That title was just for you Maze.

As per usual, I’m coming off of a whirlwind few weeks here in NZ. The whole summer at Mons has been building up to Crankworx Rotorua and I definitely understand why. Here’s a crash course in what the last few weeks has looked like.

March 8th – 10th 

The weekend before Crankworx, I stuck around Wanaka and did some local adventures. On Friday night, Vic called me and said to be ready in twenty minutes because we were going to secret location. Twenty minutes later, she rolls up with a few other friends we’ve made, in their 4x4s and we were off.

We drove down to Glendhu with beers and sticks for fire-making. The boys were in a mood to offroad so we drove through the river to the river bed in the centre of it and set up our fire. From there, we spent all night hanging out, drinking beers and laughing a lot. Afterwards, the boys did donuts in their trucks while I tried not to think about the rollover risk.

The next day, Vic invited me to join her and Puckey climbing at Hospital Flats (which is not as scary as it sounds and also not flat).

This would be my second outdoor climbing experience. My first time, we started on a couple of 18s and I had noo hope of even getting halfway up. But this time around, we started out on some 16s and I was determined to get to the top.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but climbing outside is a whole different ballgame than its indoor counterpart. On the one hand, you get the freedom to move wherever you like, unbound by the path of coloured rocks laid out for you. On the other, that means that the path to the top isn’t always clear – and neither are the holds. You can put your hand on a rock that you think is a good grip, but it ends up being slippy or too small to really get a hold on.

This was a total mental game for me. I got stuck on a couple of problems and told myself, “get past this bit, then you can give up and go down” But every time I got past one, I wanted to keep pushing forward. Suddenly, I found myself at the top.

After repelling back down, I was on a total high. And that high only continued as we went and got tacos at Amigos. ‘Twas a good Saturday.

Crankworx, March 15th – 25th

Alright, this is it. The event that the whole summer had culminated in. I had been looking forward to Crankworx Rotorua basically since I took the job at Mons. Crankworx Whistler is my favourite ten days of the whole summer, and I was excited to see how the New Zealand edition of the event played out.

The core team of six from Mons all flew up North together on the Friday. My manager, Sarah, had a meeting that morning, so I got a ride to the airport with the boys. During that hour, the term “boys trip + Jessie” was coined and lived on for the rest of the trip.

Getting to the airport, we had about an hour to kill, so we got breakfast and coffee while we waited for Sarah to catch up. Our first layover was in Christchurch, so I wasn’t too scared to land there. (Christchurch is in the middle of field and is not scary for landing).

When we got to Christchurch, everyone was pretty hungry, but there was nowhere to eat inside the terminal. So we went outside to the check-in area to get some food. I was a little annoyed at this because I didn’t want to go through the process of security again. But as we got our food and made our way back to our gate, I was surprised to not have to go through a security checkpoint once. When I asked why our bags weren’t getting checked, Watty (our pop-up sales guy), simply said “oh there’s no security for domestic flights in NZ.” I was blown away. How could that be?! Watty shrugged and said “It’s New Zealand, nothing bad ever happens here.”

Our flight from Christchurch to Rotorua took off at 1:40. Two minutes later, the shootings started.

We didn’t hear about it until we got off the flight an hour later. At the time, they were saying ten people had been killed. But as the day went on, the number climbed.

Someone told me that 50 people getting shot in NZ is akin to 5000 people getting shot in one sitting in the US. It just doesn’t happen here. I would compare the country-wide reaction to that of 9/11 – it was total shutdown. Airports and schools on lockdown. Public events canceled for weeks afterward. Years from now, people will probably talk about where they were when they heard the news.

In a weird way, it was comforting. Living so close to the States, you get used to hearing about shootings and then watching the world move on. Nothing changes. Here, change was immediate.

It was a bit of a dark cloud over the week, as most of our team were Kiwi. We continued to tune in to the news and hear updates as we rode in the team van to the grounds everyday.

Crankworx kept us busy and distracted us. As everyone had warned me, Rotorua was definitely different to Whistler. In Rotorua, vendors can sell things, so last year’s bike stock is craaazy cheap. And everything is on the grounds at Skyline, so it truly feels like a festival. Whistler, things are quite spread out.

We spent the first weekend setting up and then took one day off before the start of the festival to ride the Redwoods. The Redwoods are the closest thing to Squamish riding that I’ve experienced here yet. It was sooo much fun and it was HUGE. We could’ve spent a week there and not ridden it all.

