Mission Concert

Our neighbor gave us tickets to go see Olivia Newton-John and Chris De Burgh at the Mission Estate Concert. The Mission holds a concert every year at this time and seems to sell out every year with a crowd of 25,000 people. Now for those that might be saying who are these people? I will fill you in. Olivia Newton-John is the woman that was the lead in Grease. She put on a great show. Of course she sang some of the famous Grease songs but she also sang a few songs off her new album, which she wrote when she was fighting Breast Cancer. She looked great and sounded great.

Chris De Burgh is known for his song "The Lady in Red". I love this song. Chris put on a very diverse performance. He started the show singing solo just him and his twelve-string guitar. His voice has quite a range and he had full command of the stage. He then finished off the show singing with his back up band and the Victor Wellington Orchestra. Most of the songs he sang were his own but there were a few covers. He told a few bad jokes as well but for the most part he we enjoyed his songs.



We went to this concert with our friends Roger and Helen, from England. They knew Chris De Burgh's music well and they were quite surprised that he sang cover songs. We all figured it was so he could please the audience. The Kiwi's seem to love Cover bands/songs. We see posters all the time reading for example Roy Rogers playing at the Municipal Theatre (of course this is just a look a like singing to piped in music). Very Strange?!

This weekend we also decided it was time to give our old car a new look. So Sunday we started sanding and spraying on primer. The car is looking better but that was not too hard.:) I have a blister on my trigger finger. We still have more painting to go so we will keep you posted.

P.S. Glenn has kept his beard (somewhat out of peer pressure) that he
grew on the trip down South. He will be getting it shaved this Friday
on EIT campus as a fundraiser for cancer.

Fun filled weekend

This weekend we had a great time. Saturday we went to our friend
John's house and he took us out sea kayaking. We paddled for about
two hours. At one point both Glenn and I felt a little queasy but we
managed to paddle through and make it to leveler waters. Just as we were getting close to your pull out point we saw some planes flying over head. There were four and they started doing the loop deloops. With smoke trailing behind them they made amazing patterns in the ski. It was the big Art Deco weekend in Napier. Our plan was to go down to Napier and do some street performing but after kayaking
we were pretty tired. So we decided to just walk around town and see the
sights. The town was buzzing with people. It was a great day for people watching.



This is a family all dolled up for the Art Deco Weekend. Everyone was wearing their fancy Art Deco outfits and driving their classic cars. This event happens every year in Febuary, as sort of commemoration of the big earthquake that hit this area in 1931. The city was rebuilt after this earthquake in the art deco style. Really it is just a good reason to dress up and have fun. There were even steam engine tractors on display.

Sunday we went on a hike with couple in a place called Boundary
Streams. This is a bird sanctuary, known as a land island, because
there are fences around the area and traps keeping the predators out.
Thus the bird numbers are much higher. One of the native birds called
a Tui has very unusual call, part of its call is like a coughing
sound. We saw and heard quite a few Tui that day.

Trip to the South Island Dunedin to Nelson

Dunedin was wonderful. We had a tough first night because the room we stayed in at the backpackers in town smelt of mildew and the mattress on the bed had spronged its springs. The next morning Glenn and I got up early, no reason to stay in bed, and went out for a walk through the city. The feel of the city was European with cool old buildings. Like the one in the picture. This is the train station located in the center of town. A pretty fancy place much nicer then most airports.



We then returned to the backpackers to check out. As we were checking out our friend Louise called. Louise was down visiting Dunedin for the holidays and she wanted to see if she could show us arround Dunedin. She met up with us at the Backpackers and took us to the Botanical Gardens a very nice spot to have lunch. We also got to meet her brother, a painter, who lived above a music shop in town. She even took us out to one of the beaches it was a very nice day and we enjoyed taking a walk. Louise had to get back to visit her mom so she left us at a Holiday park were we would stay the night in a little cabin that smelled great and had a good mattress on the bed. There was even a nice trail into the woods that surrounded the park. We took a walk that afternoon. Then for dinner we were invited to a potluck out at Mike's place. Mike is one of the main guys that organizes the Festival and he told us this potluck was a traditional pre-festival festivity. We ended up walking to Mike's place which took about two hours but was a good walk none the less. We even got to meet some of the local fisherman as we had to stop for directions at a local bar. After getting a criptic map that looked somewhat like a treasure map we continued on our way. Luckly we passed another couple on the road we asked for more clarification. Once we made it to Mike's the feast was on the table. We were pretty worn out by this time and hungary but we enjoyed the company and meeting new people. There we met Geoff and Lois who told us to come and stay with them. We told them we had a place for that night so they gave us a number to call the next day so they could come and pick us up when ever we wanted. Once we got back to the holiday park that night we remembered the guy at the desk had told us earlier there were glow worms along a path into the woods just five minutes walk. We decided to go take a look. It was amazing the cliff was just lit up with glow worms. What a great way to finish off our first full day in the South Island.