Videoblog #1

Hey, just my first stab and making video.

Videoblog #1

Hey, just my first stab and making video.

Rimutaka Death March 2008

A friend of ours here in "the Hutt" (the local's name for anything in the Hutt Valley on the East side of the Wellington Harbour) invited me and the boy on an overnight tramping trip.  Most of this invitation was actually done through my wife and his wife as his boy and my boy are friends at school.  After several months here, I have quickly determined that my definition of "easy tramping" and the Kiwi defnition of "easy tramping" are not equivalent.  Even after several months of Kiwi-living, I remain a mostly round American.  Soooo, instantly suspicious, I verified how hard this trip might be with Aaron (the friend and organiser).

"So, how many kilometers is this hike?"

"Oh maybe 1 and quarter.  It's pretty easy.  We'll go Friday after work and be at the hut before dark."  (This time "hut" means cabin.)

"Oh, well that's easy.  Sure we'll go."

It was then with some stress that I discovered in the parking lot of the Rimutaka Forest trailhead that it was, in fact, 3.5 kilometers and that what Aaron meant was 1 and quarter hours of walking one-way.  Gabe and I are each carrying pretty full and not insignificantly weighted backpacks... I thought to myself that perhaps 3.5 km won't be too bad.

While no one was permanently injured, it was 3.5 km all up hill except for the very end where the trail dropped sharply to a river valley.  We had to wade across the river which was icy cold.  It was getting dark and after crossing the river we were confronted with a wide rocky washout that would have to be navigated (quickly) in order to get to the other side where we *thought* the hut was.  No one was really sure at this point.  Another dad/kid combo had come with us (total party of six now, 3 dads / 3 kids) and Chris was all Kiwi.  By this I mean he walks through thorny trails, up mountains, while barefoot on a weekly, if not daily, basis.  The pace he set was grueling.  So as we scrambled over rocks and deadfall trees in rapidly sinking darkness we were also "heaps puffed" (tired) and a little confused.

Luckily we guessed right and we found the hut just as it got dark.  We proceeded to quickly get a fire going for heat and then Aaron cooked up all the stuff we hauled in.  We had a "sizzle" (cooked sausages), canned spagetti, heaps of junk food and some coke and bourbon (for the dads).  It was pretty nice.  The kids were bonkers and had latched on to perpetually singing the same song about farting and barfing over and over.  That proved difficult to stop.  Eventually they passed out.

I managed to have a nice smoke of the pipe while looking at the amazing stars.  The area we were in is very remote (as is everything about 5 minutes outside of town in NZ).  There are no cities surrounding us and the stars are so clear and so abundant that I can't spot the constellations anymore.  They are lost in the background.  The Milky Way is huge and stunning.

We wanted to be back before noon on Saturday.  That meant a pretty fast trot out of park.  We were all much lighter having eaten most of the food, but even so we (at least Gabe and I) were tired.  Poor Gabe must have fallen like 5 times, but he carried his pack all the way out.  He was the only kid that did.  Which was good, cuz my legs were jello after we hit the parking lot.  Moving for the next 3 days was a quiet symphany of "ouches" and "umphs".

Of course the scenery was amazing.  But just for the record... a "easy" Kiwi trail assumes you about 22 years old (strong, long limbed, and quickly healed), sober, and in full possession of all limbs.  These trails may be 40% grade at times, skirt along dramatic drop offs (no hand rails), narrow to only 12" wide (with drop offs), require wading through river(s), and cross over rough terrain (like rock jumbles, fallen trees, and small crevasses).  I have no idea what a "hard" trail would be like, but I suspect it might involve lava, waterfalls, and deadly pygmies.

Check out my Photos for all the pics.  Love y'all.  Can't wait to see you all again!

Rimutaka Tramping Trip Sept 2008

There were 3 huts up there, Jans, Oak and the Tramping Club's.

Me, Gabe, Aaron, Sam, Chris, Eli out for a short overnight tramping trip. We hiked about 3.5 km mostly uphill, waded across a river, scrambled up a washout, and stayed overnight in a Dept of Conservation hut.

"The Player of Games" by Iain Banks

A while ago I discovered "The Algerbraist" by Iain Banks and loved it.  I was so inspired by his writing style that I went out to find more books by him and thankfully he has well over a dozen.  I tried reading "Against a Dark Background" but just could not quite get in to the story.  I had bought "The Player of Games" around the same time, but after failing on Dark Background, I let Games sit for a long while.

I started reading it last weekend and finished it last night.  It is another great book, by a really good Sci-Fi author.  Banks writes in many genres, I haven't tried his non-sci-fi stuff yet.  But I'd easily put him up there with Issak Asimov in the depth and richness of his vision of the far off future.  He has created the most believable "utopian-esque" society I've read.  The world he creates works.  The characters are interesting and the landscape is facinating.

Two thumbs up for Iain Banks and "The Player of Games."

What is wrong with America?

