It's a long way to the top if u wanna Rock'n Roll! part 1

Hi to all,

So as i previously said on my last post, i got a relocation deal on a car, tickets to the Big Day Out in Auckland, my license translated, my boss's permission to take four days off and my plane ticket back home!

This was by far one of the best experiences of my life, what a great way to see a country like New Zealand, I've always been a sucker for Road Trips and this one was an opportunity i could not miss.

Wednesday early morning i woke up, got on the rental car, picked up my friend Robin, and started the first part of the trip from Christchurch to Auckland, which by the way it was not only 600km but over a 1000km instead. From Christchurch to Picton were 344 km, which most people told me it would take me about 4 maybe even 5 hours to do so, only that i made it in less than 4, we were so ahead of scheduelle by the time we got to Blenheim, which is on the Marlborough region the most famous wine region of NZ,  that we picked one winery to stop by and do some tasting, we tasted about 12 wines, but in the actual tasting way, which means spitting the wine instead of drinking it. The Gewürztraminer we tried appeal so much to me that we bought a bottle, and Sue the lady that was serving us, made it 7 NZD$ cheaper which was a pretty good deal hehe.

From the winery to the ferry was only about half an hour. Once on board it felt a bit weird to see the familiar emergency signs, the very same which i lived by on ships for 6 years, a lot of the experience on the ferry reminded me of my "ship's life", and for that the ride was quite fun. The crossing from the south to the north island of NZ takes about 3 hours, and it sets from Picton to finish in Wellington the capital and base of operations for one of the most amazing directors of all times Peter Jackson (I'm a huge fan of Lord of the Rings)

Once we arrived in Wellington we went straight to the Weta Cave (PJ's workshop), took heaps of pics, and headed for the Backpackers we had booked. We got there dropped our bags in the room and left for a walk along the Harbor, Wellington seems a very nice place and i definitely have to stop by there with more time. After some roaming around we went to Cuba st, the main street for good and best bar and restaurants, set down at a nice place for some really good pizza and a Italian Sangiovese wine, got back to the Backpacker and went to bed.

Next morning we woke finished packing and left the backpacker to find out we had a Flat tire, which cost us extra time in the city and 160 bucks for the new tire, which reminds me to inform you that always plan for more money than what u think u'll be spending.

We were on the road by noon, and decided to follow the advice from some people and take the SH 32 and go around the Tongariro national park(where Mordor from LOTR was shot) and the great lake Taupo, beautiful scenery folks NZ is an amazing country for a Road trip. 

Within 6 hours and quite a few K's of driving done, we were checking on the map to figure where was the Backpacker we had booked for Hamilton, only to find out that it would deviate us for a good few K's, so instead we decided to call the backpacker in Auckland to see if they would have a spare room for the nite before the one we had booked and fortunately they did, so we kept on the road and around 10 in the evening  of the day before the BDO we were in Auckland. 

Met up some great people there and later met up with a friend, Michael who's been living in Auckland for the past couple of months, so gave a quick nite tour around the city up till 2 am when we got back and went to bed.

Continues below......

It's a long way to the top if u wanna Rock'n Roll! part 2

Friday the Big Day Out was only a few hours away from start, so we figure out what to do, walk to downtown and took the train all the way to Mt Smart Stadium, there was n way to get lost on this folks this is one of those events that mobilizes huge crowds, all with the same objective which in this case was to Rock'n roll, we all got of the train and marched with great eager for what awaited about 300 mt away from us.

We passed the whole security check thing and the doors of a beautiful day were open, so much to do, it was hard to figure out where to go first, like kids in a toy store, we bounced on to the queue for one the Carnival rides they had, and then onto the next one, roamed around checking out the amalgam of different people going about their business, all kinds of "tribes" looking for they places in this massive area where the BIG DAY OUT was set.

We decided to follow the path that lead us to the main stages, in good time to catch the beginning of  AIRBOURNE and i gotta say i wasn't that excited about them, but those guys rocked really hard, worth mention the lead guitar and vocals climbing on the scaffold next to the stage and doing a solo from the very top of it, about 15 mt of the ground, as well the part where he would smash cans of beer with his head and throw in the crowd saying "have a beer!"

After Airbourne it was Deftones, which i like but don't know many of the songs, so i stayed back and lay down on the grass to chill and ponder upon this amazing experience i was having, u should always take the time to appreciate the beauty of living, the things u are doing and all that's surrounding u.

Around 4:30 WOLFMOTHER started and i was sitting for a bit on the benches, but couldn't keep sitting as wolfmother took the stage with a lot of power, with their Rock'n roll very much like the late 60's early 70's. That was the band i was most looking forward to, and my expectations were met with one amazing concert.

