ONCEDAILY.COM

2.12.12

2012-02-12T15:38:00.000-08:00

never gets old

2.11.12

2012-02-12T15:37:00.000-08:00

happy birthday mate

you're a legend.

2.10.12

2012-02-12T15:36:00.000-08:00

rain mission

2.9.12

2012-02-12T15:34:00.000-08:00

sheep shearing day

fine sheep. i'll take a photo of you.

2.8.12

2012-02-12T15:30:00.000-08:00

staff housing

bus mission part 2

"...after successfully towing the bus back to camp and leaving her in the overflow lot we decided on a place to move her. once again the nearly breakless, nearly stearingless, 2-ton highlux was hooked up to the completely breakless, completely stearingless 10-ton bus and this time had to back it out and around the parking beams, onto the road and then pull it up the driveway to the house. first all the trees in the driveway had to be trimmed to accomodate the behemoth and a place had to be cleared among the piles of wood and the junk for her final resting place.

it took a few tries backing out - it had to be far enough to the left to miss the parking beams but not so far as to smash the manuka trees it was resting under. finally, just as it was cranked so hard the bus wheels jolted and slammed perpendicularly to the truck, this was accomplished.

once it was successfully towed up to it's new home it had to be pushed into place so it was sturdy and wouldn't move. for this task d took the digger - which has grass growing around the gear shifts, cobwebs instead of a windshield and who's hood is inexplicably propped open with a twisted piece of drift wood so you can see the engine coughing black smoke - and he put a chain from the bucket to the tow hitch on the bus. then using the arm he pulled, turned, pulled and yanked the bus perfectly into place.

mission accomplished, more staff accommodation...."

2.7.12

2012-02-12T15:20:00.000-08:00

lynn leaves day

the black beech forests are truly an eerie thing, or at least i find them somewhat unsettling. you'll be hiking in beautiful lush green native bush and then turn a corner and all of a sudden it's dark; black mold covers all the trees around you and everything is still except for the buzzing of wasps. thousands of wasps. the trees gives off a sweet smell - they say it smells like honeydew but to me it smells just like kombucha. i guess it attracts the wasps because they are everywhere.

it's moments like this, when i wonder into this weird dimension of the forest that i have to remind myself that there's nothing that can hurt me here.

2.6.12

2012-02-12T15:11:00.000-08:00

home again - fernbridge

2.5.12

2012-02-04T23:09:00.000-08:00

to john with love, from kaikoura

this is just a reminder:

you have to do things that scare you in order to find out how brave you are.

2.4.12

2012-02-04T01:37:00.000-08:00

goodbye bridges!!

i'll miss you buddy. see you on the flip side.... as in the right side of the road, hot drip coffee, bathtubs galore, no milk at check in, and a proper double at the rose. i love you.

2.3.12

2012-02-04T01:33:00.000-08:00

mission successfulahhhh my god. this restaurant is a treasure. on our long pilgrimage down to moeraki i realized that i have completely re-arranged my life around food; the growing of it, the preparing of it, the enjoying of it.

if you wonder why you've obviously never tried fleur's anchovy butter.

2.2.12

2012-02-02T04:20:00.000-08:00

the day we met dwayneryan and i are on a mission to moeraki to eat at fleur's. today we made it to kaikoura. halfway there.

2.1.12

2012-02-02T04:18:00.000-08:00

bus mission day

1.31.12

2012-02-02T04:16:00.000-08:00

of the sea

1.30.12

2012-02-02T03:47:00.000-08:00

seasonal

1.29.12

2012-02-02T03:40:00.000-08:00

ryans totally gone wharariki on us, as most people out here end up doing. he's got it pretty bad though i have to say; he's got peacock feathers in all of his hats and in his van and right now he's sitting up on the porch, shirtless, wearing a jade necklace with flax strands wrapped around his toe weaving a bracelet.

"i'm going native!" he tells me,"if i were here longer i could see this getting out of control."

it's a bad beach bug this one and bridges has been bitten.