The week was blur of selling in the tent, working in the media room and being at the events. For the first time, I truly felt like I was part of the team at Mons – not just that we were all coworkers, but that we were all friends as well. Guess living and working together for ten days has that kind of bonding effect.

I also got to see a lot of Whistler people who were town to compete. It was amazing seeing them again, but it did make me a bit homesick. Not as bad as post-Christmas, but just a tinge.

The week ended and I was beat. It was a total blast, but I definitely needed a couple days to recover after it. Coming back to the office was a little weird, but I feel like that sense of friendship is still there.

A selection of photos from the trip… To explain some of them would require you understanding our state of exhaustion and sleep-deprivation. Just go with it.

 

March 29th – 31st

This was arguably the best weekend I’ve had since I’ve been here. And it almost didn’t happen.

Vic told me about a surf trip she was planning in the Catlins for the weekend after I got back from Rotorua. Her friend Joey was in town and she wanted to get a crew together to go. I was hesitant because I knew Rachel was coming in a week and I wanted to save my money.

But then it came to light that we were getting a cabin loan from a coworker of one of the guys who were coming. So now we had free accommodation. But I woke up on Friday morning and had no motivation. I texted Vic saying I was thinking of bailing out when suddenly I had this surge of a “fuck it, let’s do it” attitude. I changed my mind, packed my bag and went to work, then left for the South right after.

By the time I rolled up, it was dark and I couldn’t see where we were. We got into the cabin and made some oven pizza for dinner. No sooner had we finished eating then the power went out. The neighbours assured us it would be back on in a few hours and in the meantime, we entertained ourselves.

The next morning we woke up and the power was back on. Plus I finally got to see where we were and it was right. on. the. ocean. Like we could walk out on the front lawn and the water was right there. It was amazing.

We spent the morning taking turns surfing. The swell was perfect for learning and you could jump over the waves in the crash zone, so it took a huge fear factor out of it. There were seals and dolphins in the water with us as well!

After that, we hung out at the cabin for the afternoon chilling hard and reading. It was honestly the best way to unwind post-Crankworx.

That evening, we drove half a kilometre down the road and watched the sunset over the peninsula. We brought some beer and champagne with us as well and just sat peacefully for forty-five minutes as the day ended.

After the sunset we discovered that Billy’s van had got a flat so the boys got to work fixing it. I casually mentioned that I had never changed a flat and suddenly it became a teaching moment.

After fixing the tire, we went back to the house and had a beach bonfire where Troy showed us how to poi. Poi is a Maori tradition where they light the end of these chains on fire and do acrobatics with them. Troy is really amazing at it and put on a killer show, then tried to teach the rest of us how to do it. It didn’t go as well.

After a couple of beers, someone mentioned that we should skinny-dip in the ocean. The idea caught on like a forest fire in dry season and soon Victoria was saying that she’d only do it if I did. The boys were relentless and eventually we were all stripping and running headlong into the ocean, laughing so hard I thought I was going to pee.

Of course, it was pitch-dark, so none of us could see a thing. Therefore, it was fairly safe from a discretion point-of-view. But once in the ocean, both Vic and I realized that theoretically, we were all going to come out of the water at some point and the light from the house would make things.. er, not so discreet. Both of us jumped up suddenly and sprinted out of the water, laughing insanely as we got back to the beach, grabbed our clothes and took off for the house. I swear I’ve never laughed so hard. We got in to the warmth of the house, hopped in the bathroom and showered off while the boys made their way out of the water. Exhausted, we eventually all calmed down from the high of spontaneity mixed with cold water and went to sleep.

The next morning we woke up to a killer sunrise. Vic went in for one last surf before we all teamed up to clean the house. Afterward, we all posed for one last photo of the gang before clamouring into the cars and leaving our little slice of weekend paradise.

The high from this weekend continued throughout the week and even now as I type about it, I can’t help but giggle to myself. It’s funny how six strangers can come together and have such an amazing time together. That immediate human connection is something that will always touch me the most.

Rachel has now arrived in New Zealand and we’ve begun our own adventures. I’m going to write a separate whole blog post for those, so stay tuned.

Oh, by the way, today mark six months since I landed in NZ. Crazy right? Thanks to everyone who’s still reading this blog (and stuck with me in real-life, despite the rollercoaster ride it’s been).

• JB