For the last month there has been a hippiefestival going on a little bit outside Springs Junction, about an hour away from here. The festval itself is an hours walk into the forest, next to the river, and as they say themselves and people I know who have gone for a bit, it's been full of love, peace and a lot of nudity. They have been coming to Murchison in big groups for the last month and have definetly spiced up our average days! You can usually tell the hippies from everyone else, they're the ones with the very colorful clothing, the long hair and pretty much everyone of them carries around an instrument of somekind and a flask or bottle that they got real cheap at a garage sale. In other words they look like they come straight from the 60's. Its been quite funny having them around the cafe, they have caused a bit of a ruckus at the pub because they smell so bad its apparantly hard to serve them. (they dont have showers at the camp, and they havent been too eager to take a shower either strangely enough. guess its festival/ hippie life). Another thing that comes with being a hippie is drugs, some of them I have no idea what were on, but I have never seen so many people be so fascinated over a cookie and eat it with such fufillment and determination!
Saturday was the last day of the festival and as an ending they had asked the Commercial pub if they could play there live for the night, in which the pub said yes! The poster only said "live band" and so us girlies and Regen thought it was some local countryband coming through and thought it would be a fun night at the 'ol commercial. Mutch to our surprise it was not, instead of the guitar and drums and cowboy hats there was long gowns, beards to the chest, a mandolin, a banjo and a flute and dreads everywhere. And about 30 hippies jumping around singing to their hearts content and dancing to a rythm i found hard to find. It was awesome! The commercial was pretty full after a while and The Hamptin found itself shutting early as most people decided to come over to "the darkside". It didn't take long before one of the hippies came over and asked if we wanted to dance, naturally I said yes and away we went! Apart from the bit sweaty smell, it was a very fun night. Dancing with the hippies most of the night and watching them sing along to songs I have never heard before, mostly about love and happiness (which is a nice break from the partying and prostitue- songs on the radio). After a while they all got together in three massive rings and stood humming the word "ah" together for a looong time before going "brrrr" shaking their hands and then oing a massive group hug piling on top of eachother on the floor. It was ofcourse all fun and games until the flying mokeys come out, and one flying monkey nocked into one of the senior hippies and hurt one of her many piercings, in which she had to spend the next hour in the bathroom with the aid of three other hippies. Too much love i guess.
I had a chat to a few of the hippies, one who was from Australia and was here with alle her girl-friends, and to be honest they are pretty cool people i think. Too much hairgrowth in my opinion, but very good people i'd say!
In the end, we got invited to the next rainbow festival (i know, very appropriate name!) next year and wished peace and love on our bodies.
The day after, they decided to come to Rivers Cafe to have a public concert outside for all our guests. It was all good until they decided to dance on the tables, in which other poeple were supposed to eat off of. Thats when Jude the boss saw red, marched out there and told (yelled) them: "HAVE SOME RESPECT!!". They were very sorry and got off the tables, but they spent the rest of the day, from 11 am to 4 pm outside the cafe singing and dancing to our amusment and Jude ended up giving them all a free meal. Some rednecks appeared and wanted us to tell the hippies to leave, so we told therednecks to leave instead. It was good and so much peace and love!
its like what they say, if you cant beat them, join them! Long live the hippie culture!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Summersix
SO this weekend has been quite an eventful one, and i therefore feel we have to start at the beginning.. That is on Friday morning.
I woke up early on Friday morning to go for a morning paddle with Jason the fantastic paddler and Joe the wicked paddler. I met up with them at the campground early in the morning, they had met up with some other guys in the campground that also wanted to go paddling, among them Frank the Frenchman. (i know, strange name for a frenchman). I feel like Frank the Frenchman needs an introduction. He is first of all french, hardly speaks any english and will start speaking french if he can't make himself clear, (as if we all know french). He still makes himself understood by his body language and is a very likable guy, does not have any plans and has been traveling for the last years, and changes his mind very often!
Anyway, back to the story, so me, Cam, Sam, Vaughn, Frank the Frenchman and Jason went paddling (yes thats right Joe is not mentioned because he didn't go reason being a bad elbow) down the mangles. Which is a nice easy run with lots of play waves.It was here that Frank the frenchman decided it would be a good spot to go skinny dipping (he didn't though) and decided to make a new sport of naked-kayaking. Right.. It was a good start to the day and turning out to be a really nice day.
After our paddle we went and picked up the birthday girl (Danny) and her brother Tristan. We packed all our stuff in a hurry to make most of the day and as we were driving out i managed to drive in to Donna the wonderful tenant's porch stairs! They fell a part and did not look very good.. our car was fine though. We drove back into town and i went and talked to Donna, she just laughed and thought it was hilarious and told us to have a fun weekend in Nelson and to deal with it when we came back. You gotta love her!