I think I have finally put my finger one what is wrong with Americans…

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When I lived in the US, I knew about other cultures and I knew they were “different”.  Exactly what made them different was only vaguely clear.  As an example I could fundamentally understand that Asian cultures placed more importance on ancestry and that altered how they saw the world.  But in all my years living in the US, I never knew what my cultural heritage was.  I did not know what about American was different from other cultures.  I think I have found one bit.

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There have been several moments in conversation where I’ll say something conceptual that I felt was fairly obvious only to have my Kiwi co-workers smile politely and ask me why that was important.  This usually revolves around the ideas of price competition and in general beating our competition.  I began to realize that while a competitive nature is healthy and alive in Kiwi’s, it isn’t ingrained in their thinking.  It isn’t cultural.  I then began to realize that Americans are really obsessed with competing and, more importantly, with winning.  

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In this epiphany I saw clearly all the ways Americans act and re-act in a competitive nature to win.  In all our negotiations we strive for the “win-win”.  In all of our most popular sports—only Americans compete.  The World Series, the NFL, NBA, NASCAR—all of them are American sports and predominantly only played in the US.  We don’t compete in truly world sports significantly.  I would theorize that this is because we don’t like losing.

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By the American definition, winning is making the most money and having the most power.  Always being able to get what you want when you want, regardless of what others may want, is what the American Dream is really all about.  We have some mental picture that all Americans can achieve this and we just assume the wealth will come from “somewhere” and we don’t particularly care from where.  As an extension of this “ideal” we see the US as a nation of unequalled wealth and military power.  To put it simply, the US is winning.

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What we don’t realize is that the culture of winning (read as, Obsessed with winning) is not universal.  Certainly other cultures value wealth, success and even competition, but the zeal that Americans have is still unique to Americans.  When you are inside a culture and have little exposure to other cultures you can’t see these traits.  We naturally assume that the rest of the world is, more or less, just like us only with slight “differences” like placing more importance on ancestry—but still… everyone likes to win and likes winners, right?  

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Here is the fatal mistake.  We assume that because we are winning, that everyone else would naturally like to win too and therefore they will probably try to copy us—in fact, they probably even admire our ability and respect us!  Or at least they should… We’re Winning!  Because we are so good, we obviously have the best of everything… OR if we don’t have the best, then we’ve had to make a sacrifice in a few areas to ultimately remain the winner.  

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We are blind to the value the rest of the world has to offer.  We implicitly believe that if other cultures were as good as ours, then they would be winning and not us.  We have very little awareness of how well the rest of the world operates and no awareness of how completely stupid we appear.  We have not come all that far from the “Might makes Right” philosophy.  The leadership of New Zealand (for example purposes only) has every bit of the brain power possessed by the keenest US politician.  Perhaps not the same set of cut throat experiences, but at least the same level of empathy, compassion, and wisdom.  This is true of most nations.  Truth is not contained in one nationality.  Yes, the US may be the biggest economic power.  Yes, the US may have the strongest military.  But these two qualities do not give the US more wisdom than other nations.  It does not give the US more right to say how they should govern.  It in no way implies that the opinions or vision of a US politician are better than the wise men and women around the world.

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The US has in the past delivered some great goods to the world.  It will certainly deliver more in the future.  But we must lead together.  We have a lot of power.  Do we have the wisdom to use it?  The very wise know that they are not wise.  If we were to assume that we are not wise, then we should be listening to others.

Project: Seals

Completed!

We finally got see seals over in Island Bay (just West of Wellington CBD).  While I did capture some video of them, I didn't get any pictures of them.  My digicam battery was dead.  I did snap some mobile shots along the walk, but I apparently didn't get any seals.  Ah well, we are sure to go back.  Check out the new shots in the Mobile Pics II photo journal.

It was a good walk--4 km each way.  It was a beautiful day and a beautiful walk.  The whole time Amy and I were just amazed that we live on a beautiful island in the South Pacific.  The hills and cliffs along the coast are dramatic, but still appear scaleable--although I know dang well that I couldn't.  The ocean was at least 5 shades of blue.  There were fun surf beaches and turbulent craggy rocks.  Someday, I would really like to get some goggles and snorkel around.  We saw a few sea anemenies (no idea if that's spelled right) and one tiny exotic fish in a tide pool.  But you don't see much sea life from the shore.

The seals were big males.  This particular coloney is populated year round and is exclusively male.  It makes seeing them a lot less stressful as the bachelors don't have cubs or females to protect.  They just flop around and lay in the sun.  They are pretty big critters.  I had some image that seals would be roughly dog sized, but these were some pretty big dogs!  They had to weigh 400 pounds or more... really more small bear sized.  But oh so sleepy.

We had a bit of a picnic and walked back while the boys played along the route.  It was near impossible to keep them from getting wet.  As it turned out, it was impossible for any of use to stay dry.  You had to forge 2 shallow streams.  Hopping from rock to rock did not work.

Did I mention amazing and beautiful?  Come on down and see us! Hehe *grin*