1.28.12

2012-02-02T03:36:00.000-08:00

takaka

1.27.12

2012-01-26T20:21:00.000-08:00

getting away day

1.26.12

2012-01-26T20:19:00.000-08:00

i can't complain. but sometimes i still do.

1.25.12

2012-01-26T20:16:00.000-08:00

"because it's so amazing."

1.24.12

2012-01-26T20:06:00.000-08:00

barbeque day

1.23.12

2012-01-26T20:03:00.000-08:00

macrocarpa

i was sitting on the porch the other night speaking with jeurgen - the lovely bespectacled german man who owns a flower shop near cologne. he's an elderly man, in a striped shirt and the hair he has left is grey. in somewhat broken english he told me that he'd always wanted to travel but that marriage, career, kids, had prevented it. the path he was on tied him down. now, his kids grown, his second wife home to watch their flower shops, he has the opportunity to come to new zealand and he's taken it. he's always been interested in the country, finally he can fulfill that dream of visiting. he tells me it's good to travel when you're young and have no serious roots in a place. i tell him it's never too late. he asks me what my plans are. i'm honest about having absolutely no idea. it's good to enjoy that for a while, he tells me, but eventually you need to make some (ostensibly in preparation for old age), you cannot always live in the moment.

which is funny to me since that's what i'm always striving to do... and often failing miserably at.

there is something under the surface of this vague goal of being totally present, some lump under the carpet, some shape behind the curtain and my guess is it's the simple, hopeful idea that by living correctly in the present you'll be carried towards the path you're meant for. perhaps you can never truly plan - only react. i'd like to think so..... since i've never been a planner. (but at the same time i'm always planning - the perenially shifting planner.)

but what if jeurgen is right?

how do you ride both horses? living in the moment but still planning for the future? and isn't planning presupposing life itself is an inorganic, unfluctuating space for you to work in as opposed to a creative, organic force that may already have plans for you based on the overall, all-inclusive view of the universe that you yourself are incapable of attaining?

or is this just what i'm hoping to avoid making any plans or future commitments?

i'm banking on the fact that reality is an illusion, all of this a grand dream without an end or beginning and that nothing really matters anyway.

i love you.

1.22.12

2012-01-26T19:43:00.000-08:00

painting the jeep day

1.21.12

2012-01-26T19:41:00.000-08:00

lookout spot

1.20.12

2012-01-20T17:26:00.000-08:00

passion

1.19.12

2012-01-20T17:25:00.000-08:00

bush bees

this one is for you terra joy.

1.18.12

2012-01-20T17:23:00.001-08:00

swamp mission

1.17.12

2012-01-20T17:22:00.000-08:00

redbeard bridges

got another buddy at the beach! bridges showed up in the nick of time.

1.16.12

2012-01-16T13:24:00.001-08:00

r.i.p. harlow

1.15.12

2012-01-16T13:23:00.000-08:00

feather study 3

1.14.12

2012-01-16T13:22:00.000-08:00

roots bar day

1.13.12

2012-01-16T13:21:00.000-08:00

black friday

there are feathers everywhere here.

1.12.12

2012-01-16T13:18:00.000-08:00

pieces

willow said, "you remind me of a peacock."

i said, "is that my bird?"

"yes, to me that's your bird."

"am i loud and obnoxious in the morning?"

"nah, when you're drunk.... and you're soooooo pretty."

"aw thanks buddy."

"you're always leaving pieces of yourself everywhere, and you can't exactly fly... but you get around."

1.11.12

2012-01-16T13:16:00.000-08:00

truck study #3

1.10.12

2012-01-16T13:13:00.000-08:00

s.w.a.k.

i sent postcards to wharariki from each place i traveled to this year. there are alot! it's nice and surreal to be working in the office and look up at my many, many, destinations..... i think when i'm done here i'll go back to the desert.