So off we were to Nelson for the big weekend. We dropped Jason off at a friends house so he could get the ferry back north. Then we headed straight for the beach where we spent most of the afternoon. it was a bit windy and so by the time we were done at the beach I could blend in very well with the sand and i'm surprised people even saw me on the beach.
Byt that time it was around 7 pm and our little stomachs were growling so we went out to eat at a nice thai restaurant. We got such a good feed for very cheap and so it was the perfect birthday dinner (or tea as they call it here). Had a nice Gin and Tonic to cool me off after the hot day. Yummy.
We found a nice parking space for our car for the night and got dressed a little bit nicer before meeting up with Regen, Annabelle and Leone at the coolest club in Nelson, The Phat club. Its a known fact among all kiwis. The DJ Optimus Gryme was playing and it was an awesome night. Just drum and bass music, but real good! We danced the early night away before heading back to the car for a "good" nights sleep.
We woke up early on Saturday morning ready for a new day! Today was the day of the festival Summersix. On the band-list was Optimus Gryme, Nathan Hanes Live band, P-Money, The Black Seeds, Katchafire and Concord Dawn. It is defiantly worth catching up on the last 4 artist, cause they are very good! Especially The black seeds and Katchafire.
We did some window shopping in Nelson city before going to summersix. the festival opened at 12 pm and was at a sports field. We sat on our blanket in the middle of the field, close to the stage and watched Optimus Gryme and Nathan Hanes Live band do their thing. It was incredibly hot and sunny and such a beautiful day! 5800 people came, so it was quite full. For the rest of the time I was standing next to the stage. Leone and I danced to our little hearts content! It was an awesome day, on of the best days I've had in a while.
The day was over around 8 pm and after I drove home, seeing as I had to be at work at 7.30 in the morning. But summersix is from my rating getting a 5 out of 6. Such a goood day!!
I woke up early on Friday morning to go for a morning paddle with Jason the fantastic paddler and Joe the wicked paddler. I met up with them at the campground early in the morning, they had met up with some other guys in the campground that also wanted to go paddling, among them Frank the Frenchman. (i know, strange name for a frenchman). I feel like Frank the Frenchman needs an introduction. He is first of all french, hardly speaks any english and will start speaking french if he can't make himself clear, (as if we all know french). He still makes himself understood by his body language and is a very likable guy, does not have any plans and has been traveling for the last years, and changes his mind very often!
Anyway, back to the story, so me, Cam, Sam, Vaughn, Frank the Frenchman and Jason went paddling (yes thats right Joe is not mentioned because he didn't go reason being a bad elbow) down the mangles. Which is a nice easy run with lots of play waves.It was here that Frank the frenchman decided it would be a good spot to go skinny dipping (he didn't though) and decided to make a new sport of naked-kayaking. Right.. It was a good start to the day and turning out to be a really nice day.
After our paddle we went and picked up the birthday girl (Danny) and her brother Tristan. We packed all our stuff in a hurry to make most of the day and as we were driving out i managed to drive in to Donna the wonderful tenant's porch stairs! They fell a part and did not look very good.. our car was fine though. We drove back into town and i went and talked to Donna, she just laughed and thought it was hilarious and told us to have a fun weekend in Nelson and to deal with it when we came back. You gotta love her!
So off we were to Nelson for the big weekend. We dropped Jason off at a friends house so he could get the ferry back north. Then we headed straight for the beach where we spent most of the afternoon. it was a bit windy and so by the time we were done at the beach I could blend in very well with the sand and i'm surprised people even saw me on the beach.
Byt that time it was around 7 pm and our little stomachs were growling so we went out to eat at a nice thai restaurant. We got such a good feed for very cheap and so it was the perfect birthday dinner (or tea as they call it here). Had a nice Gin and Tonic to cool me off after the hot day. Yummy.
We found a nice parking space for our car for the night and got dressed a little bit nicer before meeting up with Regen, Annabelle and Leone at the coolest club in Nelson, The Phat club. Its a known fact among all kiwis. The DJ Optimus Gryme was playing and it was an awesome night. Just drum and bass music, but real good! We danced the early night away before heading back to the car for a "good" nights sleep.
We woke up early on Saturday morning ready for a new day! Today was the day of the festival Summersix. On the band-list was Optimus Gryme, Nathan Hanes Live band, P-Money, The Black Seeds, Katchafire and Concord Dawn. It is defiantly worth catching up on the last 4 artist, cause they are very good! Especially The black seeds and Katchafire.
We did some window shopping in Nelson city before going to summersix. the festival opened at 12 pm and was at a sports field. We sat on our blanket in the middle of the field, close to the stage and watched Optimus Gryme and Nathan Hanes Live band do their thing. It was incredibly hot and sunny and such a beautiful day! 5800 people came, so it was quite full. For the rest of the time I was standing next to the stage. Leone and I danced to our little hearts content! It was an awesome day, on of the best days I've had in a while.
