazing trad lines (quite a few of which I simply soloed!) and some cool sport climbs as well. The views were outstanding at the hut was actually quite cozy as well. Our base camp for this leg of the adventure was Cristin's house in Methven. Due to the 3 days we were at Mt Somers, we thought it was best to stash any unwanted gear at her place to reduce the chance of the car getting broken into. It was great to catch up with Cris and she and Anna had great fun trying to sort out if they were related (if nothing else, both of their fathers are named Michael Fransis Dwyer.... weird!).
Just recently, Monica has left the group due to the fact that she wanted to do a bit more sight seeing (as opposed to climbing every day!) as well as the fact that she had already made plans to meet up with some German fella mid month. As much as I enjoyed her company, it is definitely easier just dealing with 2 guys in the car. We may try to meet up a bit further along in the trip... but who knows.
The past two days were spent doing some amazing multi-pitch climbs at the base of Mt Cook (NZ tallest peak). The rock was amazing, the views were extrodinary, the camping was free and the weather was.... windy but good. Tomasz and I are currently having a rest day at a health spa in Lake Tekapo. For $8 we got a sauna, hotpools, (much needed) showers and free internet! Life is good. We haven't really decided which direction to head yet... but I'm sutre it will be fun regardless. I'll be sure to post up next time I can.

Keep living the dream. Get out there and have your own adventure... even if it's just a walk in the park! Loves to the lot of ya!!!

2009-01-25T14:13:00.000-08:00

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!!!

2008-11-16T15:24:00.000-08:00

Autumn is a great season... cool temps, fall foliage, wood smoke in the air and deer in the woods. It is great to be experiencing it in New England again.... certainly one of the best places in the world to enjoy it. Work has been going fine, though with fall foliage comes fall clean-up and I have already had just about enough of raking and blowing! Thankfully, as I have for the past 10 years or so (minus the NZ stint), I have been going out hunting quite a bit now that deer season has opened.
It has not been a great year for deer (there have only been 2 hanging in the barn so far) but I've had quite a few cool woodland/ wildlife experiences. One of note, I was sitting in my stand being harrased by an angry red squirrel (they love alerting the woods to the presence of a hunter or other danger by chattering up a storm) when out of no where, a sharp shinned hawk flew by and grabbed it right in front of me. COOL!!!
The best one so far this season, however, involved two Sawwet owls. It was about a half hour before dusk and I saw the 2 owls fly in and land on a branch of a tree about 5 yards away from me. They both saw me as well and began bobbing and circling their heads trying to get a better look at me. I decided to return the gesture by bobbing and circling my head at them as well. This got both owls very curious and after a good long stare off, they both flew into the same tree that I was sitting in. One of them landed so close to my left shoulder (there was a branch directly behind be) that I could have easily reached out and touched it. Both owls stayed and checked me out, within no more than 5 feet of me) for over 20 minutes... they even started talking to each other! I have to say... even if I'm not packing the freezer with meat, getting to be that much a part of nature is super cool and well worth the price of admission.
That's news- luv to the world!

2008-10-23T16:05:00.000-07:00

Oh dear... I've been a BAD Natti. Can it be that I let this thing slip for 2 whole months?!? Well... here it is- Life is good. I've been plodding along at Cape Ann Tree, which is probably one of the best places to work in the whole world. I've been getting out and climbing a bit, though probably not as much as I should be.
The BIG climbing related news was that I attended the Nor'Easter a few weeks ago. Basically, the weekend consisted of 500+ "average Joe" rock climbers hanging out at the Tenny Mountain ski base lodge (10 minutes from Rumney, an international sport climbing destination in New Hampshire) to listen to live music, look at all the cool new stuff various vendors/ sponsors had on display, watch unreleased climbing films as well as getting to hang out with a hanfull of the top climbers in the world. The original goal for the weekend was also to do a bit of a clean-up at the cliff, as well as getting to see "the big boys" play on some of the hardest routes in the world! Unfortunately, the weather for the wwekend was... less than ideal. In fact, it rained almost the entire time. I have to admit, I was quite proud of climbers as a whole because they all just sucked it up and dealt with it. We all put on our rain gear, pitched our expensive (4 season) tents and enjoyed the weekend. Of course, good music, great company and a fair amount of adult beverages will make anything a bit more tolerable!
In other news... it is hunting season. I have to admit, I do love chasing bambi! So far, my luck has not been so good (I've only seen 3 deer in 2 weeks and they were all WELL out of bow range) but any exuse to hang out in the woods during New England autum is really ok with me.
That's all for now, Dad's calling me to the dinner table. Keep on living... don't just live.

2008-08-26T16:34:00.000-07:00

It's close to a month... I suppose it's time to post SOMETHING! The first part of the month was wet, wet, wet. Work was good, regardless of the rain (it was on and off), but I got next to no rock climbing in. Gutted! Thankfully the last bit of the month has finally dried up and the climbing has been great. I met up a few times this month with my Kiwi buddies Tom and Philipa and showed them around a few of my old "local" haunts.
I have managed to find myself a band to play with! You should all check out http://www.machine475.com/ to see how cool they are. I have also been pimping myself out to a few other bands in the area... folks are starting to call me a didgeridoo slut! What can I say, I LOVE playing the damm thing.
Ok.... now the BIG news- it seems my family REALLY want me to stick around. My pops and my aunt have offered to sign over a 4 acre lot on the Natti 40 acre homestead in Gloucester, MA. It is actually the original lot that my grandparents had there house on. It is nestled deep in the woods, almost a mile from the main road and ubutting all of Dogtown (a 500 acre plot of publicly owned land). To add to an already amazing offer, my cousin (just down the road) owns a saw mill and has offered to mill all the timber I need. This means I can build a post and beam house on 4 acres, practically for free! As much as I love New Zealand..... it seems like an offer I can't refuse. The fam is also trying to find me an attractive, single lady to tie me down.... though I figure that will come in good time. I'm still in no REAL rush to settle (unless you're interested!).
So that's the news that comes to mind. I hope everyone is doing awesome and continuing to have good adventures. Love to everyone!

2008-07-29T16:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, it's been a few weeks, with no work.... so of course I have had a few good adventures! For starters... Southern Cali was awesome. It was great to catch up with Erica (my ex- lady friend from NZ), I also got to meet her fam and a good bundle of her friends. We cruised the beaches, ate good mexican food and even took in a night at the theater!
During the 2 day's that Erica had to work, I also managed to meet up with a few of my ol' North Shore buddies who have moved out that way (Jim, Angela and Mark). We did the bbq thing, cruised around the beaches a bit and even went to "Hooligans," a cool pub near San Diego that was set up by a Lynn Mass local... it is the home away from home for a pantload of former "massholes" (especially when the Red Sox are playing!). One of the highlights of the stay was getting to drive through Joshua Tree National Park. It was beautiful... and there was SOOO much rock there! Although it was meant as JUST a drive, I of course had to get out a for a few quick scrambles. All in all, one of my best weeks in So. Cal! So... then I was heading back home. Wahoo!
So.... in the first week I had quality family time, had some quality "Nick Steglich" time, got in a bit of climbing, did a bit of REAL tree work with good ol' Cape Ann Tree and took my first Sauna in 11 months! Week two brought a bit more tree work, a bit of climbing with 2 Kiwi mates (Tom and his ladyfriend Phillipa) for a day out in W. Mass... and of course, the legendary Holmes Safari! This was the 10th anniversery of "the coolest party in the whole damm world!" If you feel the need to check out a bit of what it is all about, check out www.holmes-page.com/ and have a chuckle! In any case... it has been great being home so far. I hope I can catch up (properly) with all the US crew while I'm here... oh, on that note, my mobile is (978) 879 3338. Hugs to everyone that I HAVEN'T seen yet, oh... and hugs to all the NZ peeps back in Kiwi land, miss y'all heaps!

2008-07-13T09:57:00.000-07:00

Home, home, home!!!! Well, at least "home" as I knew it. I'm totally stoked to be back in the states.... but I will admit that NZ definitely is feeling more and more like home. Regardless of that.... it's going to be great to catch up with the crew.
The plane ride (on my birthday!) was ok this go around. The food was awesome, there was a cool selection of movies (on my personal TV screen with personal dvd selection), the booze was free and I was fortunate enough to have a cute Aussie gal to sit next to on the flight (thouh it was a bit odd when she fell asleep on my shoulder and drooled a bit!). The temerature change was a bit of a shock.... from low 30's to high 90's in 12 hours... my body is still freaking out trying to adjust. Thankfully I suffered only a little jetlag.... it feels more like a gentle, 3 day hang over (of course.... I've had my share of evening drinks... so I may actually just have a gentle hang over). At least I have heaps of great mexicazn joints to keep me entertained for the next few days!!!
Well... that's really about all for now. As soon as I have a phone for the states... I'll post it up so I'm a bit more attainable. Hope to catch up with all the "staties" sooner rather than later! Luvs y'all.

2008-06-24T11:46:00.000-07:00

Ah.... 3 days of work left! The "good" boss has taken me out for dinner twice in the past week, he also went rock climbing with me over the weekend. The "bad" boss has so far given me a wrong address for a tree to prune (and blamed ME for not being able to find the tree!), blamed me for one of the chippers breaking down (though I hadn't used it in the prior week) and has reminded me 3 times in the past week that "he doesn't want to see me slacking off on my last few days!" Ah well.... like I said, 3 more days until freedom!
On an up note, it seems that NZ employment law entites me to receive all my acrewed holiday pay. This means that on top of all the money I've saved up for the trip home (which, for those of you who REALLY know me, isn't all that much!), I will be receiving a bit more than an extra 2 weeks pay as well!!! On top of that little "pick me up," I've decided to head out to "my" crag for the week before I head home (to do a bit of "last minute" touch ups and put up a few new routes) and apon mentioning my plan to the crew... a good handful of them decided to wag work for the week as well! It should be a fun week of climbing, drinking around the campfire and living the general dirtbag lifestyle. Life is good!
I'll see most of you soon. I can't wait to hug you all in person!

2008-06-11T23:40:00.000-07:00

Ok... no major news, but it's been over a month so I figured I should post SOMETHING! I have been climbing a lot (duh). I am TOTALLY stoked to be heading back home for so long... it is going to be great to be more than just the "token American" for a bit! I miss EVERYONE back in New England (and beyond) and it will be great to properly catch up for a change.
So, how much am I stiked to come back? Well, for the record, I was given a job offer by my current boss to become a manager for the company. This would have meant a pay raise and the ability to do a bit less physically demanding work all the time. Perhaps I screwed up by saying no.... but I was willing to take a gamble. I NEED to come home for a bit. I NEED to catch up with my crew and be HOME (proper home, not just the roof over my head) for a while. The way I see it, I am a DAMM good arborist. Arborist are also (conviniently) in HUGE demand in NZ (hell, EVERYWHERE) and so I recon that as much as my boss says he needs to "move on," I am willing to take the chance that he won't be able to fill the new manager position by the time I get back. Cocky? Mabey. The way I see it though, if my new job started with a comprimise.... then it already went against the new "Matt Natti" moto... do what makes you happy. If anything get in the way of that happiness, don't do it!
So I guess that's me for now. Big, rib crushing hugs to the lot of ya!!!

2008-05-01T11:24:00.000-07:00

Just a quick bit of news..... as most of you know, I head Stateside once a year to catch up with friends and family. I always time this aroundmy B-day and Holmes Safari (the greatest party in the world). It is also, conviniently winter in NZ and summer in New England! Anyways, although I have gotten pretty good at trying to visit as many of the crew as I possibly can in a one month period.... I've decided that going three years with out Thanksgiving dinner or a proper x-mas is too long. This year I will be arriving back in New England on July 15 and heading back to NZ Dec. 28! I look foreward to getting to spend a bit more time with all my friends and fam back home.

2008-04-17T00:59:00.000-07:00

An anecdote- It rained Tuesday. It rained HARD. It rained REALLY hard. I went to work.... I got wet. I got REALLY wet. We WOULD have gone home.... but we were called out on an emergancy tree job. Ah, the old "tree on a house" routine! Ok, so with 6 guys working, 6 BIG chainsaws and a 22" chipper with a mounted hydrolic winch... we thankfully slammed out the work in short order. We were back at the workshop by 10:30am (all 6 of us looking like drowned rats dipped in sawdust!). The rest of the day was cancelled.
So, pouring rain and no work for the day.... what to do? Rock climbing, of course! I was (somewhat understandably) only able to talk one of my friends into a climbing mission (and Ryan is about as loopy as I am, so it didn't take a lot of convincing). We met at our new crag at the Mangaokewa reserve. Why? To see if our hopes that this crag was weather proof could actually be true. After a 5 minute run up the track (in full rain gear), we entered the main climbing area..... we took off our coats, our rain pants, poured ourselves a hot coffee out of the thermos and smiled. The rock (and everything under the 15 foot long roof of limestone 50 feet above our heads) was dry. We could actually walk around and had our choice of 15 routes to climb on (though a few did have wet spots here and there). Not too shabby.

Another anecdote- Ok, so the weather report was for another full day of BAD weather. So what do you do? You call work and tell them that unless they REALLY need you, you are going to take another day off for rock climbing (the bosses were beginning to think I was a bit nuts at this stage!). I had no camping gear with me, so I headed back to Ryan's for the evening (quite convinient as that MY home is 1 1/2 hours from the crag and his is only 10 minutes). We had a few beers and a pizza. We watched climbing videos. He went to bed and I sprawled out on the couch and read (looked at the pictures) of a climbing magazine until I dozzed off.
Here comes the REAL story.
I was woken up around 2am by strange noises in Ryan's kitchen. He had, earlier in the evening, told me about a possum that had been sneaking into his house recently. So... there it was, eating the fruit in his fruit bowl!
Now, as you may have read in earlier entries.... Possums are cute, Austalian marsupials which were imported into NZ a long time ago, for a reason tha no one really agrees on. The problem with Possums in NZ is that they have NO predetors, BIG appetites and a VERY high rate of reproduction. Their prefered food sourse is NZ native bush.... which takes AGES to grow. It is possible for one possum to do enough damage to a single 500 year old native tree in 3 nights of "grazing" to completely kill it. That being said.... when in NZ, the only Good possum is a DEAD possum.

And so we return to the fruit bowl..... I bet you have an idea where this story may be heading!

I leaped of the couch and dove into the kitchen. As that I wasn't sure of where the light switch was but I definitely knew where the fruit bowl was. As my night vision got better, I charged the table and grabbed for the possum! I only managed to grab his tail... and he did not want to stick around long enough for me to get a better grip.... so with a quick burst of energy and a little less fur on his tail....out the door he went! Victory was mine! I curled back up on the couch and dozed off.... dreaming of their little red eyes, trapped in my headlights.

Not long after.... I woke up again. Shuffle, shuffle. Sniff, sniff. Shuffle, sniff, shuffle. Ok.... I missed last time, but now he's back. SWEET! I'll just wait here, on the couch, until I hear him on the table again. Shuffle, sniff. He sounds close... I have to be ready.... shuffle.... any minute now.... sniff, sniff...

