New Zealand Vacation

Saturday, February 3:
Dunedin - Geraldine

Jenny visited the local art museum, while I wandered about a major street fair that was occupying Dunedin’s town center for the weekend. We then headed up to Geraldine where the Waihi Bush Folk Festival was in progress. I had found out about it only a couple of days before we left, and had contacted Simon Musgrove, the organizer, booker, owner, and chief cook and bottle-washer. It’s an informal affair with about 100 to 150 attendees. It’s held on Simon’s farm, and most attendees camp on site. It was only during our travels in New Zealand that I finally found out (thanks to the rented cell phone) that if I wanted, I would be able to do a short concert set and workshop at the event, and Simon found us an unoccupied “caravan” (What we would call a trailer) in which we could stay. Mighty kind of him.

On the road, we stopped off in Timaru where there was an aviary in a public park. It was a big geodesic dome covered with netting that we could actually enter. Kind of impressive to have parrots flying formation around your head.

Knowing that we’d spend the next couple of days roughing it, we had an elegant dinner at The Crossing, a very classy B&B about a mile from the Festival site.

The Waihi Bush Folk festival was wonderful. It was attended by folks of all ages. We got there in time for the tail end of the evening concert and a barn dance. The dancing was a mix of simple squares, English Country, and some elementary contras. The dancers’ enthusiasm & willingness to try anything more than made up for their lack of dancing skills. The evening ended with a late night session with local musicians.