Francesca and Henk-Jan's Backpacking Trip!
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Escaped From Jail And Now Fully Armed...
Hi there valued readers of our blog!
Francesca and I have left Christchurch behind us for a while, making sure that the things we missed out on earlier were not left undone. Francesca especially, but me as well, felt sad about not having made a knife in Barrytown a few weeks ago. We decided that it was cool to spend some time in Greymouth and take a bus, or rent a car and go up to Barrytown for said activity. We booked ourselves a bus ticket with Atomic Shuttles to take us to Greymouth for 4 days.
The driver picked us up early in the morning for a good 4 hour drive through a very scenic landscape. Next to the road lies the railroad that takes the TranzAlpine Express from Christchurch to Greymouth and vice versa. The trip is seen as one of the most beautiful train rides one can take. The shuttle proved to be a tad less comfortable, as the roads got steeper, the weather got worse and the driver got more and more grumpy.
At one point he was stopped by a cop, who told him he had to put his snow chains on his tires. The driver grumbled and moaned a bit, but with the help of some of the passengers he managed to get them on and after a 15 minute delay the bus was on the road again. As we made our way up to the top, where the ice was supposed to be bad the driver noticed there was no ice at all. He got more pissed off, stopped by the side of the road and took his chains right back off. Francesca did not feel too fantastic with the winding, bumpy roads and was glad to get a little break at Arthur’s Pass along the way.
It being sunny the last few days in Christchurch, Francesca and I were quite surprised to see snow when we stopped for a drink. At least we were greeted by a Kea! Luckily, we were able to get back on the bus quite quickly, making sure the heating was. The second half of the drive was even less eventful than the first, and we arrived in Greymouth early in the afternoon. Francesca called the owners of the knifemaking place and arranged for us to be picked up the next morning. We spent the rest of that day resting up, walking to the supermarket, cooking a meal and going to bed early for an earlier rise.
The morning started with a small breakfast, as we knew lunch would be provided later that day. Francesca and I were picked up by Robyn, the wife of Steve, who runs the show. I talked to her on the way to their place and she was very excited to hear this would be my second knife. As we pulled up at their place I remembered most of the things I saw around there. Steve certainly looked exactly the same as my mind thought he did. He smiled with a smile of recognition as he saw me coming up, and smiled some more as I told him why I’d come back.
We were joined by a young German couple and an older Australian couple, and after Steve gave us a short briefing on safety and the objective of the day things got started. He showed us what we would begin with and what the end result would (hopefully) be. He handed us all a piece of rusted steel and some wood, telling us that that would at the end of the day be a beautiful handmade knife. Francesca looked worried, but not long after she was holding that piece of steel in the fire to heat it up and start shaping her knife.
The other two couples began heating up their steel whilst we contemplated the shape of our knife. When they were done we got to poke our steel in the hot coal and stood around for a bit waiting for it to turn bright orange. Next, we grabbed a hammer and started hammering away to create a nice tip for our weapons. I gave Francesca a hand and made sure she too ended up with a good sharp end. Steve gave both our pieces of steel a few more hits before sawing the blades off for further fine-tuning.
Now, we needed to make handles for our blades. Steve got us to use an automatic figure saw to saw out both sides of the handle. We also got to drill little holes through the middle of the steel and wood for extra hold. We then glued the wood onto the steel, set it with nails and let it dry for a while.
Francesca and I played with Steve’s throwing stars and axes whilst we got ready for the next step: fine-tuning our handle. Robyn had set up several sander belts, which we went past one by one, shaping the handle to our wishes. Our knives actually sort of looked like weapons at this stage, albeit very blunt ones!
Time had flown by, and Robyn invited us inside to make ourselves some very welcome lunch. We sat down at the table, after toasting some cheese and salami sandwiches, and talked to the other knife makers. I knew I wanted to go outside though, because that’s where Steve had built his mega-swing. When I say mega, I do really mean mega as this monster is about 20 meters high!
I got Francesca to sit down, but she wasn’t too keen on going too high. Instead, we pulled up everyone else for a nice big swing, with an awesome backdrop of ocean and sun. After all of us had had a turn we headed back to our knives, which Steve had polished up quite a bit. He wanted us to work on our blade next, so the same process of grinding with ever finer grits, making our knives shinier and sharper, continued.
