Bird waiting to board the ferry to Picton:

Our new wheels (and Bird relieving himself in the background):

The Mighty, moored near Cousteau’s Calypso:

Toilet on top of the Tasman memorial in Golden Bay:

Ligar Bay, there was a penguin swimming near the beach:

Tash and Bird:

This was a gift from New Plymouth’s sister city in China. It rocks. You will find it next to the botanic gardens

Offshore open air nuke testing, and look at the UFO in the sky obviously overseeing the test

Not just a myth, the radiation men live under Mount Taranaki

WOMAD Festival in New Plymouth.

Off to the WOMAD festival this weekend. Another three days of music, portaloos and ‘festival people’. No tenting this time - we’re staying on a Marae. Can’t wait!

Forgot to mention that I went down to the Marlborough Food and Wine Festival the other weekend. Drank too much wine and had the mooother of all hangovers the next day, but it was worth it to catch up with some great friends and sample some fine wine. Tash was photographed for the local paper too.

SoundSplash was neat. The vibe wasn’t as cool as Kaikoura Roots, but it was a great weekend regardless. Lots of driving, lots of beautiful NZ countryside.

Trinity Roots played their second to last gig and were amazing; I saw Katchafire for the first time, who were also great, and the Blood and Fire Soundsystem with the mister coolie Rankin Jo - a superb MC. Alas we missed Kora, but I’m sure to see them again soon.

No piccies, forgot…

Off to the SoundSplash in Raglan this weekend. Looking forward to seeing the awesome Kora again. It’s going to be a long drive though, about 8 or so hours.

I’ve just booked a flight to Sydney. I decided to fly Qantas, although there wasn’t much in it. Pacific Blue (who are Virgin by any other name) are a so-called ‘budget’ airline, but only worked out to be about ten bucks cheaper than Qantas or Air New Zealand. I choose Qantas over Air New Zealand only because the flight to Sydney was at a more convenient time (Air New Zealand had pretty much sold out of their cheapo seats except on their 6am flight). And while Virgin have better planes (brand new 767’s where as Qantas/Air New Zealand only fly 737’s from Wellington) I’d have to pay for booze and food on Virgin - so it was a no brainer.

Awesome weekend - brilliant weather and good vibes all around. It was a small festival - there were apparently less than 1800 tickets available, but that was excellent as during the day the beach side venue didn’t feel over-crowded. Stand out performances from Trinity Roots and Kora, and OG on Sunday was also wicked.

Unfortunately I missed Shapeshifter who by all accounts were amazing. We did briefly meet their MC - he is one cool dude.