Big Day Out among other things

Big Day Out was amazing!! I took a bus from the house I was staying at and got to the concert about 11 am. I didn't leave until 11pm. There were soo many bands. The way it was set up is a lot like ozzfest or warped tour. There were five stages plus a tent set up that had djs spinning club music. There was also this thing called a silent disco. It was a dance floor set up with headphones and you could just dance around to the music in your headphones. I didn't try it but it looked really weird to see all of these people bopping around with no music around. The Living End came on at 1pm so I went and hung out on the floor until they came on. They were great and I def want to see them again. The crowd was really good too. I was on the floor for the bands that I saw and it got pretty crowded but nobody was being stupid. If someone fell someone else helped them up. It was really good.

Some of the weird things to me about the big day out was that the water was free. It was great that it was free because it was really hot especially since I was jumping up and down on the floor for most bands. Hahha i hope no one was worried that because I was going to this concert without knowing anyone I wouldn't participate. I def did. Another cool thing about the concert was that they had free carnival rides and a free water slide. I was just amazed at how once you got inside the festival things weren't overpriced and there were free things to do. I did buy a Big Day Out t-shirt and a compilation cd of the bands that played to remember the concert. It was well worth the money and the trip back up to Auckland.

I ran into the Scottish girls while at the Big Day Out. We hung out for a bit and I decided that I wouldn't head down to Wellington with them. They were going to take their time going down and I just didn't feel like hopping in a car the next day. I had already checked with the girl, Ana, whose house I was crashing at and she said it was no problem if I hung around for a couple more days. I told Ana how much I appreciated her letting me stay at her house for free without even knowing me and she said not to worry, that it was the Kiwi way. The hospitality and niceness of strangers that I have seen in the past couple of weeks has amazed me and I really hope I take some of their ideals back home with me. I called the truck driver who gave me a ride up to Auckland and he hooked me up with a ride to Wellington. So on Monday I hopped back on the trucks and caught a free ride back down to Wellington.

Now I am in Wellington and am crashing at Ed's apt. I got to Wellington yesterday and am leaving tomorrow for the south island. In Wellington I have just been catching up with the people I met here, I went to Eat and hung out there for a bit and then me and Ed and his friend Vivan went to the bar and Vivan attempted to explain cricket to me. I understand most of it but the games are so long, some last days, that I don't think I could ever get into it. I have gotten into rugby though and I going to try and go see a game while I am in the south island. I am catching the ferry across to the south island in the morning. The ferry looks like a cruise ship and even has a movie theater on board. It should be a fun ride if the weather is good. Once I get to the south island I am heading straight to a town called Blenheim to try and get some work in a vineyard for a week just to get some more cash.

I had a bit of a scare this morning. I broke out my lonely planet book and called the hostels in Blenheim to book a weeks accomodation. They were all booked up. I panicked for about five minutes about what I was going to do since I had already bought the bus ticket to Blenheim and I didn't want to lose that money. So I went to the info office in Wellington and they helped me by calling around to some other hostels that aren't in the lonely planet and within ten minutes I had a bed booked. As they say here, it was sweet as.

That's as far as my plans go for now. I might travel around with Victoria but if our plans are too different then I will just hop on the Kiwi bus and travel around that way. I'll figure that stuff out while I am in Blenheim.

My pics are taking too long to upload so they will have to wait for another time. As for my grad school apps, they are all in and I am just waiting on word if I got in or not. I don't think I will know until I get back home which is fine with me.