Lindsey Stiriling Concert!!!!

     Lindsey Stiriling is a musician I've liked since university. She plays the violin along with techno style music. I'm not explaining it very well so I will post a few links to her you tube channel so you can see. I highly recommend watching a few videos because she dances while playing the violin which is pretty amazing.

    I had know she was coming for quite a while but hadn't been able to find anyone to go with. Mostly because no one I know had heard of her. One of my friends said I I was desperate she would go even if she wasn't very keen on the music. After R&V I asked one of the guys we met there if he knew who Lindsey Stiriling was and he did. I was pretty excited because he had heard of her. He ever agreed to go to the concert with me. 

     On the night of the concert Rob and Tanya we're going to the circus in town and were kind enough to take us Ito town with them. We started walking to find food and stopped by Johnny Barr's for pre-dinner snickers milkshakes. Then we went to Cajun Kitchen. Unfortunately the milk shake filled me up so much that I couldn't enjoy my jambalaya very much. Once we had eaten part of our dinner and felt enormously fat we rolled our way to a taxi that took us to the Power Station.
    It was really crowed and hot but we were able to find a spot where we could see that wasn't too hot. The crowd was an interesting mix of people. There were people dressed in steam punk, gamers, goth, hippish and more main stream dressed people. I love the her music attracts such a large variety of people.
     We got there around 830 and she came on at 9. The concert was awesome. She has insanely high energy. The whole concert she was bouncing around. She had crazy sparkly pants on which were super cool. About half way through she had a break and they played a video about her life. She played all of my favorite songs and of course played her Lord of the Rings rendition (cause it's New Zealand).
     She stopped every two or three songs to chat with the audience. You could tell that she was winded from dancing and playing. It was pretty cool. Her pianist and drummer would chime in as well. They had a fun bantering dynamic which was very entertaining. The first time she spoke I was shocked at how American she sounds. I know that I have lost some of my accent because people occasionally think I'm a Kiwi but I hadn't realized what a strong American accent sounded like until she started speaking.

A brief sample of Lindsey's music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvipPYFebWc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49tpIMDy9BE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxIOUJ7by6U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQiNVk_u0po

Matapuri and the Tutukaka Coast

    The day after I got back from Rhythm and Vines I drove up north too meet the Sharps and our neighbours (The Gumbley's) at the Gumbley's holiday house in Matapouri. Matapouri is on the east coast of the country a few hours north of here. It took me ages to get up there because there was tons of summer traffic. There is a toll tunnel on the way up which is only one lane compared to the duel carriage way prior to that. It was so so so slow getting through the tunnel. Once I got through it wasn't so bad though.

Map to Matapouri

    I was absolutely exhausted from the festival and spent the first two days in Matapouri not doing much. I pretty much lazed about, slept and hung out on the beach. It is a really lovely place to be. The Gumbleys were nice enough to take me out to the Poor Knights marine reserve. It was amazing what
    The next day Tanya went back to Auckland to work and Rob took the kids water skiing and tubing (called biscuting here) with the Gumbleys. I went on some of the flat walks in the area to see some of the views. It was a fun day. I got to see Whale Bay and the light house. It was nice. A bit lonely but beautiful views. Here is a link of the common hikes http://www.northlandnz.com/images/uploads/pdf/Tutukaka_Coast_Tracks__Walks.pdf. I did numbers three and four.
    The next day Tanya came back and we did some exploring with the kids. We found a taco truck that had great tacos. Rob went home because he had to work.
   The next day I went back to Auckland to have day off before the kids got home. It was nice to be out of Auckland and have some chill time fore a few days.

Poor Knights Marien Reserve

Poor Knights Marien Reserve

Whale Bay

View on the way back from Whale Bay

View from the headlands track. The panorama is odd because I didn't knwo how to work it. 

Pohotokawa tree. 

Rhythm and Vines Music Festival

     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.

When we got to the front of the
Jagermeister stage

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. 

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. 

Pre Christmas Preperations

    I realize its a bit odd to post about the pre Christmas stuff after my Christmas post but I found some cute photos that I wanted to post.

