I found work on a commercial building project with the English backpacker invasion workforce at 5 Mile. I'd be at the pub most nights playing poker. I didn't enjoy working with these backpacker types. They all came here with arrogance, and I wasn't keen on their attitude.Who do these invaders think they are? I didn't enjoy commercial building either. Too many rules and regulations, PPE, and fag head bosses, but I had to do what I had to do. It was the most unorganized chaotic mess I'd ever been involved in. I can see why they screwed the thing up.
 

I was looking for a proper apprenticeship, and I saw an add for a company AJ Scott looking for builders. I had a meeting and was offered a job. The next day Ticker my boss at the current job tells me works running out, and I tell him that's fine I'm leaving anyway. On the up and up.
 

This company, like everyone I've worked on recently, is full of wankas. The only good bloke was the foreman, a hammer hand, and one builder. The English hammerhand and Scottish 2IC were both, as you'd expect, arrogant European fagtards, as well the the CHCH leading hand. What's with builders and their attitudes and arrogance aye? I don't buy into their shit and lost respect for them within a couple days. I liked working for the foreman Chris. He was very witty and smart, and had tons of energy. We were renovating a hotel, adding a new story to it. I wasn't smoking much weed at work, trying to lay off it. But there were a couple close calls which I don't know how I wasn't busted, it was freaking obvious. Obvious as in someone smelled weed in the car park and I got the blame. When confronted if I was stoned, I said no. He asked me what tasks I had to complete and after answering I went back to work. No dramas. I
 

I felt happier in this company, with a good foreman and friend. There were a few incidents on site including me screwing my hand to the roof. Then one day I was told to go up to the second level and see someone. I get up there and it's a bloody random drug test. We have the option to not do it and leave site, or take the thing. I freak out and say I have to talk to my boss. As I leave the room there's a water bottle sitting on the scaffold and I have a brilliant idea. I run around asking who's got clean piss and that I need it now! As this was a Monday and I had had a bit of MDMA in the weekend and I definitely had weed in my system I thought this was the only thing saving my job. I get some piss off a guy while the bloody site boss is standing 20 meters away haha, but he warned that it may not be clean. 
 

I failed on low levels of cannabis  and methamphetamine. I was absolutely gutted. The tools were packed up and half the worksite went home, like a shit ton of people. Disaster. When will I catch a break. Fuck the corporate world and their bullshit, I'm a cowboy any day of the week.
 

It was around this time that I started hanging out with an old school buddy Louie Lanz. I'd often see him at poker and we started to hang out. Vance was holding regular home poker cash games and we started to go. There were some big spenders there willing to lose hundreds of dollars in a game. I had some good wins, my biggest wins ever. $500 night profits. Not bad for an unemployed fella. I did find some work but nothing to brag about, and I hardly showed up. I was sick of the working life and the rigmarole they put us through to "make them feel safe". 
 

It was good hanging with Louie, I hadn't had a close friend in while. Since I wasn't really working and he had no license, I'd drive him to Arrowtown and back so he could do his tennis coaching. Afterwards we'd head back to mine for drinks and some heads up poker. It was a daily occurrence. Louie loved his coffee liqueur, particularly Petroni. I got into it too. I don't know how I afforded weed, but I managed to. I started hosting the poker nights at mine as Dad was away overseas. It was good having poker parties. The regulars being Jesse, Louie, Vance, Mathew, me, and whoever else might think they had a chance. Nice to have some friends with similar interests. Mum went up north for a holiday and I had the house to myself. There were a few parties but mostly it was pretty tame. I even got a couple flatties in to help my income.

 

I worked a couple weeks with a friend of Vances who he was working for also, Kharl. A cowboy builder, perfect! It helped me get through for a bit. I stopped taking my meds. I didn't think I needed that shit. Mind over matter I thought. I wanted to prove I didn't need that junk. I ticked up a bunch of weed from Invercargill to sell up here but I just smoked it, with no idea how to pay it back. Then one day I'm sitting at my computer and I think something funny, and then I hear the neighbor laughing hysterically. It begins.
 

It is for real. The signs are all around me, this never-ending quest to enlightenment. I'd be a fool to think that after all I've been through, there wasn't really magic in the air. I was a bit more timid with my experimentation of powers this time, and I decided on a new Queen for my thrown, a younger girl I knew called Mackenzie. There were miracles for sure, and sleepless nights pondering the universe. At one party on a Saturday night, organized by a friend Cindy without my knowledge, I put on a persona and talked in a Texan accent to a young boy to do with poker and we play cards. It was supposed to be poker night after all but no one showed up. They had caught on that I wasn't taking my pills, they had been talking to my mum saying I wasn't well. They tried to make me take them but I refused saying that they were no good for me.
 