OOOWWWWWWW!!!!!!!

That's right folks. I was maliciously attacted by a possum and lived to tell the tail. There I was, lying on the couch, waiting for the opertunity to attack.... and that damm possum snuck up on me and bit my big toe.
It was on. No more mister nice guy! No Australian, fruit stealing, tree murdering furball makes me bleed my own blood and gets away with it! I jumped off the couch, grabbed a blanket and ran around the house for a good 10 minutes... chasing the possum and trying to catch it in the blanket (they, apparently, DO have teeth!). After a few close calls, I managed to get the little bugger cornered and covered and so I brought the writhing blanket outside. It was time for the death blow! I held the blanket over my head and started to swing. My plan was to generate a good amount of speed before smashing the little toe biting demon into the ground (sorry about the blanket Ryan!). Sadly (though perhaps a better ending overall), just before the final swing.... the edge of the blanket released. The possum (already quite dizzy, I'm sure) took flight. I don't actually know what happened to it, as that there was no trace of it the next day..... but oh, did it fly. Although squished possum in a blanket seemed an ideal scenerio at the time.... in hind sight, the thought of launching some poor possum through space to some unknown fate is actually quite a bit more entertaining.

So that was my day off. Hope you have better luck with YOUR days off! Loves ya all.

2008-04-14T00:28:00.000-07:00

So I usually post up once a month... but last weekend was totally awesome, so I figured I'd share it with you. The tree company I work for (Plateau Tree Service) decided to take off early last Friday morning for a road trip. We all piled in cars and drove out to Gisborne, which is on the upper east coast of the North Island. The reason? One of the best Arboretums (tree collection) in the NI! Although it was more than a 4 hour drive, it was totally worth it (especially as that I was still getting paid for the day!). The trees were magnificent. The collection was originally established over 80 years ago, so there were plenty of big, old trees to look at. Best of all, it is autum here, so all the various maples, oaks and beeches they had were in full color. I'll happily admit that it made me a bit MORE homesick, seeing all the fall colors on trees that I've grown up with.
We spent the night at the arboretum in a very nice lodge on the property (though I slept outside as that the night was perfect and the boys were a bit drunk!). Just outside the lodge was a MASSIVE old oak, so we (being tree guys) set up a giant rope swing and took turns jumping off the roof of the lodge (between beers!) and swinging out a good 40 feet (wearing our harnesses of course)! In the morning we walked around a bit more and then packed up, after a mean fried breakfast.
Half of the crew had "stuff" to do Saturday evening, but the rest of us decided to take the LONG way back to Taupo. We decided to drive the East Pacific Coast highway up and around the whole East coast. It was beautiful! Big sea cliffs, cool ocean views, neat trees, heaps of little hick towns (there was even a town called Hick's Bay!!!) and loads of cool trees. As it got dark, we decided we would just spend the night in Whakatanae (a cool little town know for it's great surfing), rather than head back to Taupo.
I will openly admit... I got a bit drunk that night... but damm I had a good time! We bounced around from pub to pub and the whole time I was carrying around my didgeridoo (yes, I bring it everywhere!). I got heaps of people exited about didges and while I was playing my heart out for them, managed to get 5 drinks bought for me! Not to shabby.
Anyways, the following morning (Sunday) we headed back home (I slept most of the way!) and had a MEAN breakfast, complete with a vitamin packed Bloody Marry, when we hit Taupo. I'm not usually one for the old "hair of the dog," but DAMM it hit the spot. The rest of the day I pretty much did NOTHING. Normally, that would be bad, but I can't honestly remember the last time I just did nothing for a day..... it actually felt really good.
So that's it. No more to report. Have a great week!

2008-04-07T00:44:00.000-07:00

It seems I've been a bit negligent in posting as of late. I suppose I could have bored you all with MORE stories of rock climbing (don't worry, I'm sure to throw at least ONE in!)... but I wanted to wait until I really had some fun stuff to write about. So, with out further delay... the MNatti "Month in Review!!!"
Probably the most exiting change for me in quite a while is that I've finally gotten back into Karate. Although I had a breif "go" at it while I was living down in Palmerston North.... the teacher was terribly boring and offered no sence of enthusiasm to the class. The club I found in Taupo, however, is not only the exact style I was doing when I was living back in New England but it is also a great club. The teacher is VERY energetic, teaches great technique, pays HEAPS of attention to detail and the class is full of cool people as well. It is actually quite a releif to have something NON climbing related in my life again (yes, I DID say that!!!).
The company truck just got fixed... so I have wheels again. I did my first BIG grocery shopping in over a month and I'm quite happy to have supplies again. I also did a HUGE laundry mission, as that I've been reduced to doing small loads (by hand) in my sink for the past month! Not only am I happy to have a selection of clean clothes... my friends and work mates I do too!
The new crag, at the Mangaokewa Scenic Reserve in Waitomo, is being developed at an expodential rate. In the past 3 months, my crew of climbing buddies (with the help of a handful of other North Island climbers) have established almost 40 sport routes (bolted lines). This rate of development is almost unheard of in NZ especially in the North Island. That being said, this cliff really is shaping up to be one of (if not THE) best sport climbing crags in the whole North Island. I can't lie... I'm pretty happy to be one of the major players in the over all development of the cliff! The first addition of the guide SHOULD be out online by the middle of April. If you want to check it out, go to www.freeclimb.co.nz and click on the Central North Island section (I think that's where it will be). You can also check out "Reperoa," "Manawatu (both the cliff guide and the boulder guide" as well as the "Kinloch Bouldering Guide" to see some of the other developing stuff I've been involved in over the past year or so.
So besides all that.... nothing TOO exiting to report. My job is plodding along. I'm starting to feel my age a bit (as far as work is concerned) and realise now that, although I love it, pehaps tree work is geting a bit much for me. The problem with this is that my work visa is limited to arboriculture. This leaves me in a tough position. My only option for doing something else here is to get my NZ residency. As much as that appeals to me, it is a) quite expensive ($6000+) b) more difficult the older I get and c) I'm not sure I REALLY want to settle down here. I miss home. I also have gotten a taste for adventure and "seeing the world," so who knows where I'll be in 2 years from now!?!
Ah well.... Natti's philosophy on life: Enjoy today and let tomorrow sort itself out... right? I'm having a good run so far and things are always looking up, so I guess I can't complain. That being said, I can't wait for July. It will be great to be back on "home turf" and catch up with the crew again. This blog never cease to amaze me..... people ACTUALLY read it!!! So far it has gotten me back in touch with a good handful of OLD friend that I though I would never hear from again. Super cool!
So that's me, I guess. Keep following my lead... have fun out there! Live every day as best you can and make sure you never loose touch with who YOU are and what YOU need to keep happy! I loves ya all and miss you heaps.... Remember, I'm still here for at least another year and a half. Doesn't ANYONE need a vacation?!?

2008-03-05T23:32:00.000-08:00

So as the saying goes... "when it rains, it pours." So my car blew up. No biggie, right? The company I work for was happy to lend me the company pick-up for a while. Sweet, right? Ah, in steps fate.
First event was a misguided throwball incident. For the non "treeguys" out there, a throwball is basically a beanbag filled with lead shot. They are used by connecting them to a thin, strong line (such as heavy-duty fishing line or thin prussic cord) and throwing them up into a high branch in a tree. This allows you to then pull a climbing line up to a branch heigher than you could have thrown the heavier rope. For REALLY big trees, a specially designed GIANT slingshot on a 6 foot pole can be used, enabling you to set your line as high as 80 feet! Apparently, however, if the throwbag is launched into a high crotch and ricochees of a branch, it can actually go clear past the point of origin (personally I thought this defied the laws of physics) and clean THROUGH the windsheild of a pick-up truck. Bugger.
No worries. The truck was fully insured. Two days later all was sweet. Three days after that, on a Saturday afternoon, the poor little pick-up met with a far worse fate. As that I was off climbing for the weekend (in a mates car) I had no idea until Monday at work what became of her. It seems that some young houligans decided to break into the company yard, hotwire the truck and drive it through the front door of a local liquer store! They stole the safe, cleaned out the register and left the poor little pick-up where it was.... with a busted front axle, a NEW busted windsheild some minor engine damage and a bent chasis. Bugger again.
So here I am, carless in Taupo. Thankfully, there is a good troop of climbers in the area so getting out and about on weekends hasn't been a problem yet.... but the little things like doing my laundry and going grocery shopping are a bit more of a pain these days. Again... "ah well." I just need to stop living such a decadent lifestyle for a week or two and I should be able to find a new set of wheels. At least I won't have to worry about waisting gas money for a bit!
Besides that, all is going well. As that my frequent survivor miles were about to expire, I just got my "in state" plane tickets sorted out for free. I, again, plan to spend a few days in So. California on my way back to good ol' New England to catch up with a few friends. Then (amen, halleluia) it is back home from July 15th - August 7th.
Can't wait to see the crew! Kiwi hugs for the LOT of ya!

2008-02-19T20:51:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was a CORKER. It was my 3rd time up to the National Bouldering Series boulder comp at the "Airstrip" in Waitomo. I probably didn't place TOO high... but as I've come to discover, it is more about catching up with old mates and meeting new people. The day was a bit wet, so we spent a lot of time playing on the dry, overhanging lines and having fun greasing of the wet problems. After the comp, my crew of climbers invited the lot down to our new cliff (which has a free campground, flush toilets, bbq pits and a river at it) for an after hours party. We managed to get about 30 people to come check out the new routes and over 15 of them spent the night as well.
Sadly... this weekend was the final flight of my Nissan truck. After JUST getting the radiator serviced.... the poor thing over heated, blew a hole in the rad. and blew the head gasket as well. Ah well... $1000 truck, at least it lasted a LITTLE while! I am currently in search of a decent van... as that I have come to the conclusion that they suite my lifestyle much better. Plus, simple is better. Having a 4x4 is cool and all, but there are a lot more things t0 screw up on the as well (words of wisdom from my pops!)
Besides that... alls good. It is the peak of summer here, so it is hot as blazes. Work is plodding along (I've actually been putting in 10-11 hour days lately) and i guess I really don't have much to complain about.
Miss you all heaps. Y'all should come visit. Peace, love and climbing!

2008-02-12T21:41:00.000-08:00

Life is good her in NZ, but not much news to report. I'm single still, climing a bit, developing NEW climbs a LOT, work is going smoothly, my car doesn't need MUCH work done to it, the weather is sweet and well.... I guess that is it. Sorry for such a small post, but things are just generally good here. I promise to post up if any mind blowing news pops up!
Miss you all, luv to the crew.

2008-01-22T22:57:00.000-08:00

So... the month in review (and what a month it has been!). You may want to pour an adult beverage before getting into this one, as that I recon it may ramble on for a bit! I guess I'llk start where I left off... just after x-mas. It was time for another "dirtbag climbing vacation!"
Just before vacation had official started, I bought myself an '89 Nissan Terrano 4x4 (basically a pathfinder). This was my first car that I actually owned the whole time I've been over here... it was a very exiting event. We could now pack up all our gear and go damm near ANYWHERE! That is, until the reality of OWNING a car kicks in and you have to start paying to fix stuff! Less than 3 days into the vacation the old girl started making horrible sounds, which turned out to be the interior CV joint. An insant damper was put on the "grand road trip" that was planned. My mechanic promised me that he would try to find a used replacement for me (to save a bit of my precious vaca money)... but it may take a bit of time. He also agreed with my theory that as long as I only drove close enought tho home that I could be rescued easily... I really couldn't do MUCH more damage to the CV. Sweet.
As that my flat is THE climber base or the area.... my buddy Claydon and I decided to just take the vacation on a day to day basis. If no one else was around, we'd climb at one of the 3 local crags we've been developing. Thankfully, there were a number of nights that we got back to the flat only to find a tent in the back yard and a crew of climbers itching to go SOMEWHERE, SOON! So this was our vacation. Adventure somewhere with someone in THERE car, get back and see who else has shown up and see where THEY want to go (again, in THERE car!). We had 2 or 3 days that we had to do some local stuff... but for the most part we got a hell of a lot of travelling in and HEAP of good climbing with great friends. Hell, at one point I had 9 people crashing on my floors and 2 tents in the back yard! That was probably the liveliest night of the lot!
So, amongst bouldering exploits, cool trad lines and hard sport stuff... my mate Ryan got in touch with us about a new (undeveloped) cliff. He said it was good. Was THAT an understatement! The new crag, which in its 3rd week already boasts 15 bolted lines (most are still projects), is quite probably going to (quickly) become the North Islands PREMIER climbing destination. The cliff is made up of 2 levels of overhanging limestone (which stays dry in ANY weather) and is located IN a free campground complete with flush toilets, a massive river/ waterfall and bbq pits! It offers climbs for all levels, but excells in cool, hard lines... most of which involve steep overhangs with cool features such as 15 foot stalagtites, collenettes, bulbous pockes and horrible (but usable) sloping edges. Just to try to grasp the size of this cliff, we started walking from one end of the cliff and had to give up 45 minutes later as that we hadn't reached the other end yet!
Due to the MASSIVE amount of work involved in developing a cliff of this scale, we have begun recruiting ALL the strong climbers the North Island has to offer and are also in the process of trying to aquire a few government grants to help pay for some of the bolts. I have, for the most part, put ll my other crags on hold for a while..... though the advantage to the "local" stuff is that I can still get a bit of work done here after work during the week.
So new SUPER crag, great vacation.... does it get better? Yep. I met a girl. Not just any girl mind you.... probably the most perfect "Matt Natti" girl in the whole world..... I just need to convince HER of that! Her name is Jess. She is 23 (no comments from the peanut gallery!), a gymnastics coach, passionate about rock climbing (actually leads climbs a grade or 2 above what I can!), loves adventures, loves the outdoors... and seems to think that I am, at least... ok.
We had met once or twice before at various climbing events.... but due to my goldfishlike memory... it wasn't until we were set up in the same camp for a few days over New Years at Kawakawa Bay (yes, a climbing area) that I REALLY got to meet her properly. She was a friend of a friend. That worked out great because her friend was planning on sticking around with us for a few more days after Kawakawa.... Jess decided to stick around too. The friend had to leave after 2 more days..... Jess didn't, so she decided to stick around a few more days. Actually, she stuck around until the end of the vacation!
As you may have guessed, we got on just peachy. After the vacation, she headed back to Hamilton (1 1/2 hours from Taupo). We did a fair bit of texting back and forth over the week and it was decidd that as that she was heading back to Taupo for another climbing weekend... that perhaps a date (yes, a proper date) was an "ok" idea. We had a great dinner and she ended up crashing at my place for the evening (that's all you get!). Then we headed back out to Kawakawa Bay and spent the whole day climbing together. Perhaps our lust for adventure, combined with our climbing abilities was a NOT a good thing that day..... as that we ended up soloing (no ropes) a few 150 foot climbs, up to 5.10 in grade! I guess, as that we KNEW we could do the climbs and we KNEW we couldn't fall off (or else)... it was all good. We celibrated at the top of each climb with a high five and a kiss.... not too shabby.
So all good? Well, it sems she is perhaps a bit TOO independant and has requested that we slow things down a bit as that she a) hardly REALLY knows me and b) isn't really sure she wants to get into such an involved relationship right now (had the audacity to say I was a bit "intence" for her!)... but we'll see how it goes. I, for one, am in love.... but for know just knowing that she exists is a good start. The fact that she wants to keep being my friend is even better. The fact that she has not cast aside the idea of SOMETHING a bit more in the futere is down right DANDY.
And that, my friends..... is the news! Love to all of ya!