     We went to visit Santa at Snow Planet. Snow Planet is an indoor ski hill. The concept is a bit odd but it's te only way people in Auckland are able to ski without traveling. Rob and the kids went skiing. Tanya and I sat in the cafe and watched. I had wanted to go skiing but I was sick and really just wanted to go to sleep. I was thrilled to see Santa in the snow. After seeing Santa we got to ride a tube down the hill. It was super fun. 

Rob teaching Tally to ski

     Another pre-Christmas thin I did with the kids is cookie making (how could I not). I got Mom to send me the recepies for butter balls and stockings. I had the younger girls make butter balls and the older two make stockings. I really enjoyed getting to share my cookies with the kids. I did get a bit home sick though because I remembered how Mom used to keep us home from school sometimes so that we could make Christmas cookies with her. She was much better at teaching me how to make stockings than I was at teaching the kids. 

We can't waste that batter!

Kaiya making stocking cookies

Tally making butterballs 

     We also decorated the house. It was a bit chaotic but then again what isn't chaotic with four kids.

Kaiya pretending to be Mrs. Clause. She is wearing stockings as
socks. 

Jack being silly. 

Indie using the couch as a stool because
 "the top of the tree was sad because it was naked"

Tally showing off an angel ornament

Kiwi Christmas

     I had Christmas with the lovely Sharp family. It was hugely different from my normal Christmas. The New Zealand Santa only gve stockings but the stockings aren't like what you hang on the mantelpiece they are more like a decorate felt pillow case that Santa leaves at the end of their beds. I missed stocking opening because it happened at like 6 am. I got up at 730 when I heard the kids running around up stairs. Rob and Tanya had gone back to sleep post stockigs which was understandable. By 930 I was pretty hangry so I started working on breakfast. Tanya came up and helped me. During breakfast prep he kids skyped their family in England and opened presets from their grand parents and aunt. We had a selections breakfast of creamy mushrooms, bacon, eggs, and crosaunts. 

    After breakfast I was able to cope much better. We sat down and took turns opening presents. Santa was nice enough toke me a stocking with tickets to a concert, a travel mug, nail polish and some other bits and bobs. Unfortunately I had locked my door on Christmas Eve so he had to leave it under the tree for me. Tally informed me that I still get a stocking because I'm not all the way grown up yet. 

   Opening presets took from 10 ish until 2 ish. Note cause there were tons and tons o presets but because we took so many breaks. It was much noisier and messier than my house normally is. I really missed doing presents then having being. It's funny which thins I missed the most. I really missed blue berry muffins which was unexpected as I've never really craved them or been all that excited about them.

     After we finished all the presents we went to the beach. Crazy right!?!? The beah was a big party. Lots of the families I  have met through the kids shook were there. Some of my friends were there.all the kids played in the water with their new toys and the adults socialised on the beach. It was fun but it didn't feel very much like Christmas. To me Christmas is supposed to be cold and Haig out inside playing board games with my family not going to the beach!

     While at the beach one of my friends invited me to a party. I had Turkey dinner with the Sharps before heading to the party. It felt funy to be going out on Christmas. I only knew the people I went with but I met new friends and had fun. 

Sky Diving

     I have gotten so far behind on my blog! I was just looking at it and realised that I totally missed writing anything about going sky diving which is a huge oops on my part because it was a pretty big life event for me. 

    I went sky diving way back on November 24th. While I was in Denmark back in October my friend Ariel sent me a message asking if I wanted to try skydiving. I wasn't near internet at the time so didn't see it. About 20 minutes after her first message I got a "I bought us sky diving vouchers." It was a good thing that I had wanted to try it. She got the vouchers for 12,000 feet which is the higher this company did. Ariel truely follows he go big or go home motto we often reference.

