The International Buskers Festival and Horseback Riding

One of the annual summer events that takes place every summer in Christchurch is the international buskers festival. For this festival the city of Christchurch invites 30 or so of the best street performers in the world to come to the city for a week and perform their acts. The city pays for their plane ticket but once they are here it is up to them to make their own money by doing what they do best, busking. Jocelyn and I went to about 10 of the acts and they ranged from very good to down right horrible. We must first disclaim that we both have high expectations for buskers because we have seen some truly memberable performances in Boston. To start with the bad, the first act we say was a “strong lady.” Although this lady hyped up her act a lot most of her feats of strength were things that required knowing the right trick rather than being super strong. One example of this was ripping a phone book in half, take a look here to see how it is done (phonebook trick). My theory is that she was trying to hide the fact that she was very overweight by calling herself strong so people might thing the fat was actually muscle. There were a few other sub par acts but I will spare you the details. Some of our favorite acts included a duo from New Hampshire, a freak from the UK, and a fire dance troupe from Australia. The duo from New Hampshire performed many acrobatic feats with a comedic flare. Our favorite trick was when one of them did a headstand with no hands on the other guy’s head, who was standing.

The freak from the UK also had an interesting show that was mainly based on the fact that he could easily dislocate his shoulders allowing him to contour his body in various ways. This in itself was good, although kind of gross to watch, but the real thing that made his performance memorable was his comedic evolvement with the audience. In one part of the act he basically tricks a female volunteer from the audience into giving him a kiss. He then apologies to her boyfriend, at first you think he saying sorry for kissing the girl but then he says he his sorry for leaving the boyfriend out and runs over to kiss him as well. Another one of our favorite acts was a night show called FlameOz. This was a group of about 5 people the performed a few dance and martial arts routines all while carrying either poles or hula-hoops that where on fire. In the dark night it really looked cool, but the true highlight of the show was a guy that did a great crystals ball manipulation routine that you can watch an example of here. It looked even better than this at night because the lights made the chrstal appear bright but it was dark enough the you could not see his hands well. This guy really put David Bowie in labyrinth to shame. Overall the festival was fun and we are going to try to go to even more acts next year.

The very next weekend Jocelyn and I decided to go horseback riding. We got dressed in our finest horseback riding garb and drove to the waimakariri river just north of Christchurch where the horse ranch was located. As we arrived the weather was a little bit overcast but being New Zealand we knew this could change any minute so we were both hoping that the sun would come out during our ride. We met our guide and she taught us the basic techniques about riding a horse such as mounting, dismounting, turning, stopping, etc. We then mounted our horses and stared out on the trail. Since it was a slow day at the horse ranch, Jocelyn and I got our own private guide, and for the first half of the ride we actually had two guides with the other guide training a new horse. This particular horse ranch get there horses’ from the race track. This means they are not used to walking along rivers and forests or going a slow pace so a good amount of training is needed before they are ready for an inexperienced rider. The first part of the ride took us along the waimakariri river and then into a small forest. By this time the sun was coming out and it was turning into a very nice day. After the first hour of the ride both Jocelyn and I started to feel more comfortable on the horses, with the hardest part being trying to prevent them from eating the leaves off the trees. The second half of the trek took us threw a large grassy area and then to the river bank. Here our guide told us that we were going to try some short river crossings and gave us a few pointers on what to do and warned us that both of our horses like to play in the water so try to keep them moving. This worked for the first crossing, which was through a very shallow area of the river. Before the second crossing to leave the river area we were told that our horses will probably start to run to get up the steep bank of the river shore so we should grab on to their mains to make sure we do not fall backwards. I think this was one instruction too many because as we were worried about the horses running to fast we forgot to make sure they didn’t stop in the water. Halfway to the shore Jocelyn’s horse stopped and started to splash the water with its front legs. My horse saw this, and must of though it looked like a lot of fun so he started splashing as well. After a minute or two Jocelyn got hers moving again, but I had not such luck. I think after another few minutes my horse decided he had done a good enough job thoroughly soaking me and then proceeded to run to the shore with me barely hanging on. Once on dry land the sun was strong enough that it dried me out in a just a few minutes. We now started to head back to the ranch, our two hour ride was coming to an end, and I think both of us were ready to be off the horses since are bums were getting a little bit sore. Once we dismounted our horses were given water and food as we tried to get used to walking again. We then headed back to the city to grab a bite to eat and head home to relax.

Sorry about the lack of pictures for the horse back riding but we decided it might be safest to leave the camera in the car for this adventure, which judging by how much Trey got wet was probably a good idea,

Queenstown Adventure

Ever since we decided to move to New Zealand one of the places we knew we had to visit was Queenstown, the extreme sport capital of New Zealand - if not the world. Two of our friends, Mark and Lily, invited us to visit them down in Queenstown and stay in Lily’s family’s holiday home. We were more than happy to take them up on this offer.