2007-12-27T22:56:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! I figured it was about time to post up, share the love and let y'all know what's been going on down on the other side of the world. I will say again, having x-mas in mid summer is still a bit odd for me. It is not as bad as my x-mas in Los Angeles (lights on palm trees etc.), but it is still odd. The BIG downer is that EVERYONE is doing family stuff... and that is pretty hard for me.
As of the Friday, december 21st, the tree company shut down until the 14th of January... which meant I was once again able to plan a good x-mas holiday. This year I was fortunate enough to be asked along to a friends house, Craig Martin (the manager of the local climbing shop), who invited a few of us local "ex-pats" around for a feed. First thing x-mas morning, one of the ex-pats and I went for a climb (as that it was neither the dead of winter nor did we have anyone to open presents to open). After that we drove to Craig's place to have a proper x-mas lunch with his whole family (mum, dad, wife and his daughter). After a great feed, we were sitting around feeling lazy (as you do), so I reminded Craig that he had mentioned seeing a cliff somewhere around his neighborhood a few years back. This perked up the ears of all the climbers in the room (Craig included), so we decided to pile into the car and go for a drive. 6 minutes down the road we were all astounded to see a 100 foot tall cliff in a grassy paddok, a mere 2 minute walk from the road!
As one could easily assume, with a crew of 1st ascent hungry climbers, we quickly piled OUT of the car and crashed out to the base of the cliff. Talk about a COOL x-mas present!!! It was tall, long, mostly clean and full of potential for both bolted lines AND a few sweet trad lines. Although we had not gotten permission to be there, we had a bit of a play on a few of the cleaner lines (bad on us for technically trespassing), but decided not to push our luck and sadly left with no 1st ascents..... but access has since been sorted out and we will soon be returning to take full advantage of all of its loveliness. The day after Christmas was spent climbing on developed routes all day.... not a bad start for my 3 week vacation!
So besides the past few days exitement... all's been mostly quite in good ol' New Zealand. The new job is working out great, the flat is still ok and I'm meating new people practically every day. I've (almost) stopped looking for rocks completely, as that I've got to many projects to work on already! I'm still single and still not complaining about it (too much!). I STILL miss everyone back home (especially this time of the year).... but as per usual.... July isn't TOO far away!
Luvs to everyone.

2007-12-04T22:59:00.000-08:00

All's well in Taupo.
The job is going a lot smoother these days. They have conceded to the fact that I really do know what I'm doing. I got a raise after 2 weeks and am now making just shy of what I was in Palmy. Considering the money I'm saving in petrol to drive up to Taupo from Palmy every other week.... it all works out. We've been doing a few cool jobs, including the removal of 5 MASSIVE pine trees. The tallest of the lot was easily 150 feet tall! The crew is a bit green, but fast learners and everyone is fun (most of the time) to work with.
The rock climbing scene is also going quite well. I have a great crew in town, who are all keen as mustard to get out and develop stuff. We have "discovered" or RE discovered 7 areas in the past few weeks and are currently heavily stuck in to 1 crag in particular. It is located on Mangamingi road and it is HARD climbing. We have affectionately dubbed it "Man Crag!" The 200 bolts we were originally given are running dangerously low and sadly we will have to pay from here on in, but at least the store will be supplying us with them at cost.
Besides that.... I'm pretty much just plodding along. I've spent WAY too much money at the local Tex-Mex joint in town (yes, there is a Tex-Mex in Taupo of all places), but how can you blam me?!? I spent 2 years in Palmerston North, where "hot" was strictly outlawed and the concept of "Mexican" brought fears of little gun toating men with guns and donkeys! Ah well, I'm obviously in the right spot...... for now!
Luvs you all and hope you are enjoying life. Get out and do something FUN!!!!!

2007-11-16T09:19:00.000-08:00

Ah Taupo, how I love thee, let me count the ways....... Ok, so the move went of with out a hitch. My final day at Guardian Tree was spent abseiling off the side of a 100 foot grain sylo, as a training excercise to teach the boys how to set up top ropes, learn various rappelling techniques, practice aerial rescues and generally have a "play day." That evening Clay and I threw a "thatnk god we're getting rid of Natti" party. We cooked meat on the grill, drank oodles of beer and had a few rather epic jam sessions with the didge, drums and a few guitars. I got to bed about 2:30 in the morning! I must say.... it was a great distraction for me as that my ladyfriend left that Thursday for a week in Figi and then back to her home in So. Cal. I was pretty sad about the fact that I wasn'g going to see her again until July (hopefully). It was a great relationship, while it lasted and I think we are both pretty happy with the way it all went.
Anyways, that Saturday I finished packing up the work van (her final voyage as a climber mobile), slightly hung over but with the exitement of the move pushing me on. We actually managed to hit the road by 10:30 AM.... which was a meer half hour later than we had originally planned to bail.
We arrived at the new flat just after lunch. It is a pit. A glorious, rundown little hole in the ground.... but it is mine all mine and for the price, how can I complain. Despite looking a bit haggered, it suits me just fine. It is a 2 minute walk to the lake and a 10 minute walk to town. The yard is actually fairly big and altough it needs a good raking.... it is landscaped quite nicely.
We did a power unload and decided that the weather was too nice and that a climb at "our" crag was in order. On the way to the cliff, we stopped off at the local climbing shop to grab a few odds and ends and meet the local vendor. He said something to the effect of "So YOUR Matt Natti.... heard a lot about you. Really glad to have you up here, love all the development you've been doing. Hey, the store is starting a bolting fund for you..... if your heading to the cliff now, do you need a few bolts? They're on the house.
Ok, so that was cool. We got in a great day on the rock. That night we had a proper "climber" house warming... we drank beer and watched climbing videos and talked about epics we've had on the rocks. Sunday I did a bit of "neccesity shopping," and we headed back to the cliff. The fella from the climbing shop was out climbing for the day and let me know that the "store" had just purchased 200 new bolts.... that were being made availible (free) to me and the development crew.... to assist in improving the local climbing scene. WHAT!?! Day 2 and I get a new sponsorship.... not to shabby.
Monday, my mate Ryan and I planned to head out to Reperoa again (check out the guide if you want... its on www.freeclimb.co.nz under central north island), but we hit a detor and were forced to drive down a different road than usual.... which lead to the discovery of 2 new cliffs!!! I can see that I'm going to be a busy boy up here! It's a tough job.... but SOMEONE has to do it.
On that note, I started the new job that tuesday. It is ok. Just ok for now.... but hopefully I can work some magic and get these guys up to speed. As with any tree company, sometimes you need to do uninspiring jobs sometimes, so hopefully I just came in on an off week. So far we've done a transplating job, a few hedges and a few small removals. Not bad work, but not quite as inspiring as I could hope for.
Ok... y'all are probably falling asleep or seeing cross-eyed by now. That's the news. Happy Thanksgiving to the hometown crew!

2007-11-02T13:14:00.000-07:00

Well, it's about time for an update I suppose. I have less than a week left living in Palmerston North and less than a week having a girlfriend. For the latter, I am sad as that I really have had an absoulute blast with Erica..... but we both knew that realistically this was a finite relationship. As for getting out of Palmy though...... WAHOOOOOOO!!!!
In proper Matt Natti style, I JUST managed to find a flat to move into. That being said, in Matt Natti style, I totally scored! I will be moving into a 2 bedroom house, right on lake Taupo, and paying only $100/ week. Considering that for the Taupo region just a ROOM in a house goes for $140 or so.... I'd say I lucked out. The flat is owned by one of Plateau Tree Service's regular clients. The landlord has not been renting it because money was not an issue.... he just wanted to wait for "the right" person/ people to come along. Thankfully, that is me.
I still need to suss up a new work visa.... but as that I still have until Feb on the old one I should be sweet (oh Natti.... don't put THIS ONE off or they'll throw you out!!!). My plan is to move in this coming wekend and then go to immigration Monday or Tuesday. No worries..... I always manage to pull it together at the last minute!
SO...... 2 bedrooms. One Natti. Do I hear guest bedroom? This means I need guests. This means....... I WANT PEOPLE TO COME VISIT ME!!!!!!!!! New Zealand kicks serious butt and I will be living smack dab in the middle of all he coolness that the North Island has to offer. Great rock climbing, sweet mountains (year round back country snowboarding), FREE hotpools around every bend, caving, kayaking, some of the world's greatest trout fishing.... what ever!

Ah well... my own damm fault for moving so far away. Luvs ya all!

2007-10-07T11:14:00.000-07:00

Ok.... first things first. In the last post I mentioned quality relationships. I also said something about sometimes a short one can be better than a long, boring one. I felt the need to clarify this statement as that I was in a long relationship just prior to the one I am in with Erica..... My relationship with Cristin was AWESOME and I would not give up those memories for the world. Cris and I are still wicked friends and I hope to keep that friendship for the rest of my life. My posted statement was meant to reflect OTHER relationships in the world that have a tendancy to drag on just for the sake of "being in a relationship". Ok.... now that I goyt that bit off my shoulders...... I'll give you a short, new update of life in New Zealand.
I just had an awesome weekend. I did the "famous" Black Water Rafting trip up in Waitomo cave disrict. Claydon, Erica and I headed up Friday night to do a bit of rock climbing, and Erica and I decided to take Saturday to go into one of Waitomo's more popular tourist caves. The kicker about the cave is that it has a river running through it, so you actually float through most of it on an inner tube!
The cave had some crazy, cool features (big stalagtites, etc) and enough glow worms (a native larva that produces a sticky glowing strand to catch its prey) that in spots you could actually shut of your headlamp and still see inside the cave! It was definitely one of the coolest things I've done for quite a while. After that we went to see a few waterfalls and a hotwater beach. We also managed to get a full day of climbing in on Sunday... so all in all it was a real corker weekend.

2007-09-30T21:53:00.001-07:00

I am happy to anounce that my plans in Kiwiland are moving in a very posative direction. I have gotten a job, after a very laid back interview, with a treaa company in Taupo. Their name is Plateau Tree Services and they CLAIM to be the best in the Central North Island. In fact, their goal is to be the best in the country!
So far, the introductory pay rate is sufficient.... but hopefully I can prove that I am worth a bit more with in a short period of time (I like having play money!). I recently met a good crew of climbers from the Taupo area, so at least I know I'll have a good group to go out and hit the rocks with while I'm up there. My next big hurdle is to suss up my new work visa and find a place to live. I think I may go hermit style again (at least for a while) as that I've always enjoyed my own space when I need it. Sure, I've had plenty of flatmates.... but I like to get to know them BEFORE I move in! On a side note, related to the new place, a good mate of mine here is moving to Canada and has no way of shipping his entire climbing wall!!!!! Oh, I GUESS I can help out a friend in need!
Besides that, life in Palmy has been much the same. It is spring now, which means it is getting a bit warmer and a BIT less rainy. The days are finally long enough that afterwork climbing sessions are on again, and my buddy Claydon and I have been busy putting up new sport routes in the local gorge. Oh.... on that note, a bit of new exitement for me was that I finally bought my own cordless hammer drill (for drilling holes in concrete, rock etc.) which means that NO rock in New Zealand is safe anymore!!!!
I will admit that I am starting to get a bit sad as that my adorable ladyfriend will be leaving NZ as of the beginning of November..... but we both knew it was coming, I guess. As I've said before, she is definitely a bit younger than me, but we have been SUPER happy together up to this point. I guess I am of the opinion that even if we end up just being good, long distance friends who have VERY fond memories of one another..... that is just fine. I'd rather have had an AWESOME relationship for a short while than a lousy one for a long time. Not to say that has happened to ME.... but too many people have suffered that fate.
So..... I guess that's me for know. Hope all are well in the world. I luvz ya all to death!!!! Keep living life for today and make the best of tomorrow too!

2007-09-05T23:57:00.000-07:00

I guess I'm about due for a new post..... I hate to keep my "fans" waiting! So let's see, where to begin?
Life in New Zealand kicks arse, though I went through a bit of a depressed stage when I got back from the US. Being home made me realise how much I had (have) there and as soon as I got back to NZ, I felt a bit homesick. On top of that, I arrived with a slightly bunged up foot AND had to get my appendix ripped out so I was mostly confined to my couch for a bit. As you all probably know (or could at least figure out from all my past posts), I do not take sitting still well. In fact, there are few things I like less than being stuck indoors.... especially if it is with just myself!
I got to do a whole lot of self evaluation while I was "down and out" and tried to figure out what I needed to change to put things on the up swing again. (One of my BIGGEST pet peaves is people who get upset about there current situation, but stagnate in it so long that it pecomes accepted as norm..... life is too short to not have fun!)
Palmerston North has served me well over the past 2 years.... but it is time for a change. Things that have always been lacking in Palmy for me have been rocks that are easy access, a good music scene and an ample suply of "close" adventures. Sooooo..... I've done a bit of shopping around and my plan is to move to Taupo by the New Year.
Taupo has great bush (woods/ forests), HEAPS of good rock (quite a few of the areas I've done development at are within an hours drive), a cool nightlife (I hope to find a few musicians to play with), is close to the BIG mountain, is RIGHT on the BIG lake and best of all.... it has a large quantity of free, natural hotpools!!!
So... I have gotten a job, and I'm in the process of saving a bit of money (no easy feet for me) to buy a van, rent a flat and start the moving process. Although there are a few things I still need to take care of (like renewing my work visa etc), it seems like things are once again moving in a posative direction for me. Hell, it seems that 2 years is all I've really been able to sit still in one place for most of my life anyways.... I guess this is no real suprise to those who know me.
On that note.... a VERY tenative "longer" term plan is to give Europe a try. I'm thinking of looking into the arboricultural industry in the UK, as that I've heard the demand is high over there and the pay is AWESOME. I realise that England is probably not THE spot to be in Europe.... but it is an english speaking country and it would offer PLENTY of travel oppertunities for me. On top of that (and this is the BIG reason)..... it is a whole lot cheaper AND quicker to fly back home for a visit. For the same reasons..... I may ACTUALLY get some of the Holmes crew or my family to visit ME for a change!!!!
Ok... so that's news. Loves to the world. Keep living life to the fullest!

2007-08-12T19:30:00.000-07:00

Wow.... I just got my appendix out! My tummy was feeling a bit yuck yesterday morning (Sunday the 12th). By mid day it was REAL bad, so I decided it was worth going to the hospital. After a few hours of tests and being poked and prodded..... they decided that surgery was the best option. I guess, whether or not it actually WAS acute appendicidous (sp???), the appendix is useless so no harm in cutting it out!
Anyways.... not much of an entry, but definitly worth letting y'all know!

2007-08-09T15:27:00.001-07:00

And so another adventure comes and goes......