The final part of the knife making involved sitting down with some sandpaper, removing the last scratches from the blade and making it look like a professional knife. Francesca and I were both really happy with the result at this point, but we still weren’t done…
The very last step was to give our handles a nice dark coating, to protect it from wear and tear (and sweat and other nasties). Steve then sharpened our knives for us and had us pose for his website. The man has had 9000 knife makers come by now, and has an awesome collection of photo’s, stories and obviously knives, which he sells for a few 100 dollars each to people that don’t have time to make their own.
Steve then invited us inside again to try some of his Barrypagne, his own champagne-like creation. The stuff tasted pretty good! I also asked Steve if I could give his bow and arrow a shot (ha ha!). After a while I got the hang of it and almost hit the bull’s eye a few times.
Unfortunately, it was time to say goodbye after this. The Australian couple took us back to Greymouth and we jumped off at the iSite/theatre, because Francesca wanted to see “The Proposal.” The movie was to start about 30 minutes later, so we walked to a fish and chips shop to pick up a burger and some fish and chips, making it back just in time for the movie! The flick turned out to be pretty okay, and satisfied after a long day of good fun we headed back to the hostel and turned in for the night.
Our third day in Greymouth was a very quiet day. Francesca was feeling a bit sick, so we hung around the hostel, watching a new series we discovered called “Black Books.” Absolutely fantastic British humor! I cooked with Francesca later that day and went to bed early for some more sleep.
The final day in town saw Francesca feeling a bit better. We made ourselves a fruit and icecream mix, which tasted phenomenal. Then, we entered the movie room downstairs, and did not leave until much much later that day. We saw the last season of “Black Books,” watched “Fargo,” “Elephant Man” and “Saving Private Ryan.” We got complemented at the end of our day for being such hardcore movie-watchers… Some people…
The next day we were picked up in the afternoon by Atomic Shuttles, once more with our not-so-friendly driver, whom spent most of the way back to Christchurch bitching as well. We decided to grab our laptop and watch Gran Torino instead. Around 17:30PM we made it back to Christchurch.
Francesca and I have left Christchurch behind us for a while, making sure that the things we missed out on earlier were not left undone. Francesca especially, but me as well, felt sad about not having made a knife in Barrytown a few weeks ago. We decided that it was cool to spend some time in Greymouth and take a bus, or rent a car and go up to Barrytown for said activity. We booked ourselves a bus ticket with Atomic Shuttles to take us to Greymouth for 4 days.
The driver picked us up early in the morning for a good 4 hour drive through a very scenic landscape. Next to the road lies the railroad that takes the TranzAlpine Express from Christchurch to Greymouth and vice versa. The trip is seen as one of the most beautiful train rides one can take. The shuttle proved to be a tad less comfortable, as the roads got steeper, the weather got worse and the driver got more and more grumpy.
At one point he was stopped by a cop, who told him he had to put his snow chains on his tires. The driver grumbled and moaned a bit, but with the help of some of the passengers he managed to get them on and after a 15 minute delay the bus was on the road again. As we made our way up to the top, where the ice was supposed to be bad the driver noticed there was no ice at all. He got more pissed off, stopped by the side of the road and took his chains right back off. Francesca did not feel too fantastic with the winding, bumpy roads and was glad to get a little break at Arthur’s Pass along the way.
It being sunny the last few days in Christchurch, Francesca and I were quite surprised to see snow when we stopped for a drink. At least we were greeted by a Kea! Luckily, we were able to get back on the bus quite quickly, making sure the heating was. The second half of the drive was even less eventful than the first, and we arrived in Greymouth early in the afternoon. Francesca called the owners of the knifemaking place and arranged for us to be picked up the next morning. We spent the rest of that day resting up, walking to the supermarket, cooking a meal and going to bed early for an earlier rise.
The morning started with a small breakfast, as we knew lunch would be provided later that day. Francesca and I were picked up by Robyn, the wife of Steve, who runs the show. I talked to her on the way to their place and she was very excited to hear this would be my second knife. As we pulled up at their place I remembered most of the things I saw around there. Steve certainly looked exactly the same as my mind thought he did. He smiled with a smile of recognition as he saw me coming up, and smiled some more as I told him why I’d come back.
We were joined by a young German couple and an older Australian couple, and after Steve gave us a short briefing on safety and the objective of the day things got started. He showed us what we would begin with and what the end result would (hopefully) be. He handed us all a piece of rusted steel and some wood, telling us that that would at the end of the day be a beautiful handmade knife. Francesca looked worried, but not long after she was holding that piece of steel in the fire to heat it up and start shaping her knife.
