Yesterday we got to experience an outdoor music festival 'kiwi style'. In some respects it was similar to festivals at home, and in others it was absolutely not!

The setting was at a local winery with a million dollar view of Lake Wanaka. Check out the view. The day was glorious. We had partial clouds which kept it from getting too hot, and an occasional spit shower but no heavy rain ever.

The show started at 11:00 a.m., but we didn't arrive until nearly noon. This wasn't scheduled to end until past midnight so we figured we would get our fill of music before the day was up.

There was a wide range of music including Reggae, World Beat and some serious head banger heavy metal. Not all to our liking, but fun to watch nonetheless. (And the crowd really was fun to watch -- sweet as ...) All day most of the crowd sat on their hands drinking and not dancing. It wasn't until there was a fire on an island in the middle of the lake that people got up to watch it. As soon as it was out, everyone sat again. It wasn't until around 9:00 in the evening that things picked up and many people got up and started to dance.

A couple of the bands were pretty good with 'Shapeshifters' from Kaikoura and 'Fat Freddie's Drop' the two we enjoyed most. One of the headliners, Shihad, was a heavy metal band that was reminiscent of US bands in the 1980's. Not our favorite, but fun to watch the crowd go nuts. They were obviously a favorite.

One thing that we both agreed on is that there were a lot of very drunk people there! Since the festival was at a winery, they were selling wine by the bottle, and we saw hundreds of them being carried through the crowd. This, along with trays of Monteith's beer, were drunk in huge quantities all day. By late afternoon, the crowd was weaving a bit and things got a bit sloppy.

All in all, it was a great day and totally worth the effort and money we expended. If anyone is traveling to New Zealand, or any other foreign country for that matter, I would highly recommend you take the time to go see some of the home grown music. It will open your eyes!

Until next time ... if you get confused, listen to the music play.

Eric & Val