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!

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.

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.

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!

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!!!

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!!!

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!