1.9.12

2012-01-16T13:09:00.000-08:00

nicau lake

1.8.12

2012-01-16T13:08:00.001-08:00

smile project day

1.7.12

2012-01-16T13:07:00.001-08:00

mascot

1.6.12

2012-01-16T13:06:00.000-08:00

sister

this is willow.... at 14 years old she can still out-badass anybody, anywhere, anytime.

1.5.11

2012-01-05T13:48:00.000-08:00

marks the spot

i refuse to believe in elaborate coincidence.

a new woofer showed up at camp while i was at the beach. she was helping me with the cleaning the next morning when two consecutive surprises occurred.

1) i was wiping the dining table and picking up the papers on it. i picked up a ticket stub, looked closer and realized it was my plane ticket.... from last year. (!@#O$*Y@O#!?????)

2) i walked over to caybrinne (the woofer) to show her and noticed her wrist. left wrist, tattoo, same place as mine. wait... same tattoo as mine???? (!@*8s>&p;*%kj*!!!!)

ok so upon closer inspection it wasn't exactly the same. she has an extra X. one other thing. neither of us ever explains to anyone what this tattoo means.

now what on earth do you make of this?..... cause it's blowing all our minds.

1.4.12

2012-01-05T13:38:00.000-08:00

photo mission; sunrise pillar pt

these days are full of living.

1.3.12

2012-01-05T13:37:00.000-08:00

miniature study 2

1.2.12

2012-01-05T13:35:00.000-08:00

miniature study 1

1.1.12

2012-01-05T13:33:00.000-08:00

hello 2012!

here are some of my resolutions for 2012, i'll be brief.

- i resolve to start a new photo project and showcase some of it here on this blog (i need a new drug.)

- i resolve to go to one new place on my short list of places to go. (probably bali.)

- i resolve to feed the right wolf.

- i resolve to terrify myself constantly and relentlessly.

12.31.11

2012-01-05T13:28:00.000-08:00

goodbye 2011!

what a fucking year.

12.30.11

2012-01-05T13:26:00.000-08:00

black swan

12.29.11

2012-01-05T13:25:00.000-08:00

hell or highwater

by nightfall that bridge and most of the road was completely underwater. only the desperate or brave made it out before the flooding. the rest of us stuck it out on what we started referring to as wharariki island.

12.28.11

2012-01-05T13:22:00.000-08:00

collingwood day

this is hawkeye..... he's a good cunt.

12.27.11

2012-01-05T13:21:00.000-08:00

hard rains gonna fall

12.26.11

2012-01-05T13:19:00.000-08:00

camera comrade

this is lynn, aka lynnie... my new best beach buddy.

12.25.11

2011-12-27T12:53:00.000-08:00

best christmas ever

merry christmas babies!!!
my christmas highlight? feeding the eels.
my wishlist this year? .....more epicness.

12.24.11

2011-12-27T12:50:00.000-08:00

best christmas eve ever

kris and the queen bee showed up on my hill!

12.23.11

2011-12-27T12:48:00.000-08:00

the gift

12.22.11

2011-12-27T12:47:00.000-08:00

the longest day of the year

happy winter solstice suckers!

12.21.11

2011-12-27T12:45:00.000-08:00

trouble

12.20.11

2011-12-27T12:44:00.000-08:00

crab racing

12.19.11

2011-12-27T12:43:00.000-08:00

my christmas tree

12.18.11

2011-12-27T12:41:00.000-08:00

manuka me

12.17.11

2011-12-27T12:40:00.000-08:00

back to the beach

finally!

12.16.11

2011-12-27T12:39:00.000-08:00

mission day

this is gypsy and neo.... the wharariki beauties.

12.15.11

2011-12-27T12:37:00.000-08:00

flax flood

i miraculously made it to wharariki even though everyone got stuck on the wrong side of a washed out road. it was pretty epic.