The other two couples began heating up their steel whilst we contemplated the shape of our knife. When they were done we got to poke our steel in the hot coal and stood around for a bit waiting for it to turn bright orange. Next, we grabbed a hammer and started hammering away to create a nice tip for our weapons. I gave Francesca a hand and made sure she too ended up with a good sharp end. Steve gave both our pieces of steel a few more hits before sawing the blades off for further fine-tuning.
Now, we needed to make handles for our blades. Steve got us to use an automatic figure saw to saw out both sides of the handle. We also got to drill little holes through the middle of the steel and wood for extra hold. We then glued the wood onto the steel, set it with nails and let it dry for a while.
Francesca and I played with Steve’s throwing stars and axes whilst we got ready for the next step: fine-tuning our handle. Robyn had set up several sander belts, which we went past one by one, shaping the handle to our wishes. Our knives actually sort of looked like weapons at this stage, albeit very blunt ones!
Time had flown by, and Robyn invited us inside to make ourselves some very welcome lunch. We sat down at the table, after toasting some cheese and salami sandwiches, and talked to the other knife makers. I knew I wanted to go outside though, because that’s where Steve had built his mega-swing. When I say mega, I do really mean mega as this monster is about 20 meters high!
I got Francesca to sit down, but she wasn’t too keen on going too high. Instead, we pulled up everyone else for a nice big swing, with an awesome backdrop of ocean and sun. After all of us had had a turn we headed back to our knives, which Steve had polished up quite a bit. He wanted us to work on our blade next, so the same process of grinding with ever finer grits, making our knives shinier and sharper, continued.
The final part of the knife making involved sitting down with some sandpaper, removing the last scratches from the blade and making it look like a professional knife. Francesca and I were both really happy with the result at this point, but we still weren’t done…
The very last step was to give our handles a nice dark coating, to protect it from wear and tear (and sweat and other nasties). Steve then sharpened our knives for us and had us pose for his website. The man has had 9000 knife makers come by now, and has an awesome collection of photo’s, stories and obviously knives, which he sells for a few 100 dollars each to people that don’t have time to make their own.
Steve then invited us inside again to try some of his Barrypagne, his own champagne-like creation. The stuff tasted pretty good! I also asked Steve if I could give his bow and arrow a shot (ha ha!). After a while I got the hang of it and almost hit the bull’s eye a few times.
Unfortunately, it was time to say goodbye after this. The Australian couple took us back to Greymouth and we jumped off at the iSite/theatre, because Francesca wanted to see “The Proposal.” The movie was to start about 30 minutes later, so we walked to a fish and chips shop to pick up a burger and some fish and chips, making it back just in time for the movie! The flick turned out to be pretty okay, and satisfied after a long day of good fun we headed back to the hostel and turned in for the night.
Our third day in Greymouth was a very quiet day. Francesca was feeling a bit sick, so we hung around the hostel, watching a new series we discovered called “Black Books.” Absolutely fantastic British humor! I cooked with Francesca later that day and went to bed early for some more sleep.
The final day in town saw Francesca feeling a bit better. We made ourselves a fruit and icecream mix, which tasted phenomenal. Then, we entered the movie room downstairs, and did not leave until much much later that day. We saw the last season of “Black Books,” watched “Fargo,” “Elephant Man” and “Saving Private Ryan.” We got complemented at the end of our day for being such hardcore movie-watchers… Some people…
The next day we were picked up in the afternoon by Atomic Shuttles, once more with our not-so-friendly driver, whom spent most of the way back to Christchurch bitching as well. We decided to grab our laptop and watch Gran Torino instead. Around 17:30PM we made it back to Christchurch.
2 Comments:
Hey Lieve schatten,
Wat weer een mooie story!! echt weer genieten van deze zijde!! ps nice knife fran!!!
Hou van jullie!!
mams
Lieve HJ en Francesca,
Wat weer een schitterende verhalen.
Wat geniet ik hiervan.Mijn internet
deed het een weekje niet.Maar nu is alles weer oke.Prachtig,prachtig.Ik kijk alweer uit na volgende verhalen.
En al die mooie foto,s
Heel erg bedankt.
Heel veel liefs Oma
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