It' cold. I'm not talkin cuddle up in a blanket on the couch cold, I'm talkin high humidity with a chance of rain that does a U-turn before hitting the ground because the screaming winds from the antarctic won't allow them to do so....... it's cold. That being said, it is still a pretty cool place (pun is somewhat intentional!).
Anywho, life is truckin along at a pretty steady pace. In fact, I have been thinkin alot about "life" lately. We just celebrated my 35 birthday with a fancy dinner, a bit of lost season 3, a call from mom and a fishing supplies care package from the lady. Birthdays are such an interesting devil. As a kid, second to Christmas, it is the most highly anticipated day of the year full of high hopes and wonder. Even into my twenties and early thirties, it was a chance to throw a party with your mates and indulge in that ever so wonderful morning headache. This year was different. It's not a mid-life crisis, it's a mid-life. The thought that keeps repeating itself in my head is "congrats, you have reached the center of the teeter tauter." Being a logical person, the average age that men in my family depart this life is approximately 70. Not to toot my own horn, but I am pretty good at math, and I believe that half of 70 is 35. And if we infer that the word "mid" means middle or center...... we have arrived at the half-time show, but is it going to feature a marching band or commercials? I'm hoping for the marching band.... however....... if it is the Superbowl, maybe I would lean towards the commercials! My whole point is that I am guilty of reminiscence.
Life is what it is, I am not afraid of dying, but more importantly I am not afraid of living. But in order to improve your stats you must look at the first half to allow for "improvement" in the final stretch. So, without further a-do, I present to you my first half ........ um........ moments.
What follows is simply a recount of the moist poignant memories that keep rolling around in this ol' head of mine. I don't give them a numerical value, this is not a "best of", they are simply ........ decisive moments. I don't know how your memory works, but mine has a tendency to auto-delete. I believe this is necessary to make more space. My dad once told me that he had "forgotten more than he ever knew". It is starting to become clear exactly how true a statement that actually is. My early childhood memories are almost a complete blur. I have this movie that plays in my head about riding my plastic three wheeler around the deck of our old house in cottonwood. It's not high def, more like 16mm from the attic played on a dusty reel-to-reel. There are basically only a handful of solid moments from my life in Priest River. We moved from there when I was in fourth grade, but the things that I remember most are having an icicle fight with my younger sister and damn near taking her eye out, chicken pox, finding "mama" kitty and her kittens inside an abandoned vehicle next door, my box of "pets" (what a wonderful assortment of dead things), making a "no-lying" pact with my dad, jumping our bikes off of ramps made out of found objects, the u-haul truck, and my chat with the principle as to why it is not OK to pull girls hair while they are hanging upside down on the jungle gym or throwing rocks at the school buses.... or the principle's car (that I believe was the second visit). Never really been very good at being told what to do!
Junior high and High School were both filled with ups and downs, but the three most important moments were all centered around love. No, I'm not talkin about the love affair that started first period and usually ended by lunch! This is the kind of love that once discovered, it changes you. I would never say that my life was hard, but it definitely had it's moments. Being that we moved around quite a bit after the divorce, it wasn't the easiest thing to "fit in" or simply make a friend. That all changed for me when we moved to Four Lakes and I found love. I found love for a girl who used to bruise my shins during sewing class. And for those of you who feel it necessary to ask, yes I can still sew and in a box somewhere I have a red and yellow surfboard pillow to prove it! But this love was not a fairy tale romance, it was an awkward young man who absolutely gave his heart and soul to a gal that wasn't keen on being more than his friend. Yet through that friendship the majority of my life was set on a path. Because of that gal I wound up at an audition for the school play, which after being cast have never strayed from the path to the point that I am now making movies as a profession. Through that relationship she taught me what it meant to struggle for what you wanted. And most importantly, she made me realize that I couldn't stay in our small town. And because of that I have now lived in Vegas, Orlando, Los Angeles, New York, and Wellington.
