0 New Zealand Tour Blog – Farewell South Island for now

An outside bath. It took 3 hours to heat the water 🙂

So after my run of shows in the Christchurch area I headed north on a
wonderful drive through the mountains up to Nelson.

I camped next to a
river and woke up to a wonderful view of mountain ranges and a
waterfall.

Then onwards I went to my first show. The last time I
played Nelson was two years ago and I really felt a good sense of
belonging to the place. A friendly town with a good sense of
positivity. My first show went by without much drama and then I headed
to Motueka where I played a further two shows. Then I had a few days
off and went further north to a town called Takaka. By this point I
had teamed up with a few other folks to travel with and so we all
camped together and did the tourist hikes together. It really was
great to be sharing the experiences as the road can sometimes be a
lonely place if you let it.

Farewell Spit is the most Northern point of the South Island

Next came a return to Nelson where I played a heap of shows with the
Sprig and Fern venues. A nice chain of pubs with great beers and all
independantly run. My favourite of these was in the centre of town
where I was allowed to play at a good volume and some folks who had
seen us before returned to watch my return to the area.

I’d also at this point like to say a huge thanks to Brian and Gillian
who were welcoming enough to house me during the Nelson leg of my
trip.

Following on from Nelson came a very twisting drive along the bay to
Picton. From here I played a further two shows on a Lodge only
accessible by boat. Whilst staying there I lived in a shack called
Crumpy’s Camp which had an outside bath.

That was a cool outside experience.

I also played one further show in Picton at ‘Le Cafe’
before I got the ferry to the North Island and once again played on a
boat.

Playing a gig on a ferry was really weird

That marked the end of an epic South Island run. Over 20 shows
and heaps of drama’s – But all worth it.

North Island here I come…:)

Stoo

0 New Zealand Tour Blog Part whatever – Christchurch

So into town I role. This town (city) however was the last place to have a major earthquake on the planet. As I have been travelling round New Zealand I have been hearing rumours of aftershocks being almost as big as the real thing and I’m gripped with anticipation of my first encounter with a natural disaster.

However before that I have other impending disasters to sort out. Firstly there is my tour schedule for the north island which has been left a little thin due to reasons to follow. Secondly there is my PA equipment which still hasn’t been fixed following on from its second malfunction with distortion back in Milford Sound 10 shows back. This is a two week stretch in the one city so my best chance to get it sorted.

Now back to the issue with my empty North Island schedule. There is moral here I’m sure. I was let down by one booking agent who offered to book it whilst I was in Japan. So A little dismayed I begin to try and get things back on track when I hit NZ; A little behind schedule but possible none the less. However a booking agent catches one of my shows in Dunedin. I ask if he is able to help with my empty North Island schedule. He says it will not be a problem as we used to live there and has many contacts. We have a meeting and he talks up his mighty plans and shows me a map of the North Island and many cities that he will get me shows in. Unfortunatley again I am let down by a whole lot of not alot happening. At which time I give up on any dependency and once again take to booking the shows myself. With the help of my good friend Jax who provides me with a computer I am able in 2 weeks to confirm 12 North Island shows and an additional 4 South Island . It’s now nearly 2 months since my Dunedin meeting and still I haven’t had a single show confirmed on the North Island by this bookings agent. Independence has far less Hassel than dependence.

This booking agent did however manage to do one very good thing. He introduces me to a lady called Lyndsey. She was nice enough to house me for some of my time in Christchurch and also got me three shows booked. Her kind nature and quick humour was a wonderfully refreshing thing and  over the two weeks in town we became good friends. Also there to house me was my good friend Andrew of the band Cold Harvest Trust. The band supported me two years back. They’ve had a couple of line up changes since then and I felt they had become a stronger band for it. Andrew writes some great stuff and I recommend any folks to give them a listen at.

http://www.myspace.com/coldharvesttrust

My PA equipment gets fixed and suddenly all feels right 🙂

I also get the chance to record a few demos live into the microphone of a laptop.

The songs are all real rough and unready in everyway but it has been nice to be writing again.  I’ll maybe get a sketchy demo uploaded when I can.

Onwards my tour goes through the mountains to Nelson. As it turns out I didn’t feel an earthquake!Not even a little shudder. I guess I should feel lucky really. Even if the term anticlimax seems to be stuck in my head 😦

Stoo

0 New Years Festival Show Confirmed + Heaps of New Shows

Kia Ora folks.

It give me great pleasure to say that if you click on my shows page you will see a load of new shows on the North Island of New Zealand including Auckland, Wellington, Taupo and an appearence at the Prana Festival which is a 4 day festival running over new years.

In the mean time watch this space and I’ll keep the tour blog coming as and when.

Stoo