The trip back to New England was a huge success. Claydon and I got in a HEAP of great climbing, I managed to catch up with MOST of my friends and almost all of my family (although I STILL missed out on seeing a few important people here and there due to the buisiness of my schedule!). Thankfully, Holmes Safari (the greatest party in the UNIVERSE!!!) went off with out a hitch and as usual I was able to catch up with a group of friends unlike any others in the world, as well as having a preety DAMM good weekend just enjoying life.
Of course, I have written and spoke of my love for New Zealand time and time again...... but this last visit "home" really made me realise the magic and beauty inherent in New England. I have some of the coolest friends and greatest family of ANYONE I know. On top of that, I realise now that I was brought up in one of the most beautiful, adventurous, friendly places in the whole WORLD! Although my trip to New Zealand seems to be where I have really "come into my own....." I realise now that it was both the nurture AND Neitcher (I realise that the spelling has GOT to be off on that!) of my childhood in New England that has allowed me to become the fun loving adventurer that I am today. If it was not for the support and encouragement of my friends and family to live my life to the fullest and the bounty of adventures availible for me to explore right outside my front door...... well, recon I'd be a bit of a drab individual! I guess what I'm really trying to say.... to anyone who is taking the time to read this and is therefore at least a LITTLE interested in the days and life of Matt Natti is...... thanks for being there for me for all these years. I love you all!

2007-08-02T05:50:00.000-07:00

So the New England portion of the visit back to the states is at an end. I have to say, it was an enormous success. Claydon and I got in some incredible climbing through out the region, including the Gunks in NY, 2 days up at Rumney NH (sport climbing mecca of New England), Pawtuckaway State Forest NH (boulders gallour) and of course..... Cathederal Ledge in Conway NH. Sadly, I was unable to do too much climbing after our last day at Rumney as that I took a decent fall towards the end of the second day and my foot is STILL a bit sore. I am hopefull it isn't broken, but I have yet to go to the doctors..... so it can't be THAT bad!
The final "hurrah" for the trip was certainly Holmes Safari. It was a great party this year. Once again, it made me realise just how lucky I am.... I really do have great friends and getting to spend that much quality time with SO MANY quality people is always a treat. I want to publicly say that my buddy Nick Steglich, who host the party every year, has got to be one of the coolest dudes in the whole world as that he faithfully keeps track of all of us "holmses" and manages to organise a truely kicking party for all of us each year.
Anyways, after the party Claydon shipped off for NZ and I am just about packed to head to Indiana to catch up with me mum. I miss life back in NZ quite a lot..... but being back home made me realise that I was/ am a bit home sick. There is so much here in New England that I love and miss.... but at least I know it will all still be here for me when ever I come back.

2007-07-17T14:34:00.000-07:00

So an update from the "other side!" My buddy Claydon and I arrived in LAX at 4:30 PM on July 4th. We met up with a former MUAC member and long time climbing buddy named Gregor Cork, who had offered to "show us around So. Cal a bit during our 3 day lay over. We immediately drove to his aunts's house for an exellent independance day BBQ. We got to watch proper USA style fireworks (which were awesome) and have a good feed with great people. The next day we headed out to Black Mountain (in the range just outside of Joshua Tree) to do some higher elevation (and hence cooler) summer bouldering. The rocks were big, beautiful and made of perfect granite. On the way up to the hills, we made sure to stop off at In and Out Burger (as that Clay NEEDED to see if the food there is as good as everyone says).
After 2 days of HARD bouldering, we headed back towards LA. Along the drive back, we looked for "the dodgiest Mexican joint" we could find so Clay (and I) could get a bit of some REAL mexican food...... it was every bit as good as I remember from my LA days! We got back with plenty of time to kill, so we hit the beach breifly and then got one more meal at In and Out before hoping on the plane. Although the weather had been pushing 107 degrees while we were there.... we had a great time.
We touched down in Boston on Saturday morning. We were picked up by the full Natti clan and drove straight back to Gloucester. After a light lunch at the house, Claydon played on the big boulder in my parents front yard for a bit and then we fheaded down to my cousins for a well deserved Sauna.
After Claydon had officially MELTED, the Natti's took the whole group of us out to dinner at Jalepeneos (a KILLER good mexican joint in town) to celebrate my brother's and my birthdays. Sunday we met up with the "Holmes" crew and had a SUPER good sushi dinner.
For the following week we did a bit of climbing here and there, did a bit of tree work, visited my sister in Conneticut and then headed to New Paltz, NY for a few days of climbing in the Gunks (one of the East coasts premier climbing destinations).
Although our first day at the Gunks was VERY rainy, we managed to find some dry spots to climb and opted to stay in a hotel for the night rather than camp. The next 2 days were picture perfect and we had a blast. On Friday, we headed to Western Mass for MORE climbing.... and I made sure to bring Claydon to Bub's BBQ, which is just about my favoritye BBQ joint in the WORLD!
After that, we headed back to the North Shore, just in time to catch another sauna at my cousins. The rest of the week, so far, has been a mix of local climbing and more tree work (to help pay for all the fun we've been having)! At the end of the week, we plan on heading up to New Hampshire for a solid week of rock climbing and the EAGERLY antisipated Holmes Safari!

2007-06-29T19:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, so in less than a week I'll be back in the States. I will have had at LEAST one In and Out burger, will have been playing on good Californian granite, will have had proper 4th of July BBQ and close to having my first REAL sauna in almost a year. Am I freakin out??? Hells yeah!

2007-06-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

So.. all is well in the life of Matt Natti. Although I have no MAJOR news, it's good to just let y'all know I'm still alive! I still have a girlfriend... which is going GREAT. In my last mention of her we were in a not-so-serious relationship..... now it is a bit more. Neither of us are really sure what will happen come November, when she has to head back to California (oh, SO. Cal.... not Northern Cal. Apparently Californians get a bit touchy about what part of the state their from. I guess she was also a bit miffed that as her BOYFRIEND I got it wrong! Ah well.). Until then, we are both REALLY enjoying each others company.
My flatmate Claydon and I are getting real exited about the trip to good old New England. I will admit, being a "tour guide" means I may not get quite as much time with all the friends and family but I probably WILL be getting a lot more climbing in while I'm back, which on a purely selfish level isn't all that bad. That being said... we are planning a bit of tree work here and there and will obviously need SOME rest days, so I hope to catch up with as many people as possible while I'm back.
Besides that, all is well in NZ. I have use of a NEW company van since the old one finally blew up due to old age and MABEY one too many road trips around the North Island! The boss, thankfully, was very cool about the whole deal and said that a van is part of my contract so it's only fair that he replace the old one..... not too shabby!
So that's me. I can't wait to see the crew in a few weeks! Miss you all and hope you are all living life to the fullest!

2007-05-17T00:09:00.000-07:00

Not much in the way of exiting news to post.... but life is good. I have purchased my tickets back to the States for my annual summer visit, though so far JUST the Kiwi to LAX portion! Claydon, my flatmate/ climbing partner/ work assosiate/ hetero-sexual life partner will be joining me this year.... as that he is sick to death about hearing how COOL my family, friends and the New England climbing scene are.
We arive (for his benifit) in LA on July 4th!!!! We plan to stay a few days in LA with a few mates and do a wee bit of west coast climbing. The plan is to get into Boston on that Saturday (hopefully with just enough time to catch a sauna, but DEFINITELY enough time to go out for a good feed with my little bro, Eli, on his birthday). We'll prob stick around the North Shore for a week or 2, head down to see my sister (from there we will DEFINITELY head to NY for a day or 2 at the Gunks), then it is up to NH for as much climbing in as many cool spots as possible.... right up to Holmes Safari (the Greatest Party in the Universe as that it celebrates my buddy Nick Steglich's birthday) on the final weekend of July.
After that, Claydon heads home and I zip out to visit me mum for a few days. I know, for a fact, that she will kick my @$$ if I don't come to visist. Besides, I still haven't gotten to see Chicago... so I figure it is something I probably aught to do.
That's news....... see y'all soon!

2007-04-20T19:14:00.000-07:00

Near death experiance, formal presidency, girlfriend and general Matt Natti goodness.... it has been a good month!
So I led MUAC's annual Basic Rock climbing trip up to the Wharepapa region in the Central North Island. There were 10 instructors and 25 students.... we had a BLAST. There is something so incredible about bringing a begginer group out to real rock for the first time and helping them get to the top of a challenging climb. Due to the fact that I spent a lot of time instructing and belaying, I hadn't gotten much climbing in so at the end of the weekend I decided to try doing a trad lead on a beautiful crack that was JUST at my technical limit. The first bit was fun, the gear was good. The second bit was challenging and the gear was ok..... the top was hard. That's where I fell from. Sure, the drop was only about 1 meter to the big cam below me (making for a 2 meter fall), but as that it was a marginal placement..... I fell another 4-5 meters until the next piece of gear caught me. Bascially.... I fell. The first piece slowed me down a bit before it blew out, I fell to the NEXT piece (after a bit of smashing against the rock wall on the way down), the rope got tight, my weight sat into the harness and as I straighted up my body after the fall..... I was able to stablize myself by placing my feet on the ground! Had my belayer been a bit more slack I DEFINITELY would have hit the deck... not ANOTHER cast!!!
Ok, so that was the "near death" bit. So I know I said I had met a nice Swiss gal.... but due to the "live life for today" mentality I've adopted, I chose to keep my options open and have wound up with a very cute and cuddly young lady to call my own for a bit. Her name is Erica and she is doing a year abroad from Northern California. YES.... she is a bit younger than me Ok.... one night while cuddling she pointed out that she was in kindergarden when I was a senior in high school!!!), but as that she is only here for a short time ...... she decided a noncommital relionship was a good idea. I must say that I am QUITE happy with the fact that I still "have it" enough to be able to keep up with such a perky young gal!
So, in other news.... I was officially voted in a MUAC president at the latest meeting. I have gotten a full sponsorship from a national climbing shop to continue my local rock climbing development (free bolts and hardware, which is HUGE as that many of the climbs I have bolted before were upwards of $70 per route!). Work is great (I got a good raise and now can ACTUALLY save some money!). My boss just recently paid me to go to a 2 day climbing semenar with the international climbing champ.... it was SUPER cool to learn so many new tricks!
Besides that.... well, life is just pretty damm good. I hope everyone is well and I am looking foreward to catching up with Team USA in July!

2007-03-15T01:30:00.000-07:00

It amazes me how much can happen in a month! I guess I'll start with the obvious.... I've been climbing a lot. Team Palmy has begun development of yet ANOTHER new area, this time MUCH closer to home. The area is named Foley Farm and is 3 full hillsides of limestone cliffs and boulders as tall as 30 feet! As that it only takes an hour from town to get there, it has taken a bit more of a priority for me as that it benifits the entire climbing community in the area. As that I am directly benifiting the local climbing scene, I have also managed to aquire a semi-sponsorship from the local climbing shop. They are currently supplying me with bolting hardware at cost, though I may be able to get some of the gear for free in the future.
I am still involved with the Massey University Alpine Club.... in fact, due to a bit of technical difficulty with the president of the club over summer break, I am now the acting president. As I said at the first meeting this semester.... George W. has been "acting" for almost 8 full years, so I should be able to pull it off for a few months! I have openly admitted to the club that I am highly disorganised and often VERY single minded (climbing, climbuing, climbing!)... but I have been assured that at this stage of the game all they really need is an enthusiastic body to run meetings and keep moral up. No worries!
So why not take on the position full time? I have to much on my plate. I have gotten back into a local dojo and am training in Shotokan again (thank goodness... about time!). I currently have 7 climbing guides in the work and am busy doing the feild work to make them better (ie climbing more, making maps, documenting ascents etc.), which despite being fun and rewarding certainly takes up a fair bit of my time. Last...... oooooh and this one may throw y'all for a loop.... I do not want to commit to anything long term here as that I may be moving to Switzerland.
Ok... the story goes like this: I showed up one morning to pick up Jonus for work. (Jonus is a Swissman who has been living in NZ for over 7 years now and is ALSO my neighbor, my landlord and my co-worker.) When I walked up his driveway I saw a new (super cute) face in his kitchen. Over the next day or 2 I managed to find evry exuse in the book to go over and meet the person belonging to that face. Her name is Velia. She was on a solo adventure around the South Island but thought she would start in the North Island as that she new Jonus through a mutual friend. I guess she was equally as interested in making exuses to hang out because she actually showed up to do tree work on a crew with Jonus and me for two days!
We flirted like..... well, you have seen me flirt, she was ALMOST as flirty as I am!!!! We basicly spent as much time together, for the 4 days that she was in Palmerston North, as my sleep schedule allowed. In fact, It was actually 5 days as that she cancelled a day of "touristing" in Wellington to spend an extra 24 hours with me before she had to catch her ferry down to the South Island.
Thankfully for my boss, I am very bad at saving money..... because if I had had ANY availible savings I probably would have followed her down south and travelled around with her the whole time she was in NZ. That being said, we are still keeping in contact quite regularly. Although I will not be so bold as to claim "love at first sight" (far too cliche for me anyways), I will admit to the fact that she is worth a bit of an adventure for. I am still coming home in July, as that I NEED to catch up with my fam and the Holmes crew..... but apon leaving Logan Airport I will be continuing my vacation with an additional 2 weeks in Switzerland.
New Zealand is fun, but it's a big world out there. I came here to taste life and have an adventure. Opening one door just leads to more..... The way I see it, although she may be "just another girl (to be honest she celebrated her 32 birthday while she was here in Palmy with Jonus, his family and me)" but if that's all it ends up being.... I still get to see Swizzy for 2 weeks! I really can't see a logical reason NOT to chase her to the otherside of the world!

So that's news. Keep smiling and be open to adventure. Life is DEFINITELY worth living!!!

2007-02-06T23:09:00.000-08:00

Well..... no real suprises, but this past weekend I went climbing. I will say, however, that it was one HELL of a good climbing weekend. For starters, it was 4 days long due to a paid holiday on a Tuesday (I got paid to climb, YES!!!). Second, I went to Waitomo (limestone country) to enter a boulder comp and, though I didn't bring home any prizes, I was climbing SUPER strong for it. In the 4 hours alotted in the comp, I sent 4 V6's, 4 V5's, 3 V4's and a handfull of 1, 2 and 3's. Only the top 8 went towards the over all score, but I was able to more than double my score from the same comp last year! After the comp, we went to the local climbing gym to drink beer, watch out with 20 or so of the other competiters and watch climbing videos on the big screen. Sunday through Tuesday were spent at Mangaotaki, which is a SLOWLY developing climbing area with a stupid amount of good limestone boulders and 200 foot tall cliffs.
I had a standing project on one of the boulders there. I had spent 2 FULL days working this line, in hopes of getting the first ascent. On day 3 it went. I sent it. It is the hardest problem I have ever climbed to date. A few of my strong friends hopped on it and agreed that not only had I just sent a beautiful line that was bound to become a classsic, but I had also sent my first V7!!!!! Best of all... it was MY V7. I am one happy Matt Natti!