The day was over around 8 pm and after I drove home, seeing as I had to be at work at 7.30 in the morning. But summersix is from my rating getting a 5 out of 6. Such a goood day!!
Christmas comes to Murch (again?)
After a very tiring week of very hard work and little sleep I finally had the day off! Leone and I headed straight to the beach in Abel Tasman National Park, Kaiteriteri. It was a gorgeous sunny day with a nice breeze. We stopped along the way to buy freshly picked apricots and cherrys from local farmers. It was delicious to say the least! We spent most of the afternoon on the beach, just relaxing and swimming in the ocean. It was on the way home that I found my christmas present had arrived from home, I was very excited! It was only when I got back to the cafe to pick up the present, that I realized I really never had the day off and was supposed to be working.. It wasn't a big problem and in my excitement I didn't really care, so Leone and I rushed back to her place to open the pressie.
I must say it is a very strange thing opening a christmas present while eating freshly picked corn on the cob and drinking red wine after spending the entire day on the beach enjoying the sun and ocean. Back to the point.. this girl did NOT wait in vain, for it was the most wonderful thought through christmas present ever! It was absolutely lovely, thank you so much!
The rest of the night was spent eating norwegian chocolate with ice cream and freshly picked raspberries from the garden. YUM
Seeing as half the stuff I got was christmas stuff it was only right to have a christmas evening! So after work the next day we went to Annabelle and Regens place, where after eating some more corn on the cob, we watched a christmas movie and baked gingerbread cookies. They were absolutely delicious! Like a little taste of home, even though Dad's cookie dough is much better. We sadly did not have anything to decorate them with, but oo they were delicious!
For the rest of the week I've been swapping between listening to Kraakesolv and the christmas cd I got.
christmas may have come late, but it came to Murch at last!
I must say it is a very strange thing opening a christmas present while eating freshly picked corn on the cob and drinking red wine after spending the entire day on the beach enjoying the sun and ocean. Back to the point.. this girl did NOT wait in vain, for it was the most wonderful thought through christmas present ever! It was absolutely lovely, thank you so much!
The rest of the night was spent eating norwegian chocolate with ice cream and freshly picked raspberries from the garden. YUM
Seeing as half the stuff I got was christmas stuff it was only right to have a christmas evening! So after work the next day we went to Annabelle and Regens place, where after eating some more corn on the cob, we watched a christmas movie and baked gingerbread cookies. They were absolutely delicious! Like a little taste of home, even though Dad's cookie dough is much better. We sadly did not have anything to decorate them with, but oo they were delicious!
For the rest of the week I've been swapping between listening to Kraakesolv and the christmas cd I got.
christmas may have come late, but it came to Murch at last!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
best of 2009
ok guys, it had to be done!! Am thinking ofa top ten decade list, but i think it will have to be top 50.. anyway, here is my top ten best artist of the year list, in random order:
1. Moby - wait for me
2. Lighting Dust - Infinite light
3. Flaming Lips - Embryonic
4. PJ Harvey and John Parish - A woman a man walked by
5. Why? - Alopecia
6. Yeah yeah yeah's - Its Blitz
7. Fat Freddys Drop - Based on a true story
8. Antony and the Johnsons - the crying light
9. Paulo Nutini - Sunny side up
10. Kråkesølv - trådnøsting
1. Moby - wait for me
2. Lighting Dust - Infinite light
3. Flaming Lips - Embryonic
4. PJ Harvey and John Parish - A woman a man walked by
5. Why? - Alopecia
6. Yeah yeah yeah's - Its Blitz
7. Fat Freddys Drop - Based on a true story
8. Antony and the Johnsons - the crying light
9. Paulo Nutini - Sunny side up
10. Kråkesølv - trådnøsting
new years
Happy new years!
The new year in Murchison i must sadly announce is not much to brag about. Being such a small town, most people head off to the neighbor town of nelson to celebrate new years instead of staying here. But, needless to say, we had an awesome night!
so here the story goes:
It was a nice day, kind of rainy clouds coming in, but not too bad for murch. I was biking in to town, when all of a sudden I got a text on my phone saying: hey, do you want to paddle the glenroy with us? i was shocked, and thought to myself, "this is amazing" and replied: yes, of course!
Half an hour later we were driving up to the take out of the river (where we get out in the end). It was me and my to friends Joe and Jason who i'd met in norway and whose here to paddle. Jason is originally from the NZ and came back to paddle and get married, while Joe is from the UK and both are very very good paddlers!