To say the drive down to Queenstown is scenic would be an understatement. We took our time during the nearly 7 hour drive and stopped at two of the large glacier lakes that we passed, Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki. These lakes are an amazing shade of bright turquoise. The way this color is created is by the way the glacier inches its way down the mountain and grinds against the rocky landscape, picking up ultra-fine pieces of rock. As the glacier melts, filling the lake, the rock dust stays suspended in the water, causing the brilliant turquoise color that you can see in the pictures. As an extra bonus, on a clear day you can see Mt. Cook, the tallest mountain in New Zealand, in the distance on the other side of the lake. Lucky for us it was just clear enough to make out the snow covered peak. I will tell you one thing, a six plus hour drive through mountains, along side of lakes, and past countless vineyards goes much quicker than a six plus hour drive through the endless corn fields of Illinois.

Once we arrived in Queenstown we headed to Lily’s holiday home which is situated on the shore of lake Wakatipu just across the bay from Queenstown. It is in a very prime location called Kelvin Heights. The house itself, built in the 70s, stands above ground on large poles on a steep slope. The inside still keeps true to its 70s heritage with shag carpeting and a sunken-in living room. The highlight of the house is the backside porch with sweeping views of the lake, Queenstown, and the surrounding mountains. The house and the house next to it, also owned by her family are unique in that the rest of the houses around it are restored, million dollar homes – the family has stuck with tradition and refuses to sell the land or renovate the home. As they say in New Zealand, “good on them.”

Mark’s parents were also staying in the house for the weekend (they were the ones who hosted us for Christmas) and the six of us had a BBQ, with Mark’s aunt and uncle stopping by later in the night for some wine and games.

The next morning we drove over to Queenstown and rode the gondola up to the top of one of the mountains. The view from the top of the gondola, like most of Queenstown, was picture perfect. But the best part up above was not the view but the luge track. For those of you in the states who have ridden an alpine slide before, this is similar but with a wider track and the ability to turn and pass. For those not familiar with an alpine slide, think about racing powerless go-carts down a winding path on the side of a mountain. This was a lot of fun and after a few goes even the girls were enjoying it! Mark and I had a best of three race and he one 2-1, he did have the home field advantage though. Jocelyn decided to try to pose for the “picture perfect finish” camera and bought the photo to commemorate the experience. Not the safest idea, but it did make a good picture.

After the luge, the four of us went into town and met up with Mark’s parents for lunch on the waterfront. After the lunch we went off to play some mini-putt girls vs. guys. Although the girls started off strong and all was tied up after nine holes, I think the heat, or maybe it was Mark’s taunting, got the best of them and they ended up losing by a few strokes. Lily was the only one to get a hole-in-one on the course and since it was on the last hole she one a free game, but since it was so hot we decided to get ice-cream instead of playing again. At the ice cream hut the owner tried to give the hard sell on getting crepes instead of ice cream but who wants crepes on a hot day? Not us. That night we headed over to Mark’s aunt and uncle’s house for another BBQ and also a fun game of Cranium.

The next day we headed out to the Shotover River to go on a jet boat ride. I was a little skeptical of the jet boat rides because I had been on a few before up in the Wisconsin Dells and to say the least, they were not the greatest. However, the jet boat rides in Queenstown are a must-do at least once in your life. The river is very narrow and has high cliff walls on either side. The jet boat drivers are well-trained and they manage to get you within a few inches of the rocks when they go around each corner. Also, since the boats only need 4 inches of water for clearance, they can go over rapids and into shallow areas that you would even think twice about if you were white water rafting. Mark’s mom came with us and even bought us the picture pack to share between us! Very sweet.

That night, since there were no more BBQ’s to go to we decided to cook dinner for Mark and Lily as a thank you for letting us stay at the house. Jocelyn decided to make her portabella mushroom lasagna and needless to say, it was a big hit. We tried to finish it all but in the end two pieces had to be wrapped up to be eaten another day. Just as well, since Mark and Lily were staying a few more days – it gave them another night they did not have to cook.

The next day was a shopping day, and although Mark and I are very fashionable guys, we decided to let the girls go shopping without us while we went golfing. Golfing was very interesting to say the least. We found a set of clubs in the house, which I do believe may have been older than the house. We warmed up on the driving range and after a few swings, one of the woods exploded on impact with the ball sending the club head about 50 meters down range. I then decided to stay away from the woods and only use irons, not a big deal considering the course was mostly par 3s with a few par 4s. On the first hole, I tee’d off with a 4 iron and overshot the green by about 100 yards. The next hole I lost my driver - who knows where - and overshot the green again on the third hole, this time teeing off with a pitching wedge. By the end of 9 holes things were getting little bit better and I got par on one hole which was my main goal. After golfing we decided it was time to relax out on the water so we took a six-pack of beers and took out the row boat out and chilled until the girls got back from shopping.

That night we went out to dinner at a restaurant that turned out to be pretty bad but we still managed to have a good time. We passed on dessert at the restaurant and got ice cream instead and ate it outside on the waterfront. We then went out for drinks at The Bunker, which is a really nice bar and where we should have had dinner. Jocelyn was pretty happy because she finally found a bartender in New Zealand who could make her a proper cosmopolitan. She offered to take him home and have him move in with us but he declined. After a few drinks we headed over to the World Bar in downtown Queenstown for a little bit a dancing before heading home.

The next day we drove home, but on our way we stopped at the Kawarau Bridge, the site of the first ever bungy jump and Jocelyn decided to take the plunge and go bungy jumping (see earlier post). Overall it was a really fun trip and we plan on going to Queenstown again. Click here to see the rest of our pictures from Queenstown.