Life really started to roll through and after college. There was a point where I started to stray away from the quest for a degree and began getting sucked into the daily struggle of bills and hourly pay, but mom bought me a ticket to London to study a bit of Shakespeare (and the rolling stones at Wembley!) and this ....... led to college startin to ROCK!!! I would admit that I am very proud of all of the plays that we put on at EWU as well as my stint as ASEWU President. But what I am most proud of is that the friends that were made in that little state school are the those people that are still the closest to me. Be it my roommate's brother or the cute little blonde girl from theatre camp, they are my true accomplishments. Ended up 1/2 a point shy of the honor role and moved to Los Angeles. Got tied into the entertainment industry, and since then have reached my goal in the creative world, met my wife, found happiness. So, all in all, it was a pretty good half.
OK!!!! Enough of that reminiscing stuff!!!! Jeanne and I were workin on the same crew for the better part of 3 months and finally got a hiatus. Actually, I got a hiatus and she ended up having to work another week before getting to take off..... so Danny and Misiu went on a road trip. ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!
I was planning on takin a few weeks, but got called back from our break for another week of work. Rollin with the punches, had to cut it down to four days. And, of course, I went in search of an ideal fishing spot! As you may or may not know, New Zealand is the
brown trout capital of the world. This, I have discovered is true, but mainly on the south island. However, the quintessential fresh water lake is within a days drive: Lake Taupo. Grabbed the dog and a minimal amount of camping stuff.... plus an air mattress for the car and hit the road. Rather than drive straight up to Taupo, which is in the heart of the island, we headed northwest to New Plymouth and the volcano. Actually, most of you have probably seen it without realizing. This is the location where they shot "The Last Samurai" starring Tom Cruise. They converted large portions of the city to look like early Japan and used the volcano as Mt. Fuji. Anyway, we found a pretty good spot. It was along the ocean where a freshwater stream dumps in and at certain times of the year the Whiting run through and it is suppose to be "off the hook" (yes, that is a pun!). Well, I didn't catch any fish but Misiu found a log to relax on and seemed perfectly content..... fish or no fish!
Since the fishin was a bit dead, moved on up the coast line and discovered a really cool lighthouse.
It actually worked pretty well, but that damned air mattress just would not let go of the cold from the air inside. Needless to say, it sucked. Ended up sleeping on top of my sleeping bag wearing every article of clothing that I had packed. But it was worth it.
The next morning we had breakfast at a lovely train cafe and made our way to another section of head water.
Here, unlike the first location, I caught a couple of nice fish. Nothing worth taking pictures of, but at least we finally caught something. It was a gorgeous spot. There was a small river outlet on our left with a driftwood encrusted beach. Beautiful. I almost forgot, we also found what I am calling, the world's largest surfboard!
Now for the truly exciting part of the trip. Since sleeping in the car was just too cold with the wind coming in off of the ocean, it was time to high-tail it to Taupo. I took a look at the map and there seemed to be a pretty straight shot on major roads to get from New Plymouth to Taupo, so we set out. SO........ there is a major difference in what I would consider a major road and what a NZ map would consider a major road!
We must have spent 5 hours on roads that should have required a four wheel drive vehicle with absolutely no sign of civilization except for the occasional road sign that stated the obvious. FORGOTTEN WORLD HIGHWAY!!!! And let me tell you, the name is fitting! Plus, on top of the road being ridden with potholes and washboards.... and even some washouts,
they have this little sign. This little sign is a new thing for me. What it means is that the next section of road allows two way traffic but there is only enough room for one car, and the one traveling in the direction of the larger white arrow has the right of way. In theory that makes sense, but I can't tell you how many times I would come across this little beauty and the road would remain that way for quite a stretch. And we're not talkin straight roads were you can see in somebody is coming, we are talkin curvy mountain roads with no place to go but down. Gotta tell ya, that is just a touch uncomfortable.
Eventually we did make it to Taupo. I should have done a bit more research, because it is considered to be some of the best fishing around but it is fly rod only access. The place is a fishermen's paradise. There must be 30 plus river and streams that dump into the lake that are ideal for fly fishing. I didn't have a fly rod with me. I went down to the local fishing shop and talked to one of the locals, and he told me of the one place on the river that you are allowed to fish with spinners, and off I went. Along the southern end of a lake there is a hydro-electric dam that has a concrete river channel that lead back into the lake. Since the channel is man made, the rules do not apply. Also, since there are no fish in the man made river, the rules do not apply. Lame!
