Our adventure began at the crack of dawn on
Anzac day, although there was no gunfire following our footsteps, as those of
our true ANZAC forebears. Our challenge
was relatively simple; load the car with whatever we might need for the trip, in
less than half an hour. I was heading
off with my girlfriend, Rachel, on her first ever trip to the South
Island.
Our first stopover was the metropolis of
Otorohanga, to accompany Rachel’s Grandma to the Anzac service. This was also the scene of our first
miscalculation (but not as costly as the ANZACs geographical error). We had arrived 2 hours earlier than we needed
to! And woken Grandma up too! The flipside being that we got a nice hot
brekky and cup of tea. We paid our
respects at the service, walked Grandma home, then got back on the road. Our target for that evening was Wellington, where we had
a concert to attend the following day.
Not just any concert either – this was ‘Homegrown’, 100% kiwi
music! Many of our favourite acts were performing
and we had only got hold of late tickets thanks (or no thanks) to a scalper on
the internet. Salmonella Dub, Black
Seeds, Tiki, Ladi6, Shihad… so much good music that you’d need a whole tree to
shake at it.
Before we set foot in Wellington, we passed a couple of iconic
Kiwiana sculptures – Ohakune’s giant carrot and Taihape’s giant gumboot (made
of corrugated iron, no less). We duly
admired, photographed, climbed and worshipped these icons, hopefully bringing
good fortune to our trip that followed?
When we arose from the hotel room on Saturday,
I think I must’ve crawled out the wrong side of bed, or maybe the elevator
really was out to get me?? The bright
sunshine didn’t manage to fix my cranky mood, but the first beats of Salmonella
Dub certainly did :)
From then on, I was smiling and boogeying my way through the day. We even managed to run into a couple of
friends randomly amidst the crowds.
As the evening was drawing towards the end,
Tiki hit the stage. But by then we were
all tired out and couldn’t muster the energy to get on our feet to enjoy the
beats.
We had Sunday in the city to recuperate and do
some touristy things – like Te Papa (NZ national museum). It was Rachel’s first visit and she gave it
the deserving label of ‘choice’. A very
solid recommendation in kiwi-speak. We
managed to sneak into one exhibit designed perhaps more for children – a life
size (but hollow) whale’s heart, as if we had stumbled into the Moby Dick
fairytale like Alice
into Wonderland.
We also spent a while entertaining the Sunday
strollers along the waterfront with some juggling antics. One day we really will run away and join the
circus! Until then, I guess we’re just
apprentices.