    The night before we went sky diving we went to a birthday party on a boat (another thing I need to blog about). We should have maybe slept a bit more and danced a bit less. We were exhausted. The morning that we were supposed to go it was beautiful in Auckland but cloudy up north where we were headed. We had planned to jump at 11 but we called before leaving and they said we couldn't jump then and had to wait. After hours of waiting and hanging around my hous we decided to head north so if it suddenly cleared then we could jump asap. We called from the motorway and the skies had cleared!!! After a two hour drive (with a pie stop) we arrived. By the time we got there I was so nervous! We had to wait a while so we wandered down to the beach near the air field to relax for a bit. I'm not sure we actually relaxed but at least we didn't get more nervous. When we got back to the air field there was just one group ahead of us. Due to the plane situation we couldn't all go up together. Elisa went up alone. Then Ariel and I went. Rachelle went last. It was good that Elisa went first. When she ft down she looked so happy that it made it easier for us to go. On the flight up I wasn't very nervous. The views were amazing! We could see the ocean and beautiful farm lands.the plane was really cramped with four of us and the pilot which have me something else to focus on. I got a bit nervous when my tandem master Kirk scooted under me and hooked us together. Then Sam (Areil's tandem master) opened the door. I ha a good quick panic while she jumped out then Kirk was filming us out of the plane. He rolled out of the plane which was so muchun. I loved the free fall. I was laughing so hard. I was shocked when he deployed the parachute and Iwe were suddenly slowed down. Kirk showed me how to steer the parachute and let me do some flying about. It was alright but no where near as fun as the free fall. We managed to land standing up which was pretty impressive excuse most of te people we saw landed on their bums. I had so much fun. I would totally sky dive again! 

Queenstown

     This post has taken forever to post. I was in Queenstown from December 4th to the 7th. I flew down to see one of my best friends Ariel. I'm not sure that I have talked about her on my blog yet. I know she is mentioned a few times but I certainly haven't gone into depth. I met Ariel on my trip through Waitomo caves. She and I just clicked and became almost inseparable. Her placement ended at the end of November and she traveled around the North and South Island on the Stray bus. This was a pretty tragic event in my life as I had spent most of my time hanging out with her. I was suddenly all alone! Not really I have other friends but my go to was gone and it was quite an adjustment. Luckily we had planned for me to fly down to Queenstown and hang out with her for a few days.

Ariel cut off all her hair?!?!?!?!

   On December 4th I got up super early to drive to the air port, park my car and get to my flight. The flight itself is only two hours. I got into Queenstown around 8:30 ish. Then I met Ariel at the hostel. I was so excited! She had scheduled a hair cut for that morning. I hung out with her while she had her hair cut. This was a pretty momentous event as her hair was super long. It was almost down to her bottom but by the end of the hair cut it was above her shoulders. She looked absolutely adorable! It was a big change though.
    After getting her hair cut we did a bit of wandering before finding lunch. She had never had Fergburger so we gave that a try. Fergburger is famous in New Zealand for being "the best" burger. They are good but I've had much better burger in the states. After lunch we went did the Luge with people from her bus. The Luge is a cart that you sit in then you go down a concrete track that winds it's way down the mountain. It was fun. I had done the one in Rotorua before. I liked the one in Rotorua because there were more tracks.
    After our fun filled day of sun, food, and Luge we got some dinner then we went dancing! Ariel and I love to dance. It is one of the many things that brought us together.