I remember going for a walk from my house to Louie's a few KM's away one day. I was going to show the audience how easy and nice it was to not take the footpath, instead descending the hill through streams and grasses. I was on a journey and needed water. I found an empty bottle beside the stream and filled it up and drank. I soon found a cork floating in the stream and I capped my bottle and moved on. It was a wild walk through nature, with civilization just there, we were lucky in Queenstown to have all this space. I was sighting an epic miniature golf course along the way. As I get down to the main road I decide to test my faith. I walk directly into the middle of the busy highway and put my hoody over my eyes. With full faith in the forces out there I walk straight down the middle of the road, only peeking every so often to see if I really was still there. Eventually I head off the main road down to the lake where there's a path that takes me to Louie's house. The lake is beautiful and I decide to take the scenic route and wander off the path. I'm climbing over trees, through the lake, thinking all sorts of great things for this world. I pick up all the rubbish I can see as I walk. I amass quite a collections of plastics. I get to Louie's and he's not there. He told me where his dad keeps his weed and that I could take a little bit. I chill out at Louies making a tea and mucking around nothing better to do with the day. Louie's Dad must have called Louie because he shows up and seems upset. What had I even done? What a mission, so I head home on foot the long way.
 

There was a motel called Sherwood Manor on the walk home. It was a bit of a hippy place where they held events and gigs. I had great plans for this place, and this was where I wanted my movie to be aired. Further up the road I get thirsty and I see a tap and hose. I have a drink and think, while I'm here I'll just water the gardens for a bit. An old lady comes out and asks what I'm doing, I explain, finish watering, and we go our separate ways.

​

I get home and chill out. Louie and Cindy show up later that afternoon. I'm sitting in the backyard smoking what little weed I had left enjoying the glorious view. They're rambling about something, taking my pills or some shit. Im just trying to enjoy myself. As I pack the bowel and take a rip, two police officers show up out of nowhere. I quickly eat what's left of the weed, being one cone. What I didn't expect was the horrible taste of the tobacco mixed with it. They said under some act I'm under arrest for cannabis. As they escort me out I try to run and climb over the fence. I didn't get very far.
 

They take me to the police station and put me in a cell. I don't know what's going on. There's only a mattress in there and I crawl under it to their dislike. Two police officers take turns watching me. I telecommunicate to them while we're I'm in there. I get a feeling the female officer is Mackenzies mum. This is good. I know what's going on, it's the big reveal! Mackenzies in another cell with her girlfriends and they're all sussing me out. I'm waiting for them to give me the big surprise. I telecommunicate what's going to happen. I'm shit scared. I think, I'll close my eyes, hold my hand out under the door, and she will come down that corridor and put a ring in my hand. I hear the door down the corridor open numerous times and feel the excitement. I'm about to be the luckiest man alive. 
 

It was getting pretty tense. Surely it's all coming to fruition now. I was mind talking to Mazkenzies mum letting her know that it's all going to be OK. Eventually they come into my cell, say something I can't remember, and put me in handcuffs. They take me to a police car and further handcuff my hands to my feet. It was an uncomfortable ride to Invercargill. I was half naked. It was a very silent ride. There were 3 police officers escorting me. When we got to Athol they put me in another police car and continued the journey. We arrive at the Invervargill Mental Health Ward through a door I've never been through. I didn't want to be here. It scares me this unknown door. They put me in a cell and I immediately take for a shower. There's a timer on it and I repeatedly push the button until it refuses to work anymore. Mum shows up, she had flown down earlier due to me being unwell. I go to king hit her but don't connect. I didn't want to. I don't know why I tried. Some things are said and I'm put back in my cell. I start rebelling at this point and things get very vague. I shit in the shower and turn the shower on for reasons I can't remember, some sign or something they must learn from. I'd practice my fighting moves on the mattress against the wall and scared all the patients with the loud thumping I was making. Things were mad.

​

I think I was only in seclusion only for one night. Nothing fun about that place. The come down. Plans foiled yet again. How do I solve this puzzle? Matt makes a mysterious appearance and we have a quick catch up, though he always seems unsure of me when I'm in this place. I flirt with the girls and jam lots of guitar. There were a few musicians in here and a female singer. I remember playing Amazing Grace and she sounded really good. This Asian lady in there had this weird herb that when smoked gave a slight high, nothing much, nothing for long. She gave me a bit and it helped me get through. At least we could go outside for smokes whenever we wanted.
 

Mum told me her and dad were breaking up. It was a slight shock, but nothing I wasn't ready to live with. They weren't happy together so it should be for the best. I planned to move up to Algies Bay with mum who had just bought a house next to grandmas pretty close to the beach. I was going to possum trap and busk my way up to the North Island. I was researching tiny homes with plans to put one in the backyard. So I was released and mum took me home to Queenstown. It was a 2 week stay.
 

The flatmates had completely cleaned my car head to toe. I don't know why they would do such a thing, but it happened. I packed my things and prepared for the journey north. With goodbyes said and the room emptied I made my move, I was free and on a new journey. I didn't end up trapping or busking. I stayed one night in Christchurch with mum and dads friend before taking the ferry to Wellington where I caught up with Karim for a night. Then onto Wanganui where I stayed with Karina for a week, mostly sleeping on a mattress in the lounge watching Vikings. It as good to see her again, though it seemed she was a bit of a wreck, much like myself. Then it was a quick drive up to Algies Bay, to be my new home.