2007-01-30T22:48:00.000-08:00

I want to put everyones mind at ease.... because I've certainly gotten a few hints of concern from both friends and family. Yes.... my life hear currently does not involve a women. Oh well. My life hear is fairly repetitive, so when I write on the blog or talk to any of you.... it may sound like I am stagnating or getting bored. Let's get one thing PERFECTLY clear.... I am having an absoulute BLAST here! I go rock climbing EVERY opertunity I can. I have so far developed 5 new climbing areas, have been responsible for over 120 first ascents on virgin rock in the North island, am in the process of writing 3 climbing guides, am a few final phone calls away from receiving a sponsorship from a local outdoors store. Dispite the fact that I am not conforming to the standard role of what is "happiness" in todays society (wife, kid, morgage etc....) I am absoulutely LOVING just being a bumm and savoring every moment of being ALIVE.
To many times I have heard people say "oh I wish I could..." or "if only I had," or I wish I wasn't stuck in this dead end blah, blah, blah".... well I have carped my diem and am flat out LIVING. I am sorry if this comes across as being rude or selfish, I just want everyone to know that I am not unhappy with any of my decisions as of late. The only real regret I have is how far away my family and friends are and that they can not actually get to share in all of the cool stuff that I have been seeing and doing here. That being said, of COURSE I am still planning on coming home for summer (northern hemi) vacation to catch up with y'all. I miss everyone heaps. I STILL wish I could get a few of you out here..... but perhaps MY adventure is better suited to me. On that note.... all of YOU need to get out and make your own adventures! Don't say "Gee, that Natti guy sounds like he is having fun. I wish I could do that....." JUST DO IT!!!!! Get out and LIVE. Have an adventure and don't regret being a little selfish now and again. Life is meant to be fun. We all need to push our bounds and get out of our comfort zone every now and again to let us know that there is still bllod pumping in our veins.

OK.... that's my rant. Luvs you all.

2007-01-22T01:04:00.000-08:00

So the week (plus a bit) in review..... Claydon and I spent our last week of vacation from the trees in the Waitomo region, which is "world famous in New Zealand" for having some of the best caving the country has to offer. This means that the area is rich in limestone. This means GREAT bouldering!!! We had 2 days at "The Airstrip," which is an old faithful bouldering haunt of ours. Our 3rd day there was rainy, so we decided to be proper tourists and do a bit of site seeing. We saw one of the North Islands premier waterfalls, did a bit of caving in one of the free, open access caves and basically just enjoyed driving around giving our fingertips a rest.
The last few days were spent at a new (to us) area on a local farm which offered 300 foot tall limestone cliffs as well as HEAPS of quality bouldering. Again, we were faced with a bunch of rain but there was ample overhanging rock so we were able to make the best of it. All said and done.... we finished up our 3 week trip having put up 45 first ascents around the country as well as opening up a whole new area! It was a MOST productive vacation.... but it was good to get home and back to work.
Besides that, all is well I guess. I miss the Holmes crew and the Fam something wicked..... but July isn't TOO far away, so I'll get to catch up soon enough.

2007-01-06T12:00:00.000-08:00

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.

2006-10-29T01:29:00.000-08:00

Hi. My name is Matt Natti.... and it has been over a month since my last post. To be honest, despite the fact that I am STILL in New Zealand, there hasn't been anything all that exiting going on to post about. Let's see, I've been climbing EVERY weekend. I've been doing LOTS of treework (and managing to keep all extremeties in tact!). I'm still the MUAC wall officer and therefore have been helping lots of people formulate an addiction to rocks. I have also been involved with the possible revamping of the MUAC wall/ merger with City Rock (the town's dismal, commercial climbing gym). This is actually a fairly cool project to be involved with as that it will benifit both parties involved... and I gain a better climbing facility as well!
On the less mudane news.... I am dating again. I would ALMOST say I have a lady friend.... but I refuse to get that technical yet! She is a very nice uni gal I met at the wall, who loves climbing (duh), hiking, camping and basically just getting out and exploring the world. I have to say... it is nice to be "back in the game".... though I also still enjoy the WILD bachelor side of life as well.
On a completely different note.... I have FINALLY joined the ranks of being a TRUE kiwi...... I have killed my first possum!!! Do to traffic and the size of the caravan of climbers we were travelling with this weekend, we were unable to stop and take a picture.... but just outside Turangi, travelling 80km/ hour, I saw an unsuspecting possum in the road and although I had to cross the solid yellow line.... I was able to properly "bake my own possum Road Pizza!"

Sad but true.... that's the news.

2006-09-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

On a less "Personal maiming" note.... life is still good down in Kiwiland. The thumb(s) are healing nicely. I ALMOST have 2 normal nails again! I've (obviously) been climbing heaps, mishapen thumbnails and all. Claydon and I have been working on a guide book for our "secret" new area and so far have managed to accumulate (with the help of a few friends) over 80 new climbs in a virgin bouldering area! it is pretty cool to be directly related to SO MANY climbs and to play such a major part in the developement of a new climbing destination.
I have taken to doing some flirting with a cute little Kiwi gal named Caroline... though I am still holding back on any serious relationships right now. Fear? Mabey... could be I'm just REALLY enjoying being a selfish, single, care free climbing BUM! I am currently doing the "lets do some social stuff and get to know each other a bit better" thing right now... I will admit that it is quite nice to be getting googley eyes again.

2006-09-04T11:55:00.000-07:00

Advice for the week- Thumbs and chainsaws DO NOT make for a happy union! No worries kids, merely a flesh wound. Ok, so I was holding a branch to cut free and trow over a very expensive garden bed and at the exact moment I was throwing the branch (JUST after shutting of the saw), I lost my balance and threw the saw into my thumb. As that my chain was REALLY sharp and still on it's final rotation after being shut off.... it took a little chunk out of the very tip of the nail and a bit of the stuff underneith. As that I immediately put direct pressure on to my thumb with my other hand, hence removing any chance for me to lower myself out of the tree, I saw this as an exellent opertunity for my ground man to practice his ariel rescue technique.... so I had him lower me out of the tree after I had been securely locked into a belay device and cut my own friction device free.
As that I had just completed my Outdoor First Aid course, I was cool as a cucumber and quite exited to use my 1st aid kit and new found knowelage. I wrapped up the thumb (which was pretty ugly.... thumbnail bits were in places they were ot supposed to be) and began keeping a record of my pulse, my breathing rate, time of accident, personal medical history.... all the stuff that a good medical crew will need to assess my situation at the hospital.
Ah.... the hospital. This is where it get a bit interesting. We go to the nearest medical facility (a walk in clinic in the town we are working in) and up to the desk.
"Hi, I've cut my thumb with a chainsaw."
"Oh, can you fill out this form and sit over in the corner.... the doctor is at lunch."
"I have a record of my pulse, breathing rates and past medical history.... I just finished my Outdoor First Aid course!"
"That's nice dear." (At this point I start to think that the "laid back" additude I am so fond of here has its possible draw backs.)
After about half an hour of sitting in a corner, clutching my thumb (which has not so much as been LOOKED at, let alone having any vital signs taken etc!) they came up with a doctor who wasn't eating his lunch. He unwrapped my thumb.... said "Wow, that looks horrible, I don't know I can do anything for THAT," wrapped it up again (making sure to poke at the sore bits in the process so I winced and felt dizzy with pain) and sent me to the Palmy hospital... 35 minutes outside of town!
Entering the Palmy emergancy room, I see one other person waiting. I go to the desk, explain I have cut my thumb with a chainsaw and..... what do you know.... the receptionist tells me to fill out a form and sit in the corner. I can only assume the do lunch a bit later up in Palmy! Anyway... after about an hour and a half, I finally make it into the actual ER where the nurse unwrapps my thumb and says (wow, did this hurt my feelings) "Boy.... that looks horrible, you should have come in a while ago!!!" Ah yes, tell THAT to the doctors having there lunch, which I still have NOT gotten to have (by now it is almost 3... 3 1/2 hours AFTER the accident!).
Well... to boil down the rest of the story.... over the next few hours, amongst lots of sitting around time, I got a few x-rays taken, got my thumb numbed up and got the cut cleaned up. I ot pain killers and anti-biotics and sent on my way. All said and done, it really isn't that bad. LOOKED bad and would have been bad if not properly cleaned up.... but it should be right as rain in a week or 2. The way I see the whole event, it was just a friendly reminder from the powers that be that I do dangerous work... "DON'T GET SLACK!" Ok, point taken!

2006-08-29T11:36:00.000-07:00

Exuses, exuses.... I know I have been lax in my posts/ e-mails/ phone calls as of late, sorry. I also am currently living in squaller and ingesting a bit more coffee than usual (in fact I'm sucking down my 2nd morning cup right now). Why? Well, perhaps laziness... but I would like to say that I have slipped a bit TOO far into my addictions. Ah, climbing! I am now, thanks to an over welmingly high vote at the MUAC AMG meeting, one of two climbing wall officers at the Massey rock wall. This means my Tuesdays and Thursday nights are completely booked, as that I get home from work around 5:30 and need to be at the wall by 6.
My responsibilities are to unlock the wall, get out all the "house" equipment such as shoes, harnesses and our 5 gallon bucket filled with chalk. I have to vaccum the in house padding (to pick up the last 5 gallons worth of chalk that the masses have sacrifiesed to the gods of sticky hands and black shirts). After the domestic stuff, I defininitely enjoy the rest of the night. I am responsible for instruction, setting new routes, belaying and catching cute young ladies as they fall off the bouldering problems!
Mondays are reserved for the MUAC meeting, from 6:30-? (usually 9ish). Wednesdays are generally not a planned day for anything.... but usually I either try to catch up on ALL my social stuff, go climb outdoors, or just come home and crash after a good dinner as that most nights I'm scarfing down moderate meals between MUAC obligations. Fridays are almost always taken by packing and driving. Perhaps there wouldn't be a problem if I just stayed home for a weekend.... but there is just SO MUCH to see and do here! For that reason, Saturdays are usually spent far away from home and Sunday night the routine is usually- get home between 10 and midnight, unload all the adventure crap from the company van, and pass out. This leaves an explosion of camp/ clim gear sprawled out across the living room floor.... and the cycle begins all over again.
I know.... poor me, I am to busy having fun.
So this past weekend was much the same. Me and Claydon headed up to the Cormandel Peninsula, 6 hours north of Palmy, to check out rumors of a nice sea cliff on a cool beach. I guess I should say hot beach as that the geothermal action there is such that you can dig a hole in the sand and the water which fills up the hole will be hot as blazes! The closer to the ocean, the cooler it gets.... so you can dig a few (if you have the patience) and jump around from hot to cool.
The cliff (actually turned out to be MANY cliffs) were stunning. The rock is comprized of black, orange and white bands of Ryolite, which is a tight grained metomorphic rock of volcanic origin. The beaches are bleach white, sing when you walk on them, and are copletely hiiden from the rest of the world by these multi colored, horizontally banded cliffs which form 60 to 250 foot cresents. The walls are dotted with tree ferns, native flowers and small bushes, and the beach is litterd with native palms and contorted, wind swept plantlife. Even if the climbing WASN'T exquisite (it was), one could loose themselves for days on end just sitting there watching the world drift by.
To break up the drive back to Palmy... we headed back early Sunday and stopped half way, in the Taupo area. We had planned to do some lead climbing at a small litte cliff in Kinloch which we have frequented before... but apon arriving noticed that every time we had gone to this particular cliff we were walking past some large green blobs. We decided to peak underneith a bit of the green and discoverd that there was some beautiful, virgin boulder problems (2 minutes from the car even)! After an hour or two of the ol' scrubby scrubby, we had cleaned off 2 of the boulders well enough to produce 4 first ascents. By then it was starting to get dark, so we headed into Taupo to do what we had planned from the get go.... soak in the free hotpool.
Needless to say it was ANOTHER late night home. I did the ol' huck and chuck of all the gear (destined to stay on the living room floor until Friday afternoon), had a quick beer to with Clay to celebrate a safe journey home, and crashed.... again. So... I am not looking for symathy (I KNOW I won't get any after THAT story), but I simply wanted to explain why I have been a bit less "in touch" as of late.
Luvs you all..... keep living life to the fullest!

2006-08-16T11:54:00.000-07:00

Ok, grab a cup of coffee or something.... this will probably be a bit long due to lack of entries for a while.
For starters, it was GREAT to be home. To all of the folks I DIDN'T get to see.... I am truely sorry. I figured 3 1/2 weeks would be MORE than enough time.... but apparently I once again got caught up in the whirl wind of life. For all of you who offered beds, work, etc... thanks very much. I know I ended up NOT taking advantage of such hospitalities as much as I had planned, but to be honest I never realised how much I missed my fam until I was actually there! Once I had them, I really felt perfectly happy to hang on to them while I still could.
So the meat of the vacation was bumbling around... hiking, rock climbing, catching up on cold beers and the friends that go with them. I did do some work, both on my own and with the old crew, to make the spending money neccisary to continue my extravagent adventure lifestyle while I was home. I have to say, it was good to see the old crew and laugh about the new one a bit (6" chipper jokes will NEVER get old for a bunch of tree guys!).
The big social event of the whole vacation was OBVIOUSLY the Holmes Safari. For any of you who HAVEN'T been in the loop for the past 8 years.... Holmes Safari is the greatest party in the world. It is thrown annually up in North Conway by my bestest bro, Nick Steglich. I guess it is a birthday celebration for him, but it has also become SO MUCH MORE. It is THE time for all of the "Holmses" (a ever expanding circle of friends, all some how relating back to Nick- the man, the myth, the alien)to get together, party like rock stars (or rock climbers!) and catch up on what's been going on with everyone else for the past year.
This year was good as ever. I headed up a few days early with my friend Kim in order to get some proper climbing in with out feeling I was being TOO anti- social. We showed up Thuersday night, split some of the firewood I had cut on the "pre-holmes prep mission" and them preceded to drink by the fire with the other early birds. Friday was spent oogling gear at IME (my favorite gear store), buying new toys and then off to Cathederal Ledge for some multi-pitch trad climbing.
We chose to do "Bombardment" as our first climb which was 2 piches- one of scary, un protectable slab and one which was a BEAUTIFUL, but somewhat scary, cresent shaped crack that sliced up the rock face for 90 feet. At the top of this climb, we opted for "Upper Refuse," which is 4 piches and tops out at over 450 feet but is technicaly a fairly easy endevor. After the first pitch, which I lead, it started to sprinkle.... "aut oh!" The second pitch was Kim's lead and half way through it.... it started to POUR! We had 2 options- bail and leave gear on the wall or push on through the storm and get to the next major ledge where we could safely rappel down from a large pine tree. Good on Kim... she said "F*ck it... I want this thing!" After a bit of "un family show" words later and a wee bit of slipping and sliding... we both got to the ledge and rapped off to the ground. What had started as a beautiful, fun climb was quickly becoming a rather impressive waterfall before our eyes (literally BEFORE our eyes, as that we were rapelling straight through it!).
The rest of the weekend (the actually party portion) ivolved a lot of short adventures to the river (it was hot as blazes!), a few short bouldering/ top rope missions and of course, socialising (a.k.a. drinking). It was great to see all the old faces and welcome all the new ones. I knew I was looking foreward to Holmes, but after being away from everyone for so long it was that much more special for me.
Anyways.... I can honestly say the trip was a complete success. I got back on the plane (ah... the plane) and headed off for another 48 hour mission knowing that it had all been worth it. There was a slight change in shedule due to bad weather in Aukland, so I got the pleasure of an unexpected 2 hour lay over in Figi (wow, what a "swell" airport). Apon arriving in Palmy, I was picked up by my buddy Claydon who promptly handed me a cold NZ beer and a good cigar. After unloading the car and a quick kiwi lunch (ah, good ol' fish and chips) we decided the best thing to do while I was still sleep deprived, slightly buzzed from all the airline bloody marries and the recent addition of the cold beer, and DEFINITELY starting to feel the effects of the jet lag was to...... go climbing. There has GOT to be something wrong with me! Anyways, we went to my local boulder and i sent a problem Claydon had been working on for quite some time. In the spirit of fun first ascent names I decided to call it "Jetlagged!"
That's me...... thanks for reading it through.