     The next day (the 5th) we got up and had bacon and eggs! This is only exciting because Ariel had been living on a bus so she hadn't been able to keep things like bacon due to the general lack of refrigeration. Then we booked into do a Canyon Swing (http://www.bungy.co.nz/the-nevis/the-nevis-swing). Ariel had wanted to do a bungy but after my first bungy attempt I have decided not to do another one. We compromised on the swing though. We booked into the 1pm swing so we had some time to kill before going. I went for a run up the mountain to the top of the gondolas where we had been the day before. The view was amazing. It killed my legs though. When I got back I had a snack then we went to AJ Hackett to get on the bus for our swing. The bus ride took ages because it is out of town over a canyon. The hill up to the swing is so steep that it feels like the bus is going to flip over on it's back. To get to the canyon swing you have to walk out on a bridge to a platform that is suspended over the canyon. The bridge was one of my least favourite parts. When we got to the swing we watched two other groups of people go before it was our turn. The great thing about the swing is you get to go with a friend. Ariel and I decided to go backwards so that we wouldn't see the ground coming at our heads. The guy that set us up was named Phil. He has been working with AJ Hackett for over 20 years. He was telling me about all the silly things he has seen from people while he was hooking us up to the swing. To get hooked up the put you in a harness then they attach the harness to a bar that is above your head. After that you sit down and the bar is lifted off the end of the platform. This is easily the worst part because you are suspended over a canyon waiting to fall. We asked to be surprised and not have a count down so Phil was chatting with us as we are suspended over the canyon and we were both screaming at him to push the button. He was asking us about something and mid sentence released the swing. It was so much fun and slightly terrifying. The falling was a little scary but the swing after was so much fun! When it stops swinging they raise you back up. It takes ages to get back up to the platform. After we had gone I videoed two Norwegian boys that we met on the platform. They go to school in Stavanger (where I was in October). By the time I was done videoing them Ariel was ready to get off the platform so we scurried across the freaky bridge and were finally back on solid ground.

OMG The Nevis swing!!! It was so high and scary!!!

    We took the bus back to Queenstown and got some lunch from Ferg Bakery. We had pies. Ariel went with a traditional one but I had to be adventurous and try the venison and mushroom pie. It wasn't my best choice I must say. We happened to run into the Norwegian boys while eating lunch on the lake front. They were super nice. After chatting and lunch we had another wander through town before going back to the hostel for a bit of a rest.
    Ariel's bus driver had arranged for their bus to go on a sunset boat cruise. I got to tag along even though I'm not part of the bus. We got on the boat and had a fifteen minute ride before anchoring while the crew cooked us some burgers for dinner. There was lots of dancing on the boat. It was beautiful to be on the water at sunset. The mountains looked so cool. I can't really explain it but I'll add some pictures later. After our awesome cruise we went dancing!

View from our boat cruise

    We stayed out pretty late dancing which was a bit of an issue because the next morning (the 6th) we had to get up early to go on a Milford Sound tour. I had been to Milford Sound before but I wanted to go again. When I went it had be bucketing down with rain and it was phenomenal because there were so many waterfalls. I had hoped to see it in the sun but unfortunately it was cloudy when we went. I had turned on an alarm but then set my phone to silent so I didn't hear it. Luckily Ariel woke up on her own so we just barely made it to the bus on time. The bus driver told us about the history of the area as we drove. When he wasn't talking Ariel and I had a great time chatting and being silly. Not all of the passengers on the bus appreciated our silliness. A couple that was sitting across the aisle from us kept giving us weird looks and eventually traded seats with another couple. The bus made stops in Te Anua (not sure that is how you spell it) the mirror lakes and the Chasm. The mirror lakes weren't very mirror like because of the wind but I was glad we stopped there. My parents and I skipped the stop because there were so many tour buses stopped there when we drove past. The Chasm was my favourite stop. I stopped there with my parents as well. It is so cool. Ariel and I had a great time on the bus. I have lots of photos of it but it doesn't photograph well. The tour of Milford Sound was cool. It was essentially the same facts as the tour that I went on with my parents. I preferred the tour in the rain because the water falls were so amazing. Seeing it while cloudy isn't particularly fantastic. Just as the tour was finishing it started to rain so the waterfalls started appearing as we were driving back to Queenstown. We spent nearly eight hours on a bus!
    It was a long day so we planned to hang out in the hostel and have a quiet night. We hung out and chatted for a while but were eventually persuaded out to do a bit of dancing. We only danced for an hour or so before returning to the hostel for more chatting and late night giggles.

Mirror lakes on the way to Milford Sound

   On the 7th I had to leave around lunch time. Ariel and I got up and wandered around the city. We were both pretty gloomy as we don't know when we will see each other again. I had a hard time saying bye to her. I have been so lucky to make such an amazing friend in New Zealand. When I came here I expected to make some friends but probably not friends I will have for life however I was blessed by becoming friends with Ariel.

Water fall in Milford sound. 

Selfies at Mirror lakes

Our last selfie before we had to part ways :(