The rest of the day was filled with other great bands, like Jonh Buttler trio, Shihad, Iggy pop that had his whole stage crowded with fans that he invited up himself, Ramstein which is a Techno-metal German band with a thing for fire and explosions that makes up for a rather entertaining concert, in between them and the last band for the day me and Robin went to the so called silent disco, which consists of a "disco" where the only music u hear comes from the headsets they give u at the entrance, finally for the end of it all Tool played under very heavy rain, and i stayed up to almost the last song but thought it would be smart to leave a little before everything was finished in order to avoid the massive crowd that would be on the trains to back.

Once back in the city center Michael met us again, and we were utterly soaked, cold and famished, so he took us to a cozy Japanese restaurant where we had some Lamen and hot sake and with that in almost no time we could feel the warmth again. Nevertheless after such a day and a hot meal the only thing i could think of was my bed back at the hostel/BP.

Next morning we woke up very lazily at nine to realize that our flight was at 11 instead of 11:30 as we thought, the stress built up on us both as we where driving around to find the place for the drop off of the car, Michael once again helped us out by showing us the place to drop the car and rushing to the airport with us. When we got out of his car we ran as fast as possible to the Air New Zealand counter, and fortunately we made it on time to catch the plane only for the fact that we didn't had to check in our bags as they were small enough to fit in the over head compartment. The flight home was definitely a pleasure cuz after driving 1.085 km the only thing i wanted to do was appreciate the view and the pleasure of not being in charge hehe!

So this concludes my great adventure road trip to rock in Auckland with a few thousand of people on sucha celebrated festival as the Big Day Out, and i'm am truly glad to have done it, for it is now one the most remarkable experiences of my life!

Take a shot at doing something alike as i know none can regret this!

Cheers fellas!

Where there is a will there is a way!

Kia ora,

Just when i thought there was no way and thought i would lose 150 $ bucks on the ticket to the big day out that i would not be able to attend, my new friend Kay, gave me an idea of how could i do it, that idea was nothing but a struck of brilliance, a bright flashy light that lit an entire huge dark room.

About 2 months ago i bought tickets to the BIG DAY OUT, a well known music festival that happens every summer in Auckland. Immerse on too much work between the 2 jobs i had on the month of December, i completely overlooked on finding me a flight to Auckland, and as it could not be different the prices raise up exponentially over the first weeks of January, and now it would cost nothing less than 600 $ to fly there and back, man that's way too much, and therefore i decided to settle for not going.

On the last weekend i was at Akaroa sitting on a porch, outside the Duvacheulle store and cafe, appreciating the amazing sight of the sun setting in between the mountains that once where the crater of a volcano reflecting the orange and reddish color on the waters of the bay, when Kay gave me the idea of "grabbing one of those relocation deals". Basically it consists of driving a rental car for free to it's original place, which in my case is gonna be drive from here Christchurch, over half of the country all the way to Auckland. That's a perfect Rock'n roll trip as I've always wanted to do, next Thursday i'll be getting on a car to drive for over 600 km, ride with the car on a ferry, see amazing landscapes on this country enjoying a great soundtrack which i'm already working on as i write this!!!

This morning i called my boss and sorted the days off i'll need, the car deal, the flight tickets back to here and got my license translated, so from today i start the countdown to one of the best road trips of my life!

Where there is a will there is a way, believe in that sentence folks cuz it pays off really well!

PS: the photo up top is actually four different pics that i "photoshopped" to piece them together, if u look closely u'll see that some clouds are not real, i made some up to cover differences between pics!

cheers to all!

New year, new look!

Hya folks,

    So here we are 2011, a new year starts, and i decided to come up with a new look for my blog a more clean one, hope u guys like it!
   With the beginning of a new decade i cannot help but feel hopeful again, isn't it funny that only because we restart the count of months on our calendars we feel like is a fresh start, i mean isn't it common to say "a whole new year ahead of u" as in this is a total new beginning, forgiving and forgetting the mistakes committed over the year past.

   The other day as i was sitting outside on the porch at late night, tired yet sleepless, with a full bottle of an ice cold beer, after a loooong 16 hour work journey between my 2 jobs, contemplating the wonders of this new year, up till when i stopped to think of the "bad years" i've had, only to realize that i never had a bad year. Honestly we all have problems and obstacles in life but 365 days of bad is way too much for a person alone. Companies , industries, crops, farms, and so on have bad years, if you consider to compare with other years that profit wise were better, but us we go through a few bad things in a year, but there is always good things to look forward to right?! At least i would like to think so, and from this i send my best wishes for a great year in general for all of those that have the hope for it, specially those that have not had much luck over 2010.

latest facts of me life:

I changed the look of the blog cuz i thought it would be nice to start the year with something special;

Finally done working on of the jobs, which means that i have a normal life again;

Just finish to re-read Harry Potter and the deathly hallows, and it's really a great book to my view!

The drawing above is based on the book/movie by Steig Larsson "The girl with the dragon tattoo"