Musings of an Idiot

Happy New Year with the tree climbing bull

This is to wish anyone reading this post a very happy and prosperous New Year. May it bring joy and success.

What an exciting way to start off a New Year. Lance came up with the idea to go to a small and secluded island to spend couple of days away from the civilization, never did any of us expect to be the only ones camping on an island nor imagine ourselves being mobbed by a field full of bulls {one of which even tried climbing the tree}.

Benji and I really needed to get away from the hustle and bustle of the editing for a while, more so because we kept ahead of our schedule and finished the second fine cut of the movie –a week in advance. So Lance’s offer to spend the time away from the city was a fantastic idea.

On 30th December, 2004 – the prospect of going away wasn’t looking too exciting as it had been pouring down for the past few days and it was turning out to be a soggy summer. We recorded most of the voice over work from Richard and later on in the evening I edited a trailer for David Coddington’s short film ‘Punawai. Talked to Lance later in the night and we decided to go ahead with the plan to go camping on the island even if the weather was rough. And boy, what a vacation it turned out to be.

Since the weather forecast said that a bad storm was gonna hit the islands, most people who were already there on the isand, packed up and left. Lance’s parents agreed to drop us off on the island and it was really exciting waiting to go ahead. Everything packed, we left for the island but as soon as we came out of harbour, we saw a bunch of hippies foolishly run their ship aground into the sand in the middle of the sea. Lance’s dad turned around and tried to help but because our boat was bigger, we could not get too close. Luckily, a smaller boat turned up and took over the project of making the hippies ship float {turned out that the hippies did spend the rest of the day and the night of new year – half drowned in their ship, waiting for the high tide to free their ship} and we were on our way.

When we arrived at the island, there were quite a few people, who were enjoying the island. But since no one was staying for the night, we got to pick any spot we wanted to pitch our tent. We got the best spot in the island and I also learnt for the first time ever on how to setup your tent. Indians aren’t exactly outdoor people and going camping is a rare thing, so I was happy to be initiated into the camping ritual.


Lance and Benji after setting up the tent and the rain covered sitting area.

The island is called ‘Motuihe Island’ and it used to be used for many things in the past like a children’s welfare camp, an outpost for treating people infected with influenza, a WW I prison camp, a WW II naval base and more; now it is a secluded beach which is under the protection of ‘Department of Conservation’ – I might be missing some information or some of it might be flawed but that’s all the technical part I can remember. Benji, Lance and me went exploring to the northern part of the island and by the time we came back the beach was empty –most of the people had left. It was lovely having the beach all to ourselves. All of us had quite a few rounds of ‘King of the Hill’ – the result was that Benji was definitely the winner because neither me or Lance could displace him. We later on tried creating another shelter where we could sit when it was raining. The attempt was alright but kind of uncomfortable because of the low ceiling of the tarp. The rest of the evening and night was spent walking on the beaches, having drinks and just chatting and singing.


Me and Benji lazing under the tree


Lance trying to push Benji off to become 'King of the Hill'


It is surprising –how much life gets simplified when there is no technology around you and when you are living with the nature. One of the easiest ways to tell/guess time was by seeing the ferry {which contained supermodels according to Lance and which became a constant joke amongst us} go to and fro Waiheke Island every hour. I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I could not get myself to stay awake till 12’00 at night when it was officially the onset of 2005. I crashed into the tent and the next thing I remember is waking up at 8.30 the next morning because of the heat which the tent kept getting from the sun. The first thought I had was – “Damn, I missed the new year”, the second thought I had was “So much for the weather forecast” because it had only drizzled for about 10 minutes and that was it.

It was at that point that I also realized that last year at the same point, I had made a decision to make a movie this year and had started scripting ‘Memories of Tomorrow’ and here I was an year later, vacationing on this beautiful island with my friends who also happened to be DoP and editor on the film, nearing the last stages of finishing off the movie. Last year, I made a resolution that within the year I will finish shooting my first feature and not only did we finish shooting it within the year but also managed to get a fair amount of post production process done as well. I am excited and feel lucky that I am surrounded by such wonderful people and team who made this project a reality and worked towards making this dream possible.

The 1st day of the New Year was eventful and adventurous – there is no better way that this year could have started off. The day began with another round of ‘King of the Hill’ but this time the difference was that it was an equal fight amongst all of us. I managed to push Benji off for the first time and after that it was an even match. Played some freesbie around and lazed around. There was a big tent which was setup the night before and we kept wondering what it was for. It looked as if there was a big party which was gonna happen there or something.


