Love is happiness

V in action!

Sweating over a computer and a map. I still have little idea of where I'm going. Just follow the coastline. I don't leave Melbourne until next Saturday though so there's plenty of time.

St kilda

Melbourne is very nice! There were no real cities in New Zealand. There's a ton of things going on here and I'm in a great area.

Life in the bubble

I'm just catching up on the craziness. Touring is all-consuming.

Wifi and takers

Another cafe another attempt to connect to wifi, with little luck so I'm still on iPhone. Veronica lent me a laptop but it's a PC in gibberish ;) I have to do a video for that wifi song with people waltzing with their laptops in a cafe.

Hopefully I'll have some takers for this leg of the tour and some willing fool can take over the blogging. A man can dream. Some more musicians would be good. Even singers. A lot of unplugged shows would benefit greatly from more voices. Please put the word about, if you know friends that need an escape.

Great show

First time in a while people really got it. All expats over here with work visas. Quite a few Brits but from all over really. A great crowd made for a great show. Thanks guys.

Morgan

Morgan, from Canada living in Melbourne, organised a house show for me last night. She is a bonafide fan, with Long Live Love album on repeat. She cooked and even bought a bottle of cyclists wine.

My guardian angel

Veronica is planning the next three months of my life with shows all up the east coast. What a trooper! I'm sure she regrets it now ;) it's so much work but she wanted to try her hand at being a booker, to see if it was a job for her. Watch this space.

Beck and mum

It's like staying in a library. Beck works in a book shop and brings her with home with her.

Exploring

Cycled around Melbourne thus morning out along the coastal cycle path. What a great atmosphere here.

Toff in town

First show first night. Really good venue, well-known. Tuesday though so only 9 in the audience though, including two other acts, Christoph from Holland and Alex from Melbourne.

Melbourne

A new start! Trippy to suddenly be in a new country. Planes hey. I'd rather have gone by boat. Taking me some time to orientate.

My booker Veronica (right) picked me up from the airport and took me to Beck's house (right) where I'll be staying for a few days.

Melbourne feels a lot like Miami with palm trees, beaches and art deco.

End

The tour carried on without me. Yancy and Maria took a taxi to catch the bus down to Queenstown to see more of New Zealand, while I flew to Melbourne and Puk to Amsterdam. A sad day.

Last supper

I played a BBQ in Christchurch and had a blast. Then stayed with the Steve and Marion for two nights. The people were still in shock about the earthquake but life was carrying on

Car

We hired a car for five days to get down to Christchurch in time for our flights.

Naked bike ride

I didn't join in

Moments before impact

Day 21: kayaking in Golden Bay

We saw more seals and one even bumped into the kayak. Picnic on the island.

Day 20: North of the South island

(I've tried uploading the videos of the rest of the New Zealand trip but it's not working, so I'll just go back to photo blogging. I'm already in Melbourne now ;)

This was the sunset at a beautiful beach at the top of the South island. Lovely caves and some baby seals.

At least I had a bike

Jamming in the playhouse

Long day

8 hours in the saddle. Things were numb

Takaka hill

At what I thought was the top. There turned out to be a mountain on the mountain.

Puk close-up

Sweat getting trapped under his sunburnt skin led to blisters. Ouch

Action shot

Puked

Puk rode with me all the way to Nelson. 100km with some tough climbs. Hard enough on a road bike let alone a mountain bike with a rucksack on.

Wine tasting

Once off the ferry in the south island we rode to Marlborough Valley, wine country. We cycled from vineyard to vineyard doing the free tastings. If only all days were like this.

6am start

To catch the ferry to the south island.

Press

I got a nice article on the back of the culture section of NZ's Sunday paper. Very useful. Already got more house concerts offered because of it.

Nick & Nick

A jazz duo warmed the crowd up at the house concert in Wellington. We stayed with (left) Nick and Molly.

The weather has gotten colder the further south and it's raining a lot. Horizontally.

Hand and Mieke

Our hosts in Wellington. A Dutch couple who emigrated to New Zealand.

Palmerston North

We stayed with Donny and Debs and their two kids, and the big kids played Transformers.

Wakalula, view from the stage

I bring my own audience now. They must be bored by now

No accommodation or show so I walked round town, and the second bar scored rooms for us all. Had to play for a few hours to an empty bar.

5 star hotel

The guys were pleaded and surprised. A treat from the venue

The Brazen Head, Napier

I played in an Irish pub in Napier, unplugged on the bar.

Byrdie

Our host for two nights in Rotorua. Byrdie's a GP and also a touring cyclist and soon off for 10 weeks around France. She gave us a tour round town. The English game bowls is big in NZ.

Sulphur city

Hanging out by the mud pool

Rotorua

We've had a great stay in Rotorua. Nice to have two days without riding and a nice place to stay with Byrdie. Yesterday we went white water rafting and our canoe flipped on a 7m waterfall. I ended up underneath the boat. No photos obviously. This morning we walked among the giant redwoods in the forest next to the house.

All mine?

Puk's birthday dinner