2006-08-11T04:35:00.000-07:00

Ah, back in New Zealand.... "happy as Larry." So I headed home for a month to catch up with friends and family. It was good.Despite being home fotr a full month, I STILL didn't get to see everyone I wanted to.... but it was still a damm good trip. I (obviously) did a HEAP of climbing, caught up with most of my mates and spent quitwe a bit of quality time with the fam. I will be honest... I had planned on doing a lot of couch surfing while I wa home to avoid "family overload<" but once they had me in there clutches..... I didn't WANT them to let go. I was really good to get to be a part of the clan again.

Ok... I'll openly admit, it is fairly late right now and I've had a wee more than one tasty adult beverage so far tonite.... so this isn't a very detailed or long post, but at least it it someting. I'll update a bit more when I am not quite so asleep at "the wheel."

2006-07-10T18:13:00.000-07:00

Friday, July 7 8am- kiwi time (Thursday, July 6 3pm Bostoian time): dropped at Palmerston North airport. Plane leaves Palmy- 10am. 10:15 am- bloody marry. Plane arrives Aukland 11:15 am. Bus into town until 5pm, then back to Aukland international airport. Plane departs Aukland 7:15pm. 7:30, 8:15, 8:30, 9pm- bloody marries while watching in-flight movies on personal screen/ personal dvd selection. Eat a decent airline dinner, watch a few flicks and sleep- no specific order or time frame. Arrive in LAX 10:30am (pacific time). Savor post 9/11 US Customs. Head to In and Out burger (of course) for a yummy snack. 12-7:30pm- Head to Starbuck for free wireless and a good cup a jo. Head back to LAX and watch a dvd on laptop until 9pm. Flight departs LAX at 9:55pm. 10:15, 10:45 (bet you can't guess!).... again, sporadic sleep and a bit of quality reading from the "gosh, continental airline sure is cool" free literature. Arrive in Newark, NJ (the true motherland of USA) 6:15am (eastern time). One last plane to good ol' Manchester NH (NO MORE MARRIES!) at 9:45am Saturday, July 7- Bostonian time (12:45am, July 8 Kiwi time). 30+ hours of airports. Hey.... you should ALL come and visit me!
Anyways... I'm home for the month, I hope to see as many holmses and family clan as possible. RE-mail is good, and I should have a disposable cell with in the next day or two.

2006-06-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

So the king of procrastination is one day closer to the deadline to travel home.... and still one day away from getting a ticket! Ok, it's not ALL bad.... I do have my round trip set from NZ to LAX and back to NZ. I figure, worse case senerio I just thumb to Yosemite valley and live the life of a climbing bum until I need to go back! Ok, seriously though..... I was intent on getting back on frequent survivor miles, but they seem to not want to cough up the flight.... so I am just waiting for an electronic $$$ transfer to go through so I can use my US debit card for on-line mega deals!
In a perfect world I will be touching down in New England (somewhere) early Saturday, July 8th. Apon confermation I will send out a mass email in case anyone actually cares. fOR the record, I will be happy to accept couch offers as well as any tree work folks might care to throw my way so I can have some "play money" while I'm back.
On a more "adventure" note.... despite my munched fingers, I went for a climb down at Turakarai in Wellington this past weekend. My middle finger was splinted up and I simply didn't use my mushed thumb. It was not my best bouldering session by far, but after 3 weeks of not climbing I was starting to suffer rather severe withdrawals! My muscles were actually getting sore from NOT climbing.... weird!

2006-06-19T23:23:00.000-07:00

Ow! Ok, so climbing has been on hold for the past week or two now. So far I have managed to bung up BOTH hands, and hence have needed to cut back my recreational climbing in favor of that which I can actually get PAID for. Unfortunately it has boiled down to either, or.
The first "ouch" was when my left, middle finger was stuck in a small hold on the MUAC climbing wall and my foot slipped. This left nothing but 1 finger trying to hold all my weight. Nope. That one has been getting a brace (popsicle stick and black duct tape) for all daytime activites to remind me not to use it. Sure, it makes starting my chain saw a bit awkward, but it is doable.
The second "ouch" was more of a "F#*%!!! Sh*$!!! etc. etc." than a "ow." It involved my right hand thumb and a car door. Sure, their are worse accidents that can happen involving cars... but a squished thumb is still a real bugger! The best part about this event was, by far, the doctor visit.
Receptionist- "Hello, what could I do for y.... Oh, that looks like it hurts! Sit over there and we will get a doctor as soon as possible"
Doctor- "Hello Mr. Natti, I hear you had an acci.... eew. I'll be right back." Pause "I'm a bit busy right now, but my nurse should be more than capable of dealing with the problem. You have a hematoma under the nail and we simply need to releive the pressure by poking several small drain holes in the nail. We can numb you up and then use this special tool.... here Nurse Pain.... he's all yours."
Nurse Pain- "Boy, thank god he left, doctors always complicate things."
Me- "Hey, what's with the lighter and the saftey pinnnaaaaaaahhhhhh!"

So that was the adventure. Since then I have also managed to poke myself with a few good thorns at work as well, but by this point I've more or less given up on my poor hands ever being fully whole again anyways!

I'm heading to the climbing gym now anyways... gonna try to just use my teeth!

2006-06-11T12:19:00.000-07:00

So I had another productive weekend. My mates Ryan, Claydon and I went up to Napier to check out an area of TOTALLY unclimbed limestone outcrops and boulders. We spent half of our time developing access (cutting trails and landing areas) and the rest of the time was spent scrubbing holds and climbing up on them. The weekend produced access to over 10 primo boulders and 14 first ascents!
On a different, more technical note..... I have FINALLY managed to get some pictures of the adventure onto a website. My computer is VERY slow so I am reduced to uploading one at a time, but at least it is a start! They can be found at "The Coolest Website in the World," which is the brainchild of my mate Nick Steglich back home. The address is www.holmes-page.com and the pictures are located in (duh) the photo gallery, under "MNatti down under." Feel free to surf around the site a bit.... though you will no doubt find some goofy pictures of "old school Natti," which I would honestly rather no one EVER see (thanks Nick)!

2006-06-05T01:39:00.000-07:00

Blah, blah, did some climbing in boring ol' NZ, blah, worked, blah went to Ausralia for a week of trad climbing, blah, bl.... oh, sorry... I guess that deserves a LITTLE more detail!
So yeah, packed up the bags last Sunday night and headed to Wellington Airport with my mate Romeric. (He is french, but we can't hold that against him.) We hoped on a plane and zipped off to Melbourne on a early morning flight... 4 hours, one "Lion, Witch and Wardrobe" movie, an egg and cheese sandwich resembling a plastic movie prop and 3 bloddy marry's (to chase down the sandwich) later, we arrived safely in the land of OZ.
The plan was, rent a car and zip down to the Grampians National Park- a world renouned climbing area full of cliffs, boulders, bolts and trad. Ah, fate... if things worked the way they were supposed to.... we'd have vacations, not adventures! Romeric had reserved a rental car. The rental car was there waiting for us. Romerics Credit card wanted NOTHING to do with the transaction though. This would have been fine if I had been clever enough to bring mine, but I actually had been clever in NOT bringing it so I would not buy too much of Australia's inexpensive climbing gear and/ or didgeriodoos! And so the adventure began!
We got a cab (the rental guys were nice enough to ring one up for us). We got to the train station, which got us to a bus station. We caught a bus to... another bus and then to Horsham. This is a smallish town close to both the Grampians AND Mount Arapillies (another world class climbing area just "down the road." As that it was now 10:30 at night we decided to take the bus driver's recomendation to stay at the local hostel.... unless of course that hadn't actually been in service for 3 years! The Horsham botanical garden WAS open and, with my extensive knowlage of landscaping, I was able to find us a nice BIG shrub to camp out under for the night!
After scraping the frost off our sleeping bags in the morning, a quick coffe on the local public bench (thank god for camp stoves!, and a "shower" in the local public bathroom's sink.... we went into town to buy supplies for the week. After buying groceries, we explained our situation to the local outdoor store owner and were recomended to go to Arapillies INSTEAD of the Grampians due to the location of all of the climbs in respect to all the campsites. So after a bit of discussion involving "you can go where ever you want when we GET a rental car," we hoped on the good old "Thumbnail Express" and after about a half an hour of watching empty pick-up trucks and vans drive past us... a nice Mom stopped in her little coup and drove us (and ALL our gear) all the way to the Arapillies camp ground. I will admit, it was a bit difficult trying to set up camp with all those cliffs and boulders RIGHT THERE..... but we managed to set up and then rushed off to play on the boulders closest to camp until dark.
The week was perfect. Perfect weather, perfect rock. There was SO many good routes to do... we were quite snobby about what we chose to climb... in fact if a route was not listed in the guide as a 3 star classic... we didn't even think about doing it! All the routes were on trad gear. All of the routes were at LEAST 450 feet tall. All of the routes offered beautiful moves (some muscley, some thought provoking and some just plain scary), extrodinary views, and great gear placements JUST when you started to be afraid of falling! When we were not up to the commitment of ANOTHER perfect 200 meter line... we would just play on a few of the colosal pinkish-orange quartzite boulders that littered the base of the cliff band until we couldn't lift our arms anymore... or it just got too dark to see!
The wildlife was incredible as well. On 2 different mornings I was woken up being snuffed by kangaroos (due to weight issues on the flight we only had 1 tent so I slept outside a- to make sure the gear would stay dry and safe and b- well... it seemed better than sleeping with Romeric- he's french. I rest my case). There were flocks of wild Cockatoos, Rainbow Lowekeetes (I think that's what they were called), Falcons, Cookaburies, Magpies and coutless others.
We made it back to Melbourne with out TOO much inccident. In fact, the only "minor" issue we had before getting back to good ol' Palmy was at the Melbourne airport when Romeric and his passport become temoporarily seperated somewhere between the check in desk and customs. Thankfully there are still some honest people in the world and about 10 minutes before we would have needed to find a hotel for the night and call the Frech consulate..... the international "lost and found" rescued us and off we went. I was happily on my way to another 4 bloddy marry's, another dumb movie and a good nap before getting back "home!"

2006-05-21T11:41:00.000-07:00

So.... "blah, blah, blah..... climbing this weekend, blah, blah." As far as "out of the ordinary" goes, the highlight(?) of the weekend was a truely unexpected and embarrising bouldering injury on my part. There I was, at Titahi Bay (a pleasent, oceanside climbing area just under 2 hours south of Palmy), goof ing around with my mates having a good ol' time. We decided we were sick of the ropes by mid-day, so we started searching out goofy little boulder problems.
After sending some hard, fun lines.... I spotted a cool "short but sweet," waist high, one move wonder problem and HAD to give it a go. I threw a boulder mat down to protect the landing (a few odd shaped rocks and a small woody plant of some sort) and sat my butt down on the pad to try the move. It basically involved a bad hold for the left hand and a worse hold for the right, pull down until my arse was legally off the ground, then throw my right hand to a decent hold up and right, then pull myself up and over the top of the rock.... like I said, short and sweet.
So as I said, the boulder was a bit more than waist high. There was one "big" move on the whole problem. The crux was pulling my scrawny little hump off the ground. Well I got that far, and tried to make the throw with my right hand. I failed. I fell back. The fall was a whopping 6 inches. The woody plant (remember the wody plant I quickly mentioned at the beginning of the story?) decided, in it's wisdom, that it was ready to fight back for my crimes against the environment.... It sent one of it's vial, nasty thorns (how did I not njotice the BIG ugly thorns?) clean through the 2 inches of open cell foam, the 1 inch of EXTRA DENCE closed cell foam, 2 layers (top and bottom) of heavy duty, rip stop nylon.... and into my arse!
"YEEEEEEEAAAAARRRROOOUUUUUWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!"
There are few things worse than having to get one of your bouldering partners apply direct pressure to a massive puncture wound in your ass to stop the heavy flow of blood, while another one gets alcohol wipes, a few bandages and tape to seal you bum back up! Well, crisis solved. I applied direct pressure by sitting on a nice cool rock while my "mates" packed up the gear.... giggiling the whole time.
I did survive both the mental and physical injury. Sunday was much more productive climbing and much less hazardous. It may seem a goofy anecdote.... but you are all worth it! I will be having a "battle scar" showing when I get back.... for all who are interested. Climb hard, fall soft. Luvs to all of ya!

2006-05-18T11:02:00.000-07:00

First weekend in May- Drive to Napier in search of rocks. It is a beautiful seaside community, 2 hour drive from Palmy with no known climbing. Obviously the local gym rats NEVER leave the gym! Myt mate Claydon and I discovered at least 4 new spots (3 new bouldering areas and 1 MOTHER of a cliff) that were all clean, solid limestone. Sure, the areas need a bit of a clean up to make the access better.... but considering the lack of other stuff within 2 hours of home.... we are both TOTALLY looking foreward to the prospect of some cool new spots. It still baffles me that such good (virgin) climbing areas can be found here just by walking 30 seconds off a main road!
Second weekend in May- MUAC bouldering weekend. It was my "turn" to lead a trip for the MUAC climbers. Sure, I've instructed on them already.... but this was all me. I was able to book a hut on the same farm that "the airstrip" boulders are located on up in Waiotomo. It was a 5+ hour drive up on Friday night, and worth every kilometer. The weather was scheduled to be absolute POOP, but all 13 of the people signed up decided if nothing else it was a great exuse to go drink in a nice hut somewhere FAR AWAY from ol' Palmy. The gods obviously favored us on the trip as that when we finally got up there at 12:30am, the moon was out and the stars were shining. A handful of the "hardcores" and I were so exited that the rock was dry we each grabbed boulder mats and cold beers and went for a LATE night climb.... brilliant!
Saturday was a stunningly perfect day. People were happily climbing and falling and cursing and laughing. Bouldering is such a social acctivity as that everyone is right there at ground level more or less, and everyone is pushing one another to climb hard and have fun. I love it! After a full day, we headed back to the hut (5 minute walk.... ooooh) where I cooked up a massive feed of chili and rice, followed with cookies and ice cream. The evening entertainment was (besides a fair amount of beer) story telling, pictionary (drunk pictionary ROCKS) and various mind games such as word associations and other "think outside the box" puzzles.
Sunday rained. Not hard, but enough to make climbing not worth while. A few of us went down to "The Grot View Cave," which is a MASSIVE overhand 2 minutes from the hut for a last gasp attempt to get more climbing in on some very hard routes, then we helped pack up and clean the hut. We stopped in Taupo on our way back as that we had much more time than antisipated.... and went for a good 2 hour soak in the thermal river. Although the rain ruined the climbing.... the hot pool was definitely a welcome alternative.
So that's the update.... miss y'all!

