it was a bank holiday in Auckland today and true to form it chucked it down with rain. and it was really windy
kezia and i went out early to get a couple of photos printed for a competition that esther and kezia are entering. it’s of pictures taken of the sculptures in the botanical gardens. esher’s is above and kezia’s below
we got back just as our neighbours Debbie, Franklin and their daughter came round. She’s the Debbie who jane goes running with (very early) every other morning. we had a really lovely time with them
then i whizzed off in to town to go to a music festival. this was the first time the Laneways festival had come to Auckland (it’s usually just round Australia) so there were a number of teething troubles
, such as not being enough food outlets, resulting in huge queues, the two stages being so close together that one artist’s acoustic set got blown away by a rawk band playing on the other stage, and there was not being enough space in the bar area.
the picture above is taken within the festival area – the people squashed together are in the special bar area where you were allowed to consume alcohol. that made for a very uneven spread of patrons.
the venue was a pay and display car park in the centre of town which was amusing
and it variously chucked it down with rain. although being so humid it didn’t make much difference. it was nice to see how people dealt with it.
there were a lot of people wearing earplugs which is interesting. live music is definitely a lot louder here than in the UK so you have to do your own health and safety. i didn’t so have a deaf left ear due to where i stood for most of the day today and the huge bass amp at church yesterday
for those music watchers, stand out bands today were echo and the bunnymen (doing a greatest hits set), the dirty three (bearded violin player below), the phoenix foundation (excellent NZ band) and Surf City (who i think are also new zealish)
whilst i was out having musical fun, jane and the girls went to an off road biking trial which sounded rather fun and rather dangerous. but everyone had a great (and safe) time and they only got a bit lost once.
tomorrow we’d doing Kezia’s birthday treat for most of the day …