The Fires of Mount Doom

So, after much wrangling, hand-wringing, cogitating, and discussion, Micah and I are not going to the South Island. Even though we were "working" for a full three weeks, we were only able to pick on five of those days. Thus, we found ourselves only $150 richer when all was said and done, not even accounting for the money we spent on food. "A failed enterprise?" one might wonder. The answer: Yes. So our migrant dreams were dashed upon the rocky shores of reality. But no matter, we had an all right time, and became good friends with our Irish flatmates, John and Damian. As for our strange Indian flatmate, Pidi, he didn't talk much, and when he did, it was pretty unintelligible. But he did eat lots of fish heads. Some interesting facts and tidbits on New Zealand:

There is a town called "Cat's Pajamas"
There are people named after Dio
The post office can deliver a large box, but won't ship the same one
Meat pies are amazing, and incredibly ubiquitous
There really are only 5 channels on TV
Rugby is not a sport here, it's a religion
Everyone does sound just like Bret, Jemaine, and Murray

Now that that's behind us, here's what's in front of us:

None other than the barren, burnt, scarred, and evil landscape of Mordor.

That's right, O reader, O muse. Micah and I have set our sights on the slopes of Mount Doom, and are headed out today to retrieve The Ring of Power. You thought the blog title was a joke? Think again. So far we've fulfilled two of three goals on our quest, and I'll be damned if a little fiction-reality barrier is going to stop the third. We are preparing our finest Hobbit outfits, and have arranged for someone to follow us with a boombox playing the Lord of the Rings soundtrack on repeat for the next eight days. I'd say that's more than enough preparation for a serious wilderness expedition, wouldn't you? In all seriousness, Micah and I indeed are headed for Tongariro National Park, where all of the Mordor and Mount Doom scenes were filmed for Lord of the Rings. Pretty cool. Should be a spectacular desert/jungle/subalpine/alpine journey, and an excellent way to finish off what I can only say has been an epic trip and huge adventure. Expect one final entry, and final beard update from the ramblers, before we part ways. Until then,

-Jack

Guess What

Hello every one it's your old friend Micah Vassau. It has been a while since I posted so here is my side of the story. Tokyo is like a clean NY full of Japanese people, no one jay walks and there is a five way intersection in Shibuya that I hope to run threw naked one day. I have been hanging out with Jack allot. In Bali we drove around on motorcycles and ate lots of cheep food and drank home made Arak. During the last week in Bali I caught a fever and got really bad Diarrhea I lost about twenty pounds and my pants would barely stay up. Since I got to New Zealand I have been on a steady diet of meat pies and ice cream and am back to my normal weight. We are living with two Irish Guys named Damion and John and a man named Pidy. On my trip I have yet to see a Irish man go one night without drinking. Yesterday I caught a fish. We are about to go to the south island and venture into the bush.

Kiwifruit Madness

After a completely botched bus journey, one that cost literally ten times as much as it was supposed to, Micah and I are in Tauranga, part of the Bay of Plenty. We arrived here, watched a terrible Warriors game, (they lost big time) and then met up with Mr. Zaky, or Alam, our boss. He is basically a crazy Bangladeshi guy, who Micah accurately summed up as "A combination of Kramer and Murray Hewett, with a dash of curry on top." Either way, he shows up at the tiny migrant house that we and two other Irish guys live in about three times a day after work. We are contract Kiwifruit pickers, which means that we pick Kiwifruits, and get paid by the bin. It is hard work, and the first couple days I woke up sore all over, trying to drown out the howling agony of my body with the screaming need for cash. We had to pick in T-bar orchards at first, which sucks, because they involve lots of bending and ducking with a large bag of fruit strapped to your chest. We should be working in Pergola orchards soon, which will be better, because the fruit is all overhead, and much easier to pick. Better money too. We each pick about 8 or 9 bins a day, which is about 5000-9000 pounds of fruit, not quite sure exactly which, but either way it's a shit load of fruit. All in all, it is a vast change of pace from the leisurely travelling we have mainly been doing so far, but it is nice to be working hard outdoors. New Zealand is very similar to America, only there are less people, and they are generally nicer. We are having a good time, though we have not yet begun our quest for the Ring. We'll find it though, and we'll let you all know when we do. Until then,

-Jack