2006-04-30T12:32:00.000-07:00

Last weekend offered me up ANOTHER 4 day weekend due to a paid holiday on a Tuesday and a slight case of "goddaclimbitis" on Monday. A 2 car caravan of us went back up to the Whaepapa South region, north of Taupo. We stayed at "Castle Rock Adventure" lodge, which is a very flash hostel/ retreat/ get-away place literally across the street from one of the ignimbrite climbing areas. The place had a full living room, full kitchen,5 bunk houses, a tennis court, a pool and a HOT TUB!!!! Perhaps a bit to flashy for a bunch of dirtbag climbers.... but we were able to make do!
To be honest, as different as the ignimbrite climbing is, my main crew (Claydon and Jenna) were pretty sick of pulling on sharp volcanic pockets after the first day (although we did manage to squeeze in a new route or 2 at Froggert), so we made the 45 minute drive to go bouldering at the limestone boulders of the Airstrtip (my favorite bouldering spot in the whole North island). The pictures we took that day were so good that the whole group came on day 3. Tuesday was a rain day, so on the way home we stopped at the free natural hot pools in Taupo for a god 2 hour soak.... ahh, nothing like an almost boiling sulfer river an a few COLD beers to cure what ails you after a weekend of climbing!
The week was mostly unproductive, but only 3 days long, which I must admit I quite like! This past weekend I was scheduled to lead an advanced trad climbing course with MUAC, but thankfully no one signed up and it rained.... so Claydon and I went up to Maganapopo (a cool mtn LOADED with good cliffs 2 hours north of Palmy) and did a bit of aid climbing and a bit of exploring. Aid climbing (again, for the masses) is not rock climbing per say, it is climbing up a rock by means of small rope or webbing ladders hung of pieces of gear stuffed into fractures in the rock. It offers a much mor mental challange than free climbing does, and it CAN be done on wet rock. Man, I really do love this stuff, eh?

2006-04-17T23:31:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter Y'all! I can only hope that everyone who is reading this had even HALF as good an Easter Weekend as I did! I set out with my buddies Claydon and Jenna (full time climbing partners) on a "new rock" finding mission. Over the course of the 4 day weekend (2 of which where paid vacation days!) we/ I : got lost, drank good scotch, skinned knees and/ or elbows, got wet (not on purpose), ate GREAT food, got sunburned, bush wacked for hours at a time, found some super cool rock, found some really BAD rock, climbed some cool old routes and did heaps of cool NEW routes!
Oh sure..... some of that may not sound great, but a cushy weekend with out a little dirt does NOT make an adventure! We had a great time exploring (driving and hiking) around the east coast of the North island. We laughed, we cried (more a hollar than a cry really), we drank good beer and stayed in the the comfort of a real house even. Thankfully for us, Jenna's parents needed their house watched and we were just the 3 to do it.
The icing on the cake is that we DID find an extrodinary climbing area that had NEVER been developed at all. We put up a total of 12 ner routes and boulder problems. We are currently in the process of getting permission to install safety bolts and then we may even go so far as to crank out a guide for it.... it is just that good. The rocks are set in a small sandy harbor. There are seals and Blue Penguins swimming around in the ocean below the rocks. There is a cool lighthouse. There are surfers. There is a beautiful, sandy beach. There is good fishing. Hell.... this place is really just awesome.
Besides that... well, I am still "trapped" in New Zealand. Life is good. Hope y'all are well and remembering to enjoy yourselves as much as possible!

2006-04-09T21:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, so alive and well. Uhm... nothing to exiting to report (exept that I am in New Zealand, which is STILL pretty exiting). The new issue of "Climber," New Zealands's climbing magazine distributed by the NZ Alpine Club... and low and behold there is a picture of ME in it! Ok, I guess that IS pretty exiting. It was a picture from one of the boulder comps I was at, apparently looking quite passionate about the problem I was working on. Go figure... ME, passionate about climbing.... must have been a once in a life time photo opertunity (hehe)!
Work is still good, new pad is getting better every day, my on going development of NZ rock is going GREAT! I have a whole band of MUAC members keen to help me with enhancing the climbing scene around Palmerston... which is a real treat. I love getting out there and doing it... the scrubbing, bolting, trail creating, vertical gardening... but it is that much beeter having a bunch of mates there plugging along with me. We get a lot accomplished and everyone gets a satisfied feeling at the end of the day (of course the beer helps with that!).

2006-04-01T23:51:00.000-08:00

I know I've been threatening this quite a bit.... but I am officially back on line. Now that I am nice and cozy in my new pad, I figured it was time to suck it up and shell out the dough for a real i-net account. I was hopefull that I would luck out with another piratable (arrr) wireless site somewhere in the area surrounding my new place... but it seems that was wishful thinking.
So living in New Zealand, one would hope there was more exitement in my life than just getting an internet account. Duh, of course there is! Obviously I've been climbing quite a bit. I recently joined MUAC (Massey University Alpine Club) as a way of meeting like minded outdoorsy folk as well as getting myself envolved in cool trips around the country. I was asked along on their "Basic Rock" weekend, and was quickly put to work as an instructor..... s'all good, instructors get the weekend events for free, so it turned out to be a pretty cool gig. My job was to set topropes (oh no, I have to lead them to get the rope set up!) and then give pointers, teach basic belay skills and help boost overall moral.
I brought along 2 of the guys I work with (who have both gone out and bought there own climbing gear already) so they cound get a taste of non-tree climbing. I have to say, I was really exited to see how quickly EVERYONE in the group picked up the basics and how much enthusiasm there was to push (as well as support)one another. By half way through the first day of climbing, everyone was getting on well enough that a few of the other instructors and I were able to sneak off and do some "big boy" climbs as well as trow up a few new bolted lines and snag the first ascents. I must admit I had an absoulute blast.
The work weeks have been.... standard. Up days and down days, but generally no complaints. For play this weekend I did some bouldering on Saturday and today (sunday) I grabbed a bunch of MUACers and we did a HUGE amount of developement on a big limestone outcrop I've been setting some new routes in the Manawatu Gorge, just outside of Palmy. We created some good belay spots (level standing areas, some with good rocks to sit on even) and made the access paths a bit more user friendly. Again, I pretty damm good weekend!
So that's news I guess. Now that I am back on line, look for me on instant messanger again. I will try and be on (my) mornings 6:30-7:30 which I think is 12:30- 1:30 back home. Hope to see y'all there now and again!

2006-03-18T20:45:00.000-08:00

Ok, so the elusive Natti posts again! No surprizes, but I have been adventuring my fool head off. The most recent items of note were another weekend up at Whanganui Bay (where my mates and I cleaned off another 7 routes or so, 3 of which I did traditional 1st ascents on), 4 days worth (on and off) of cleaning and scrubbing some local limestone cliffs in the Manawatu Gorge resulting in (so far) 3 new bolted routes all of which I lead first, heaps of good bouldering missions to and fro, and well.... the ongoing adventures of work!
On the work note..... I'm finally legal! I can now get a paycheck every week and stay in the country for another 2 years with out any issues from the law!!!!! Life is bloody good. I am still working on breaking in the crew and teaching them all of the cool tricks I know, but at least they are willing to try new stuff. In fact, all of them were present for my first ascents in the gorge and the had a bit of a play on the rock as well! It was funny as watching 3 tree guys bumble around a rock with tree harnesses, hi-vis. orange helmets (complete with ear muffs) and work boots on. It seems like they all really enjoyed themselves though, in fact 2 of them have already gone out and bought there own rock gear already!
So on a different note.... I finally moved out of the hostel I was living at! I just moved into a sweet little 1 bedroom flat right across the street from Cristin's place. As far as I can tell, this is a win win situation. I now have my own kitchen, my own livingroom to lounge in, a king size bed to sprall in, and I am close enough to Cris that she can escape her flat when she needs a break from studying (or partying flatmates as the case may be). The "us thing" is still being sorted out due to our conflicting schedules... but with the new living set up we can both "drop by" much easier now, when time permits.
So I guess that's news. I should have internet hooked up buy next week, so I should be much more active with blogs and emails again once that happens. Again, I apologise for being so negligent in my contact with the Northern Hemisphere.
Oh... one more thing, for those who don't know yet, I'm an uncle again. My sister Diana and her husband Greg are the proud new parents of Mason Erik Theriault! I can't wait to get home to see him in person!

2006-02-26T00:19:00.000-08:00

Hey y'all. So a quick recapp of recent adventures...... Last weekend (feb 16- 20) Cristin and I hopped a ferry with some of my climbing mates Tomasz and Jenna and went down to Takaka on the South Island. There is a climbing area there known as Payne's Ford, which consists of oodles of limestone cliffs of varying heights, angles and colors. Due to the nature of the rock (ripples, slopers, pockets and flat out slab) most of the climbs are protected by bolts. It is kind of like Rumney, NH in that there are so many different areas all of which have there own flavor. As that we were there for a LONG weekend, we got lots of opertunity to see quite a lot of the variety and play on most of the areas as well. I even put up a few trad first ascents (sad that just because most people don't bring a full rack there they ignore some stunning trad lines!). Besides the 1st ascents, the highlight of the weekend was getting to do some deepwater soloing, where you could climb on some very steep lines directly over the river. If you fell.... oh well, you just went splash. It was definitely a cool experiance.
Last week was REAL short as far as work goes. I didn't start back until Tuesday around lunch time, and the week finished on Thurday. Friday AM the crew (work crew) headed up to Mt. Taranaki in New Plymoth for a company "get away" with a bunch of members of the NZAA (arb. assosiation). The trip was planned as a) a get away b) an educational event (we did 3 seperate hikes all of which were guided by local botanists and c) a cool adventure and chance to meet some fellow tree guys.
The weekend was based at a really well equipted hut about a third of the way up the mountain. On top of the refridge, stove, running water (hot showers!) and fully equipt bunk rooms, it was also accessable by car. On Friday we did a "quick" 3 hour hike downhill the whole way, looking at the flora changed as we decended. From here a bus picked us up and drove us back to the hut. Saturday we started hiking at 7 AM and bagged the peak a bit after 11 AM. After a good feed (and some "emergancy" burbon shots) on the top, we headed down and were back at the hut a little after 3 PM. After showers and a bit of loafing about, we went to the Mountain Cafe at the visitors center just down the hill from camp for a BIG feed. Sunday was a slow start and a small hike, mostly designed to loosen up some of the nasty knots lodged in peoples legs! All in all it was a hell of a weekend!

2006-02-11T18:41:00.000-08:00

Howdy y'all! Once again.... I am alive and well and not finding myself in front of a computer a whole lot! Life in Kiwiville is as good as ever, perhaps a bit repetitive..... but when weekly adventures, cool jobs, meeting cool new peolpe and heaps of climb are the things being repeated, who can complain?!?
I have become rather obsessed, as of late, with leaving my mark on the North Island climbing scene and am now going to climbing areas in search of NEW routes as apposed to lines that have already been established. This is often a bit more time consuming due to the work involved cleaning off a route, but at the end of the day it is very satisfying to climb a route that has never been done before. It is also a great feeling to know you have contributed to the future of NZ climbing as well.
This past week has been very enjoyable as far as work goes. We have been doing a HUGE job involving multiple large removals. The job entails a lot of rigging and brain work as well as a lot of cool "smash and crash" stuff as well. For a few of the trees we had to zip line out large chuns of the trees over a concrete walkway, away from abutting houses, and into a small gorge (everything that landed there could STAY there!). Some of the other trees (some upwards of 80 feet) we simply got to drop, whole, into the same gorge...... "and the earth did shake!"
Cristin is currently back in the states visiting.... but I am looking foreward to having her back in Palmy. I din't realise how much I missed her while she was working on the South island until she came back up... then after hanging out with here a few times made it really sink in. We are going of a climbing trip to the South Island this coming weekend for thursday through tuesday (I know I'm a slacker, dirt bag climbing bum.... but I LOVE it!) with a few friends.... and it will be cool to have my old climbing partner back by my side.
Anyways.... that's news for now. I miss all of ya! Keep in touch and keep living life to the fullest.

2006-01-28T12:02:00.000-08:00

I did my second boulder comp yesterday. This time it was down in Wellington, and unfortunately the gravitational pull was VERY strong. EVERYONE seemed to be commenting on how tired and weak they were feeling..... needless to say, I did not perform to my greatest potential. Case in point, last weekend my score was 196 for my top 8 climbs (which gave me a placement 0f 13 out of 23), this go around I only pulled a 44! To my own defence, I must say my heart was not relly into it, though I did have fun hanging out with all the climbers and goofing around on a bunch of cool rocks.

2006-01-24T22:57:00.000-08:00

Ok, HI.... sorry I've been so negligent. This is a post to let everyone know I am alive and well. Let's se....I have recently: suffered from a MAJOR tooth ache, got a rotten wisdom ripped out of my head, entered a bouldering comp (still don't know how I placed... not in the top 5, but I was there to beat myself not anyone else), explored 2 new climbing areas rich in (unclimbed) multi-pitch limestone, did the usual work week thing along with the occasional beer and dinner out.
Cristin and I have been spending some time together again now that she is back on the North Island. I am not sure where it is going to go... but seeing her again made me realise how much I missed her. We spent a week (the final week of my climbing vacation) together up in Whanganui Bay (again!) climbing with a group of friends. Towards the end of the week evryone else headed out and Cris and I got to spend some quality climb time together.... just like the good old days. I have been really exited about trad climbinmg as of late, so I dragged poor Cris up some pretty nasty little crack climbs. Some where to tight for fingers, some you could stuff your whole body into.... most of them where pretty dirty so we ended up wearing a lot of moss and mud. It was fun to hear the old familiar battle cry of Cristin the Truck driver mouth as she bulled her way up a few of the real test pieces!
We were going to leave that Friday, but do to a minor incedent involving her car and some mud, we were forced (oh well) to stay an extra day and catch a lift with some other climbers back to Palmy. The big downer to the weekend was we were miles away from civilisation and THAT was when my tooth really started to act up... figures!
So back for a week of work, and then this past weekend a group of us went up to the first of the NZ national boulder comp series at a spot called the airstrip near Waiatomo (a limestone wonderland). I managed to get up a V6, 2 V5's 3 V4's and a heap of V2's and 3's. Again, for non-climbers.... all that really means is I REALLY pushed myself and was properly sore all over at the end of the day! Thankfully, the $10 entry fee for the comp included a post climb BBQ complete with beer and a free bouldering guide to boot!
As that it was a long weekend, a group from the comp hooked up with my group (Cristin, Johanna and Me aka "team Palmerston") and we went to check out 2 local climbing spots over the next couple of days. Again... tons of fun on tons of good rock with really cool people. This place ROCKS!