Anywho, we did two runs of the river, which is an absolutely beautiful gorge and quite a technical run. The weather was with us, with sunlight and warmth. The first run went really well, the second run not so well, but its all good. It took us the whole afternoon and by the time we were done it was 5 o clock and just in time to have drinks at work. Jude was offering and buying i might add! We sat there and chattet for quite some time before we realized it was time to go. Annabelle, Leone and I rushed off to ANnabelle's and Regen's place to get everything ready for the night. we were throwing a cocktail party/ flourel party. Yes you heard me right! pictures will come!
It was so much fun! we had glow-sticks, brightly colored clothes, glow in the dark nailpolish, the whole works!! The reason for this was that the local pub was having a glow-in-the dark party. We made lots of cocktails (margarita included!), had an awesome barbecue (bring your own, and then share) and such a good time on the dancefloor. We danced the whole night pretty much, had a conga line and how-low- can-you-go competition.
When the clock struck 11.30 we went down to the pub to meet up with the rest of the town., which wasn't a whole lot to be honest. The pub was around half full (it's not a big pub). The glow-in-the dark party was a little room on one side of the pub with flourel lights and eggcartons painted with flourel paint. It was quite cool, the only downside was that you couldn't hear the music in there and so being in the room was kind of pointless. We still spent a lot of time in there, glowing from top to bottom silent-dancing to no music. It was very funny and must have looked absolutely ridiculous!
The only bad thing about the night was that there were absolutely no fireworks! I was quite shocked and it was a big let down. New years is nothing without the fireworks!
When it was time to go home i couldn't find my bike.. someone had taken it from outside Annabelles house! Luckily things have a habit of turning up very fast in murchison, and so it was found the next day 700 meters up the road. *phew*.
We later found out that since everyone goes somewhere else for new years, most people celebrate it again when they come back! so on the 1st the pub was absolutely packed with people!! oh, little old murch!
new year resolutions:
1. become a grade 4 kayaker this season, and be able to paddle the second grade 4 rapid on the glenroy.
2. see most of the south island before i leave
3. visit most of my friends during the year
4. stay fit
6. do what makes me happy
The new year in Murchison i must sadly announce is not much to brag about. Being such a small town, most people head off to the neighbor town of nelson to celebrate new years instead of staying here. But, needless to say, we had an awesome night!
so here the story goes:
It was a nice day, kind of rainy clouds coming in, but not too bad for murch. I was biking in to town, when all of a sudden I got a text on my phone saying: hey, do you want to paddle the glenroy with us? i was shocked, and thought to myself, "this is amazing" and replied: yes, of course!
Half an hour later we were driving up to the take out of the river (where we get out in the end). It was me and my to friends Joe and Jason who i'd met in norway and whose here to paddle. Jason is originally from the NZ and came back to paddle and get married, while Joe is from the UK and both are very very good paddlers!
Anywho, we did two runs of the river, which is an absolutely beautiful gorge and quite a technical run. The weather was with us, with sunlight and warmth. The first run went really well, the second run not so well, but its all good. It took us the whole afternoon and by the time we were done it was 5 o clock and just in time to have drinks at work. Jude was offering and buying i might add! We sat there and chattet for quite some time before we realized it was time to go. Annabelle, Leone and I rushed off to ANnabelle's and Regen's place to get everything ready for the night. we were throwing a cocktail party/ flourel party. Yes you heard me right! pictures will come!
It was so much fun! we had glow-sticks, brightly colored clothes, glow in the dark nailpolish, the whole works!! The reason for this was that the local pub was having a glow-in-the dark party. We made lots of cocktails (margarita included!), had an awesome barbecue (bring your own, and then share) and such a good time on the dancefloor. We danced the whole night pretty much, had a conga line and how-low- can-you-go competition.
When the clock struck 11.30 we went down to the pub to meet up with the rest of the town., which wasn't a whole lot to be honest. The pub was around half full (it's not a big pub). The glow-in-the dark party was a little room on one side of the pub with flourel lights and eggcartons painted with flourel paint. It was quite cool, the only downside was that you couldn't hear the music in there and so being in the room was kind of pointless. We still spent a lot of time in there, glowing from top to bottom silent-dancing to no music. It was very funny and must have looked absolutely ridiculous!
The only bad thing about the night was that there were absolutely no fireworks! I was quite shocked and it was a big let down. New years is nothing without the fireworks!
When it was time to go home i couldn't find my bike.. someone had taken it from outside Annabelles house! Luckily things have a habit of turning up very fast in murchison, and so it was found the next day 700 meters up the road. *phew*.
We later found out that since everyone goes somewhere else for new years, most people celebrate it again when they come back! so on the 1st the pub was absolutely packed with people!! oh, little old murch!
new year resolutions:
1. become a grade 4 kayaker this season, and be able to paddle the second grade 4 rapid on the glenroy.
2. see most of the south island before i leave
3. visit most of my friends during the year
4. stay fit
6. do what makes me happy
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