For New Years I went to Gisbourne with three girls for the BW Summer festival and Rhythm and Vines music festivals. We headed down on the 27th. It was about a six hour drive. When we got there we had to wander around a bit to find the camp site. We camped in the Churchill camp site that was really far away from everything else but it was the least crowded of the camp sites and it was the only R18. All the other were R17.
We set up our two tents and decided to sleep three of us in one tent and keep all of our stuff in the other. It proved to be very warm sleeping arrangements.
Within minutes of having our tents set up people were wandering over to say hello. Lots of people had been there the day before as well. There was a group of four guys near us that ha a gazebo, table and chairs. Due to the fact that we had none of those things friendship with them was ideal. All four of them are in the Air Force. They are really nice. Two other guys from Rotorua joined our group. They borrowed a tent from the Air Force boys.
The first night there we went to the sound shell. It was just a few minutes walk from the camp site. I wanted to go earlier than my friends so I headed off with one of the Air Force boys. It was lots of fun. At one point we caught up with the girls I came with and the other Air Force boys but I lost them in the crowd. The music was great. It was lots of techno and dance music. The first night we saw Flume. I nearly got to the front for it but there were too many big people in front of me and I couldn't wiggle my way through. There were other DJs but no one I knew or liked tons.
The next day we woke up so early. The sun was really bright and having three people in our little tiny tent was so hot! Charlotte and I went for a walk down the beach to the food stalls and activities. They were on the other side of the festival. It was a good 10-15 minute walk. We found some breakfast (by breakfast I mean coffee) then wandered back to camp. We talked to the boys about watching a thing at the Beach Box then going to the beach. The Beach Box was a stage set up next to the food stalls. They had lots of musicians and games and what not there during the day. They decided they would meet up with us at the beach. Charlotte and I went to watch a thing called Blind Date. I think that it was based off an old TV show. It is a thing where there is either on guy or a girl on one side of a screen and three people of the other gender on there other side. The guy/girl asks pre written questions and the contestants answer. Based on the answers the guy/girl chooses one of the contestants. It was funny. Not as funny as we had hoped it would be but we enjoyed t. Then we went to the beach for a while. We didn't up meeting everyone else there because we stayed near the beach box and they went near our camp site. The beach was beautiful. It had different shells than the beach next to my house. Some times I'm very much like a child around the water because I'm so unfamiliar with the ocean.
It was nice to have a relaxing day before heading off to the festival. The R&V portion of the festival was at a vineyard near by. We had to take the bus to get there. R&V was very cool they had a bunch of different stages. There was a main stage near the food, booze and toilets. The main stage wasn't anything exciting. Something you would see at an out door concert any where really. Then there was the Arcadia stage that had mostly DJ's. It was circular. The DJ was in the middle at a thing that looked like a space ship that had fire shooting out the top. Raised appendages came off the circle and at the end of each one was a fire shooting tree. They also had a Jagermeister stage. It was just a stage nothing super special especially not when there was a fire shooting stage. There was a small stage with plants on it that had some good music but was never super busy. It was a good place to go hang out when the crowds got to be a bit much. They also had this thing called the Fridge. It was a small box with a sliding door. They would pack it full of people and close the door. On one end of it there was a small window that you could see the DJ through. It was lots of fun but you did get a bit beaten up by it.
The first night at R&V I had a lot of fun. Charlotte and I went off with a guy named Josh and we got to the front of the crown a few times. We went to a few different stages. We managed to get up on the risers at the Arcadia stage which was pretty cool. After the Arcadia stage we went and got spray on tatoos. It was fun. Josh got a dragon. Charlotte got a flower and I got a bird. We had a lot of fun picking them out and laughing over them. Charlotte got tired and wanted to go home so she went home with one of the air force guys and I hung out and I stayed for a bit longer and listened to some more music.
It has been way too long since I was there to get everything in the right order. It has been a struggle to remember it all. So I am going to write some of my favorite memories in the best order that I can.
I was much more active than most of the other people in our group. One morning we went to the beach and had a little swim then I headed down the beach to get coffee. Josh followed me and we went down "The Biggest Blow Up Slide in the World". You had to climb up this enormous blow up mountain and there was a little tiny hose shooting water over the slide bit. It was really really steep! Going down it was so fast because of the water. At the end there was a small pool of water that you landed in. It was super fun except for the fact that some of the velcro came up and I went straight over it and tore up my legs pretty good. Some how in the slide going endeavour I bashed me knee and I tore the cartilage under my knee cap which has been an on going and super frustrating issue ever since. The night that I injured it I muddled through the concert and still had a lot of fun but was pretty sore.
The day after my knee injury my knee was huge and super sore. I was pretty certain that I wasn't going to be able to go to the concert that night. I went to the first aide tent with Charlotte and got some tubi grip to help with the swelling and had some bandages put on my scrapes so that they wouldn't get filled with dirt. The Charlotte and I went on the slide because she hadn't been and it was super super fun! However I got my bandages wet and had to go back to the first aide tent. The medic threatened to give me a red card if I came back for the same issue again. If you get a red card at the festival it means that you don't get to go to the concerts or be able to buy booze or food. That afternoon everyone played drinking games and I slept in the shade. I don't think I have ever been quite so tired in my entire life. Before going to the concert I ran around and caused trouble with one of the boys. We stole a bit from another boys air mattress and were generally ridiculous. In our running around I felt my knee pop. By the time we got to the bus it was huge and sore. We had to walk up this enormous hill and I was really struggling so one of the boys, Bevan, gave me a piggy back to the stage so that I didn't have to do the hills. I went to the first aid tent and it had swelled up so much that I had to have my tubi grip cut off before they could ice it and put new stuff on. I made a few trips to the first aide tent for more ice and ibuprofen. Bevan was kind enough to give me a number of rides throughout the night. When Bastille came on the main stage Bevan let me sit on his shoulders so that I could see. Even though I was in a lot of pain I actually had a really great time. I laughed a lot and got to be tall which was pretty fun.
The next day we packed up and took the very long drive home. It felt like it took forever.
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When we got to the front of the
Jagermeister stage |
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This is the group I hung out with while at R&V. From the left Katie, Josh,
Charlotte, Sam, Bevan. In the front from the left Nathan, Me and other Josh. |
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| This is when I was exhausted and sleeping on the ground. |
The camp ground had some funny characters in it. There was a man that everyone called Jesus who for the dress up night dressed as Jesus. He certainly did look like interpretations of Jesus.
A group of people were throwing people on a tarp. They gathered people from all around the camp site to hold the edges of the tarp and then they would get a smaller person to sit in the middle and would throw them.
Other people in the camp had a group that was holding air mattresses and pieces of foam while people ran into them and tried to knock them down.