2006-01-14T15:13:00.000-08:00

Ok, ok.... I'm still alive! A few of the mates back home have apparently been concerned that the blog has not been updated in a bit, but I have been no where near technology for quite some time now (sweet as!). The trip is over. I have spent my first night in a while in my own bed after taking a HOT shower in my own apartment and getting to sit on my own FLUSH toilet!!!!!(perhaps to graphic but DEFINITELEY a treat after all of the outdoor travel I've been doing). I have laughed and cried, climbed to great heights, fallen onto sketchy gear, seen great things and met coutless cool people. Not too shabby.
So, as I said last post..... the day after New years day was a rest day. I got a massage from one of the NZ Team Iron Man sports therapist. I was officially Jello for the entire afternoon... he found (and fixed) a wealth of knots and tweeks that I didn't even know I had!
After our day of rest, Claydon and I headed down to Whanganui Bay, which in my opinion is the most scenic and diverse climbing area on the North Island. The cliffs are located either directly on, or with in a few minutes walk from the lake and offer climbing on almost every medium rock climbing has to offer. Although one can show up with just a rack of quick draws there (for leading climbs on pre-placed bolts as protection) and experiance the full range of blank slabs, pocketed walls, overhangs, chimneys and cracks..... for those who want the more natural experiance, there are also heaps of climbs which cater to hand placed (traditional) protection.
While at the bay this go, (we have another stab at it later) we met up with Malcom (who brought me up there on my first trip up), a team of canadian climbers (eeh?) and some Dutch climbers. The scope of the climbing community is more and more staggering to me, but I love making all the connections and international friendships as well. After 3 days of really pushing ourselves, the gods decided to give us a day of rest (it rained) and as that we were planning to head down to Wellington the next day anyways, we opted to head out and spend a night in good ol' Palmerston North.
After a good hot shower and an even better hot meal (that someone else cooked!) we hit the hay and next day, met up with both Johanna again for the trip down to Wellington. Our first night there we camped at Fly Rock, which was a single (but very large) boulder on a beach just outside of the city. There was an access road down to the boulder, so we actually were able to put the headlights on a portion of the rock for night bouldering!
Although the bouldering at Turakarai is awesome, it seemed slightly less intense after seeing so many other cool spots around the country. We spent the night at the boulders, camped out in the "bronx cave" which is a HUGE overhung block big enough to set a tent up underneith! The climbing was awesome, although the wind was VERY strong the entire time we were down there.... which made for some interesting spotting of climbs. We actually needed to put rocks ON TOP of the bouldering mats to keep them from blowing away while we were climbing!
Cristin met up with us on our second day down there, and it was like the good old days of bouldering back home. It was a bit akward at first, as that Johanna and I have been showing each other a bit of interest.... but Cris was very cool and really just opened up to her as a fellow climber and friend..... good on her.
Monday was spent back in Palmy sorting out gear and preparing for the final leg of the trip... another 3 days up at Whanganui Bay with Cristin, Claydon, my mate Andy and his wife Danielle. I conquered a few of the climbs I had previously fell on or just thought were out of my league at the time. We explored a 20 meter deep cave at the base of one of the climbs and saw some cool cave life (glow worms, whetas, and BIG creepy spiders), had bonefires every night and generally had a great time knowing that we all had to return to reality at the end of the week. I must say, with out sounding like I am boasting, there was no denying that I have been climbing hard for the past few weeks on this last trip...... I was/ am climbing So strong, SO confident.... so much better than when this trip started 3 weeks ago. I am now on-site leading climbs on hand placed gear in the 5.10 range and leading sport climbs (with a few exiting falls) in the 5.11 range!
Everyone but Cristin had to take off on Thursday night, so Cris and I planned to spend the next day just goofing off on a few easy climbs before heading back...... then we got her car a wee bit stuck. This led to a mini epic involving sheep farmers, 4 x 4 trucks, rock climbing mechanics and another day of climbing to sort it all out. Hey..... what is an adventure with out a bit of drama! All said and done, we sorted out the car, got back to Palmy safe and sound, and as I said when I started all this.... I am clean and well rested again. Bring on the work week!

2005-12-31T22:38:00.000-08:00

Happy New year all!!! Although for all of the crew back home I was a good 18 hours ahead of y'all, I hope everyone had a great time. I ended up in Taupo for the big countdown, after spending the past 6 days travelling around central north island, climbing. So far, me and my travelling buddy Claydon have hit 6 different climbing areas, sent countless cool routes and boulder problems, and met heaps of cool new people. I am slowly bumping my climbing grades up and Claydon, who is fairly new to the sport is SREAMING up the technical ladder. We have also been hanging around with a travelling German gal we met at on of the climbing spots (actually also a Palmy resident) and she has decided that climbing with us for the next week is her best option..... cool as.
Anyways, we met up with a few of Claydon's mates in Taupo on New Year's eve, did some GOOD drinking, smoked stoggies at midnight, and then went to hang out in one of the local thermally heated rivers until 3 AM..... not a bad night! We then scored campsites at on of the city's FREE campsites and went to bed. Today (Jan 1, 2006!) we woke up and headed to a small ryolite crag just 15 minutes from town. There were both bolted sport lines and traditional climbs, but as that we were all pretty beat from the past week (and last night) we spent a lot of the day just goofing around.
Tomorrow is our first scheduled day of rest. I have never had to actually FORCE myself to stop climbing for a day, but all of us need it. We are sticking around Taupo and I plan on treating myself to a massage and a good nap! After tomorrow we are heading back towards the southern portion of the island, though we are really just winging it day to day.

2005-12-28T12:14:00.000-08:00

Hey all. It as Thursday the 29th around 10 am and I have been climbing for 3 days solid! The trip is going great. It rained a bit yesterday where we have been climbing in the Whaepapa region just north of Lake Taupo. The rock is ignimbrite, which is a very hard pumice like material with lots of big pockets to grab. The friction is incredible and the holds are huge, so even in the rain we were able to goof around on some easier climbs.
When we arrived up here, we met up with a German gal who actually climbs at the same rock gym I go to in Palmy, so she is our newest partner on the trip. We are off to go do some limestone bouldering today as that ropes are getting to be a hassle and we are longing for some quick "ups" with out the constriction of ropes, gear or pre-established lines.

I'd write more, but I'm waisting valuable climb time. Hope everyone had a great x-mas!

2005-12-23T16:24:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a week! For the first time here I did a full week of honest to god, blood, sweat and tears tree work! It felt really good. We had some BIG drops, we did a few really technical take downs, as well as a few good old medium prunes to just make things look "Damm good!" The company does a fair amount of tree work, usually, but the weeks building up to x-mas have been mostly yard preps so everyones properties looked spick and span for the holidays.
We have just been laid off for 3 weeks, so I am off on a mega climbing adventure. The boss was kind enough to offer up the company van, so I have housing as well as just transport now! I plan on meeting up with a few mates here and there and gettineg on as many cool climbs as possible. I will be bringing a camera this tyime, and hopefully I will figure out how to post the lot of them to the blog when I get them all developed!
Anyways, I wanted to use this as a general forum to say Merry X-mas and happy holidays to EVERYONE. It is weird doing the whole summer x-mas thing, but I think I may drive up to some of the remaining snow some time next week to make myself feel a bit more "at home" in the holidays. I was hoping to send everyone cards or something, which I may still do, but as of yesterday I was down to $30 in my account! I was fortunate enought to get a small loan to cover me for vacation and Immigration promises me I will be set to start actually getting PAID rather than doing volenteer work when I get back from vacation.
Anyways, I hope all are well... keep in the e-mails coming!

2005-12-20T10:06:00.000-08:00

Ok, so a late week in review..... last week I did the usual work routine. There was a lot of rain, so I did the usual work routine and got wet. Friday I had planned on going out to the gorge to climb but it rained (again) so I went to a mates house who ended uo getting us invited to a dinner party where we went and ate or fill of home made kebabs and vodka gimlets.
Saturday morning I woke up, popped an aspirine, and made plans to get on with the day. I did my shopping, went to the library, played my didge in the park and made plans to go to the gorge. As I rounded the bend to the rocks in the gorge, the sky opened up and rained for almost an hour. I took advantage of the fact that I COULDN'T climb and hiked around in search of other cool stuff. After getting totally soaked (and a bit cold) I headed back home, a bit depresed. The evening involved a hot shower and a movie.
Sunday I had plans to go to Welly to go bouldering. My climb partner decided before climbing, he needed to jump out of a plane. He assured me it would not take to long as that he would be falling at 9.8 meters per second squared. We zipped down the road to a skydive jump spot and waited for him to get a spot on a plane. We waited and waited, then he got in flew up and jumped out. It is a bizarre activity, though I can't deny that it really does look pretty cool.
By 3 pm we had finished and FINALLY headed to the rocks. Due to the delays at the dropzone, we had to change our climbing destination. The spot we ended up going was actually quite cool and a good find as that it is only about an hour drive from Palmy. There was some pretty hard as bouldering there, along with a handful of decent bolted sport climbs.
All in all, it was not the MOST eventful weekend to date, but htey can't ALL be epics. I definitely had fun though. Pukerua Bay (the climbing spot), like many of the good climbing areas here, has loads of potential for establishing some new routes and the local alpine club is actually going to be offering a course this coming season on proper bolting technique.... which I hope to attend. So that's news........ plenty more to come!

2005-12-10T19:52:00.000-08:00

Ahhhhh, arms of jello.... must have been another good climbing weekend! This Saturday a mate (Claydon) and I had plans to head to Turakirae Head, which is a point jutting out into the ocean just east of Wellington. Turakirae is THE bouldering destination for the North island although it has only really been developed within the past 2 years. It is a stretch of rocky beach simply LITTERED with massive boulders as far as the eye can see. There is SO MUCH rock there that there is heaps of potential for establishing new routes. I am already organising a group next week to go and do some more exploration.
For the non-climbers, boulders can offer a wealth of very short but intense climbing experiances. As with any new area however, the rock often needs to be cleaned to make it easier/ safer to climb. This usually involves scrubbing of dirt, sand, lichens, pieces of loose rock.... anything that may make the climb less safe. This is particularly important for boulder climbing as that the only real protection you often have is a foam pad to land on or a set of hands to catch you! So as it goes... you see a good line, you clean it, you figure out the moves and be the first one to MAKE all the moves.... you get to name the problem and go down in climbing history!
Anyways, to get on with the story.... the weather report looked like poop on Friday evening when I called Claydon to see if we were still going. As he put it, "the two hour drive to Wellington sucks, especially if the climbing mission is thwarted due to inclimate weather... but it still beats sitting around Palmy, besides..... the rocks MAY be dry!!! Spoken like a true climber. So Saturday morning we packed the car and drove for 2 hours through the nastiest rain I have seen since my arrival to NZ. I'm not sure if it was because of our relentless determination or pity, but the climbing gods and the weather goods smiled on us, and it appeared that JUST the sky over the strip of beach with all the boulders was blue. The beach was sunny and dry ALL DAY.
We met up with a few other determined souls who were locals and showed us some of the "always dry" climbing spots (overhangs and a small cave), in case we were not so fortunate with the weather the next time. They also gave us a really good tour of the area, although they were MUCH stronger than either Claydon or myself, so we mostly watched in awe at some of the lines they were working on. Needless to say we climbed until our fingers were so burnt out we could no longer even tie our shoe laces. We sat and watched fur seals basking on the rocks for a bit, then went into town for the obligitory post climbing beer and a bite to eat. All in all... not to shabby a day to be in New Zealand!

2005-12-09T09:51:00.000-08:00

Fridays are always the company meeting day after work. The whole crew sits in the office to discuss what is on their minds...... it goes something like this.

"Jonus, will you take the minutes? Ok, who wants a beer? Blah blah blah good job blah blah, anyone need another beer? Blah blah cool new climbing toy, blah blah, chain saw, you aren't finished with that yet? Here, try this new beer...... it's Austalian. Blah blah blah prusik loop blah blah blake's hitch vs mechanical ascender blah blah.... anyone want to go to the pub?

I guess tree companies are the same everywhere around the world! Things are getting on quite well at work these days. The boss just bought me my own chainsaw pants and steel toed boots (both are required for any tree work). He wanted to know if he was going to get a 2 year commitment out of me so he could get his newer climbers up to snuff before I left...... although I did not give him a definite, it seems very likely that I will take him up on it. The general work contract (which he showed me the other day) listed the perks offered to a full time employee. They include 2 weeks paid vacation, 5 days paid sick leave, 11 paid holidays and a weekly clothing allowance. Other perks are the use of the company van (which is a shared right for anyone on the crew who needs it), not having to file taxes (companies accountant does it), Full use of company equipment for private work and, of course, the company meetings!

2005-12-04T00:37:00.000-08:00

MMMMmmmmm..... yogurt and a hot cup of licorice tea, life is good. It's amost 10 PM Sunday night and I got home about an hour ago. I am sore. I am tired. I am SOOOO happy. I got to go climbing all weekend!
Whanganui Bay (pronounce the "wh" like an "f") is a climbing area located on Mauri land on the south west corner of lake Taupo. It is a collection of ignibrite (ryolite matrix) cliffs right on the lake side formed after a pyroclastic volcanic blast. Geologically this basicly means lots of pumis, ash and hot stuff got VIOLETLY blasted into the surrounding valleys and as it cooled, formed a mix of slow cooled, hard rock mixed with oodles of exploded gas pockets. What this means to me as a climber is loads of varied climbs ranging from perfect cracks (formed while the rock was cooling) for jamming variois bits of my appendages into, rippled slabs to delicately wind up, and best of all.... massive walls of pockets which look like swiss cheese!
Malcom, the nice climber who picked me up (rescued me) for the weekend on his way up fom Wellington, was definitely a stronger climber than me. This was a cool experiance as that I spent the whole weekend really pushing my limits and getting "spanked" by some seriously hard routes. I did on-sight sending a number of 18 through 20s (5.9 through 5.10d) on both trad gear and bolts. I also got the pleasure of thrashing around a bit on a 24 (5.11d!) which although I didn't get the crux (grabbing the very top), I did make it one move shy of the top! All in all, it was an incredible weekend..... now back to the real world!

2005-11-30T10:18:00.000-08:00

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.

2005-11-27T09:32:00.000-08:00

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.

2005-11-26T01:36:00.000-08:00

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.

2005-11-22T21:23:00.000-08:00

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.

2005-11-20T10:13:00.000-08:00

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!

2005-11-20T09:55:00.000-08:00

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.

2005-11-18T10:23:00.000-08:00

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.

2005-11-14T17:00:00.000-08:00

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.

2005-11-13T19:22:00.000-08:00

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.

2005-11-11T11:57:00.000-08:00

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.

2005-11-09T21:52:00.000-08:00

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!

2005-11-08T12:33:00.000-08:00

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!

2005-11-07T10:32:00.000-08:00

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!!!!!