12.14.11

2011-12-14T12:55:00.000-08:00

rained in

for almost a year i've been carrying around a postcard of wharariki. richard gave it to me when i left. i've covered so many miles, been to several countries, cities and states. i've been on the road, off the grid, on and off the map, and in each spot, wherever i am, i put this postcard by my bed. no matter where i am or what i'm doing, everytime i look at this picture and it flips my guts and flutters my heart. i've been waiting for so long to return to this one small beach.

and finally, finally after thousands of miles and two planes i reached the south island. and at last after a ride up the coast and a bus from kaikoura i reached the nelson region. and then after hauling my stuff at 5:45am in the rain to the bus stop and catching the damp shuttle van to matueka and transferring to an even smaller, damper shuttle i reached golden bay. and now, in collingwood, not even 45 km away; i'm stuck. i literally cannot go any further - the roads have flooded.

so i get a cheap room and i hide out from the downpour with clean sheets and chekhov and i put this damn postcard up one more time; and my guts twist and my heart screams at it's nearness and i think, 'ive waited this long, what is just. one. more. day?'

"in her imagination life stretched before her, a new, vast, infinitely spacious life, and this life, though still obscure and full of mysteries, lured and atrracted her." - chekhov

12.13.11

2011-12-14T12:48:00.000-08:00

back to birding

12.12.11

2011-12-11T23:45:00.000-08:00

goodnight and goodbye new home number 11

12.11.11

2011-12-10T21:49:00.000-08:00

things left unsaid

12.10.11

2011-12-10T13:50:00.000-08:00

kaikoura coast track day 3

12.9.11

2011-12-10T13:49:00.000-08:00

hello again new home number 11!

12.8.11

2011-12-10T13:48:00.000-08:00

pop up mall

12.7.11

2011-12-10T13:42:00.000-08:00

cool, cool summer

this is churchill..... at least, i'm pretty sure this is churchill.

12.6.11

2011-12-10T13:39:00.000-08:00

to tomorrow

"i have the strangest feeling riding in the back of the taxi to linda's cottage on colombo st. that i have gone back in time. the day, the drizzle, the overcast morning light is exactly the same as it was upon my arrival to christchurch nearly one year ago. the green grass, trees, flowers everywhere make the streets look identical. the difference is that this time i'm getting a ride to a friend's house instead of a hostel.

no one is here at the colombo cottage and i have solitude and silence as i wash my face and comb my hair. time to think in quiet about what i'll do next. there is no note, no welcome except one - the best one possible:

wharariki beach

03 524 8507

car still there

awesome.

the adventure continues."

12.4.11

2011-12-10T13:37:00.000-08:00

take off

12.3.11

2011-12-10T13:32:00.000-08:00

last day in the usa

johno is always the last one i see before i leave the country. this is a good tradition.

12.2.11

2011-12-10T13:28:00.000-08:00

az to sf

12.1.11

2011-12-10T13:27:00.000-08:00

az to nv to az

11.30.11

2011-12-04T18:31:00.000-08:00

ca to az

look how big jacob is getting!

11.29.11

2011-12-04T18:18:00.000-08:00

hollywood

11.28.11

2011-12-04T18:15:00.000-08:00

I-5

11.27.11

2011-12-04T18:11:00.000-08:00

treatment day

11.26.11

2011-12-04T18:04:00.001-08:00

golden. gate park.

11.25.11

2011-12-04T18:01:00.000-08:00

welcome to alcatraz

11.24.11

2011-12-01T10:58:00.000-08:00

happy thanksgiving!!!

11.23.11

2011-12-01T10:55:00.001-08:00

flying the coop day

2011-12-01T10:54:00.000-08:00

major drama day

this has been the best and at times hardest two months of my life. no matter what short term goals i may have for myself my overall goal is always the same: learn more. in that respect my goal was reached on a daily basis, every day that i spent here.

it is interesting to feel changes happening. to feel shifts occurring. to feel the person you are becoming.

i am so thankful for this place, this time and this opportunity. but i can't spend one more day here.

goodbye new home number 22. see you next year.