Eventually, after having enough of the weed fishin in the rain, we packed up and headed south a bit. Since I had my freshwater day license, I decided to take a road that ran a bit off course and it actually ended at the conversion point of another electric station and a small river. This spot was amazing. Not sure if your allowed to fish there, so we only hung out for about an hour. I actually did hook into a decent sized trout, but couldn't land it. So, my fishing road trip was mostly a bust, but I did get to see the country side and also bought a fly rod as soon as I returned to Wellington. The Taupo saga will be revisited.
Actually, it wasn't a complete bust, I did find the world's largest gumboot!
Once I got back home, Jeanne and I ended up working another week before being able to escape the damn cold for a week long retreat to a little island called Fafa, which is a 30 minute boat ride from the capital of Tonga. This place is absolute heaven! We didn't do much of anything at all...... and it was wonderful. The island itself is the entire resort. They have the usual amenities of dining, massage (which was........ perfect), Polynesian floor show, and sunbathing...... but they also offered bliss and BATS. Really, really big bats.
Our accommodations where quite unique, we stayed in what is known as a "Fale". These are authentic native structures with solid coconut wood beams and wall and ceiling covers made from woven palm fronds. They have been updated with mosquito nets and "indoor" showers that are run off of collected rain water and heated through solar power. In fact, the facility is mostly self-sustaining minus the need to run into town for groceries.
It was an amazing time filled with beautiful beaches and a very island time lifestyle. We did do a bit of kayaking and snorkeling, but to see those pictures you would have to go to facebook. Cuz, of course, when you buy a really nice underwater digital camera for your tropical paradise vacation the first thing that it does is decide to die 5 minutes into your first snorkel. Waterproof my A@#!!!!!! But on the fishing report I got a totally new one for ya, I went fishin with a local Tongan man named Sam that taught me how to fish by hand. That, my friends, was a blast. I feel bad for Sam, he didn't catch anything, but I brought home a cuddle fish and 3 white snapper. One of the snapper was really nice size, so we had the resort cook it up for Jeanne and I for dinner and I gave the remaining fish to Sam. So, actually, I ended up with one and he got 3!!!!
The place was a true get away. Except of course for the TSUNAMI!!!!!! Yup, we decide to finally get away to a tropical destination for a quasi honeymoon and what do we get...... evacuated!
Part of the Earth's crust decided to shift under the ocean floor between New Zealand and Tonga which was somewhere near a 7.3 on the Richter scale. We are on an island that is basically 10 acres with no phones or Internet or world contact accept for, your gonna love this, it's called "island news". Jeanne and I woke up and made a cup of coffee. I lounged around in my shorts as she soaked up the sun in her bathrobe. Both of us having very little inclination to do much of anything else except enjoy the aromatic flavors of the Tongan blend and read our books. We are greeted by one of the locals that work for the resort and she asks us if our morning is going well and if we are enjoying the island. We both let out a huge sigh accompanied by a relaxed smile as she says "I am happy you are happy, please, no rush...... but could you follow me to the beach because there is a tsunami and we must go. Take your time, but we must go". WHAT!?!?!?!? Did she just say what I think she said, and if so, why is she not concerned at all.
Well, there was a tsunami warning and the entire island's inhabitants were being shoved into boats and taken to higher ground. I'm not real sure where they were planning on taking us considering Tonga is flat and in my estimation the tallest building was the cruise ship that pulled into port the night before! Anywho, by the time we got back to the island the warning had been cancelled so we returned to our bathrobes and books and coffee and bliss!
So, now we are back in wonderful wet and windy Welly. I landed a job with the art department and started the day after we arrived. Jeanne got an extra two weeks vacation, but it is now time for her to return to work as well. Should be interesting. She is on days and I am on nights. We'll just have to see how that goes! I'll try to come back a little bit sooner than last time.........