Me trying to push Benji off to become 'K O T H'


Lazing around the beautiful island

Since we were at the northern end of the island, we decided that all of us would trek to the southern end of the island, which was called ‘Bald Knob’ – rude but hey that’s its name. I guess it was named so because it is the only part of the island which does not have any trees towards the cliff end. Anyway, so we started trekking and after a good 15 minutes walk we found that it was another 35 minutes to the bald knob and at the same time we could see the rain clouds coming over. It poured down for 10 minutes and I got soaked because I could not remember where I put my poncho – a plastic bag. We took a break under a tree before we continued our walk.


Benji in his poncho and me, taking a break under the tree as it pours down

It seemed like forever especially trying to avoid all the cow dung. We came across fresh cow dung as well as a cow dung treatment plant and we were wondering why we couldn’t see any cows inspite of all that.


Benji and me continuing the trek towards Bald Knob


Lance and Benji take a moment's break


'Fellowship of the Bulls'


And then it happened. We walked across a paddock with lots of trees and as soon as we came up the hill, we saw heaps and heaps of cows. I was scared shitless – hadn’t seen that many cows in the open before. I kept asking Lance and Benji if they were sure that we would be safe and they wouldn’t attack us. They kept saying nah we will be fine and even made mooing sounds. We kept looking at them as they started standing up and looking at us. And then Lance said the magic words “They are not actually cows, they are bulls.” I went “Oh shit!” and Benji realized that the bulls were taking undue interest in our walking across the fields and we thought it would be a good idea to hide behind a tree for a while to see if they would forget us but they kept crowding up. Lance kept walking saying ‘it is alright, they are not gonna hurt us.’ And at that point Benji and me saw a bull stomping its leg and immediately thought it was a good idea to climb up the tree nearest to us. Lance kept taking photos and within a matter of minutes we were surrounded by about 20-25 bulls. We kept trying to tell Lance to create a diversion so that we could get away from there but Lance could not understand as to why we needed a diversion. The bulls started getting more and more eager and kept coming closer and closer to the tree we were hanging out at. Benji said “ Damn, got to make a move right away otherwise we will be up on the tree all night.” And he sneaked away carefully and as soon as he left the bulls came right under the tree and one of them started climbing the tree. I was scared shitless thinking bulls can’t possibly climb trees and out of desperation I yelled out ‘GO AWAY’ and strangely enough all the bulls simply walked away. It was very surreal and strange that so many bulls would simply walk away just like that on hearing those words. If you don't believe what I am saying then have a look at the photographs below {hi-res ones will be put up as soon as image gallery is repaired}


Bulls staarting to come towards Benji and me, hanging around in the tree


Me climbing up the tree higher as the bulls come closer


Benji has his eyes on the bulls as he sneaks off


One of the bulls trying to climb up the tree to get to me while the tree is completely surrounded by bulls


Lance and Benji on the Bald Knob

I took a deep sigh of relief and got down the tree and we walked down towards the bald knob giving out a big sigh of relief. It was fantastic going right from one end of the island to the other. The question now was – how do we get back with the field full of bulls again. I tried reasoning with Lance and Benji that we should jump fences and walk across the other fields to bypass the bulls but they kept going ahead, so I jumped across and walked parallel to them and the bulls as I was too weak hearted to go through another bull confrontation. It was tough walking across the fields because they were untrodden on. Benji and Lance had to jump across the fence as well as the bulls were covering the exit gate. Only after we got them out of our sight that I personally breathed a deep sigh of relief and still could not believe that we were chased by tree climbing bulls. I can think of no better way to start off a new year.

In the afternoon, there was a party for kids and during that time all we did was sit under our tree shelter and laze around. Benji suggested some structural changes and we implemented it and came up with a much better shelter, which gave us enough headroom and plenty of cover. It was great.


Benji and me enjoying the new structurally modified shelter

The kids left after a couple of hours and then there was silence again on the island. We played some more freesbie and lazed around in the grass looking at the open skies, talked more and had more drinks and sang more songs. Later in the evening there was another tour group which came in for a party at the same place. Bunch of American and Australian teenagers –whose parents are multi-millionaires. What a joke. Benji and me were laughing on how they did everything so American – talk so loud and be so stand offish. Lance took a couple of trips down to get us the info which I wrote above on who they were. I think I probably fell asleep about 10.30 and the next thing I remember is waking up at 6.00 in the morning.

The journey back was equally fun as it was eventful again. When we went to the beach around 10.00 when Lance’s parents came to pick us off the island, the wind was normal and the sea was calm but as soon as the boat came in, the water got really choppy and the current picked up quite a bit. I think that was the closest I got to getting sea sickness but not really. It was a slow and eventful journey but so much fun nevertheless.

And ever since then all I have done is have a good bath, done some shopping and had dinner and gearing up for the week ahead. A long update wasn’t it? Well I think I will take leave for now and update you more later. Having a little problem with the image gallery on the website, so can’t upload all the pics from the trip onto the website. Hopefully will get that sorted soon.

Bye for now,
Amit

posted by Amit @ 11:05 PM