The World Buskers Festival, Soundday, and Noble Beast

Hey everyone! I hope everything is good. It’s been a while, now I’m writing just because I will have way too much to write if I wait until Australia. We’re leaving for Adelaide on February 1st at 5:40 in the morning, so we’re sleeping in the airport the night before. That will be a lot of fun. But anyways, we were in Dunedin since I last wrote. We didn’t really do much there, Bretton was sick, so I just looked up scholarships and practiced the piano at our hostel. Then we went to Oamaru for the day. It was nice, but small. Around supper time, we packed a picnic meal and walked out to the yellow-eyed penguin colony. They weren’t out yet, so we ate while we waited. We waited for quite a while. Suddenly, this guy shouts, “There they are, they’re already in bushes.” All of us were looking at the beach and somehow missed the penguins coming up. It was kind of embarrassing. We saw more penguins as the night passed, but when it got cold, we walked back. Then we headed to Christchurch. We didn’t even know it, but the World Buskers Festival was just starting. It’s ten days of street performances from performers all over the world. There were two acts from Quebec that we quite good. When we got to our hostel, it was so embarrassing. I went to get a fork from the cutlery drawer, but there was a guy standing by it. So I said, “Excuse me, can I grab something from the drawer?” He moved his hand a bit and I thought it was out of the way, but it wasn’t! I squeezed his finger in the drawer and I hadn’t even met him! He swore and looked at me and said, “It’s okay.” And went on to swear even more. I said, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” over and over again. Every time I saw him again, I was so embarrassed. I’m just the most lucky person sometimes. At night, Bretton and I went to the Buskers Comedy Club a few times. The emcees were this group called “The Daredevil Chicken Club”, they were hilarious. On January 24, we went to a music festival called “Soundday”. It was super amazing, I just love live music. Some of the groups were: the Klap, Nathan Haines, A Hori Buzz, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Truth, and Cut Off Your Hands. One of the coolest bands was “Fat Freddy’s Drop”, despite the name. It was just the right speed, relaxing, and great music to dance to. And… only in New Zealand would people cheer when the saxophone and trombone are brought out, I loved it. The band I anticipated the most was “Cut Off Your Hands”. I bought their CD when I first came to New Zealand, it was cool music with good guitar lines. But, when they first played, it was terrible! The lead singer was singing in a different key than the guitar was playing, and he didn’t work it out until half-way through! It was painful. While I was watching, I came to the realization that there were mostly teenagers all around me. I think I was mortified actually, that I “loved” this band and so did people my little sister’s age. From now on, I think I’ll enjoy them in the privacy of my MP3 player, no one has to know. The next day, we headed out to Kaikoura, we planned to do whale watching there. Not so much. The whale watching was too much money, so we didn’t do it. So we were stuck with figuring out what we were going to do in Kaikoura, a small town, with nothing to do but whale watching and swimming with dolphins (which was too expensive as well). The second day we did this walk on the coast of the peninsula to see a seal colony. The only problem was that we were there too early and the seals weren’t out. So we went on a seal walk and saw no seals, then we walked to the bakery and bought day old bread for cheap, bought groceries, read, watched movies, and complained about our hostel. Our hostel was pretty disgusting, there were two cats and their hair was everywhere, so the hostel smelled like cat hair and urine, it was not that nice. But now we’re back in Christchurch again and it feels good. I got to practice on a grand piano at a Baptist Church nearby our hostel this morning, it was good. Now we’re just trying to fill up the time. I only have $15 left, so I have to make that last until we go. As long as I don’t go anywhere, that shouldn’t be a problem. This might be a challenge, but it is good for me to be limited like this. It tests my willpower. Anyways, I’m super psyched to go to Australia and feel ready to get out of New Zealand. It’s been awesome, but I’m ready for something new, I think. Wait! Did I mention that I got the new Andrew Bird CD, “Noble Beast”? It is truly amazing. And… I successfully added it to my MP3 player, so now I can listen to it all the time! It is nice, but it probably going to get grossly overplayed. Actually… it already has. After you’ve heard “Anonanimal” and “Not a Robot, But a Ghost” once, you have to listen to them at least five more time to really appreciate them, they’re just so good! Also… I found my razor that I left at our hostel in Christchurch. It was looking pretty grim, I couldn’t afford a new razor with a budget of $15 mostly for food, so I thought I wouldn’t be able to shave until Australia. But, luckily for me and everyone, I found it just where I left it. All is well in Aleahland. Anyways, next time you hear from me, I’ll be in super dry and super tanned Australia, talk to you all soon!