Nadia and I arrived in Wellington with a few days under our sleeves to have some R&R. We made our way to Brendan and Uella’s house, who would kindly host us for our time in the capital.
We dropped our stuff off and went for a walk into the city to get some supplies for dinner – roast! We returned to Aro Valley and I got it to. Brendan arrived home and we settled into an evening of catching up and sharing exciting news about the future.
The next day, we borrowed a car from Bruella and drove up to Featherston to see Sam Dijkstra, his partner Tatiana and baby Arthur – who had just turned one in the weekend. The last time I saw Arthur he was a fresh little bundle getting noodles dropped on his head at The Asian.
He is now a little man, with a human haircut and a lot to say – and has his fathers pure sense of joy and cheek. We had a cuppa at Sam and Tatiana’s farm before drinking into Featherston to grab lunch at a local fav.
We returned to Wellington and Brendan cooked us all dinner.
Thursday was show day. Nadia was keen to get a tour of parliament from Brendan, who was happy to oblige. We went down and had the grand tour in an otherwise quiet parliament.
We went back into the city and both respectively had our hair did. I walked home ahead of Nadia and prepped the gear for the show, as I was due to go down to set up soon. San Fran was sold out days in advance for this show – a first for Nadia at that venue.
The show was a success with a lot of familiar faces – including Russell Silverwood who assisted me on the merch table.
Unbeknownst to me or anyone else in the audience or the team, during the march back on stage for the encore, Chris bashed his face on the corner of the stage door. He cut his eye lid and bruised his cheek, but finished the set before being seen to. The bar manager Ziggy was concerned about the possibility of concussion and insisted, with the help of a few others that Chris pay a visit to the ER.
With that drama more or less wrapped up we packed everything and returned to our respective accomodations for a sleep.
We met again at the airport for check-in. I had tried to keep in touch with Chris though-out the evening but my slumber was too irresistible. After making a couple of unanswered calls to his phone I called Wellington General to check on his status. He had been discharged around 2.30am – so I assumed that he was both ok and would arrive when be meant to.
He did turn up, as did everyone else and we flew to Auckland, grabbed a rental van and started the journey down to Hamilton. After a few not so satisfactory nights sleep in Wellington, the fatigue of tour was starting to catch up with me.
We arrived at Nivara Lounge, run by local eccentric Ivan. We arrived later than we had intended and pack in did take some time and we could feel Ivan getting a bit touchy. I learned later that he has tried to muscle our sound engineer James into getting the soundcheck done faster.
The show kicked off and I was paired with local man-child hippie in a propeller hat who I truely lacked the patience for as a door man. After general small talk about his commune and all the significant people he knew died down I forced a merch wedge between us and had a go at enjoying my soda water and the show without conversation.
The show ended and we packed up. Ritchie had travelled separately on the way down so I had to wriggle a few more large items into the back of our van. Fortunately my untested Tetris skills proved useful, and I was able to construct a stable stack.
Back at the accom we loaded everything into one of our two rooms in what was a pretty down market motel on the corner of a major road. There was talk of attempting some friday night fun, but I was truely headed for bed.
On Saturday morning I woke up early and started to pack the van again. We stopped at a local recommendation for some food and coffee before heading back to Auckland and to our final North Island stop – The Leigh Sawmill.
The drive took nearly three hours, and I was feeling worse for wear. I could feel my tiredness turning into an exhausted cold – but I had to push through until after we were back in Auckland.
We arrived at the Sawmill and packed in. As there was not a lot of merch left from the Wellington and Hamilton shows, I suggested that we would be no worse off if I only sold it after the show – giving me the chance to have a rest.
I had a snooze on the couch at our accomodation – a rustic cottage behind the venue, all the while I would hear the band sound-checking just next door. They returned and we were delivered pizza and salad from the restaurant – which the seven of us devoured.
To complete the trilogy, Leigh was also a sold out show. The audience were very receptive, with exclamations of excitement and surprise when an audience member shouted between songs “congratulations on getting married” (not overly appreciated by Nadia while in the middle of a show). The bar people and kitchen staff however could use a little lesson etiquette, taking orders at full volume and crashing around to at times and almost comical degree. I could tell that it was not only bothering myself and James but the back half of the room.
The show ended and we packed up, and I sold some CD’s and the last T-Shirt. We returned to the cottage with a few bottles of wine and a few hangers on and had a few before retiring. And I won player of the day – Again!
We had a bit of a slow start the next day. Ritchie and Chris had both driven back the night before to be with their families, and Anita and James had a flight to catch in the early evening.
Slowly, people arose. We had some food at the Sawmill and packed up the van – getting on the road just after 12.30pm.
We dropped everyone off in their respective places and returned the van to the airport, picking up another rental car and heading to Raglan for some R&R.
Waking up the next morning, but body had let go of it’s resistance and I truely had a cold. We had three nights in a little Pod, during which we would be doing not much apart from gentle walks and relaxing.
Here’s hoping I kick this in time for Leg Three.
McBryde Looks At Things 2 