Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Summertime in Wellington

One Love at the Velodrome
Chillin with couch surfers
Bout to get my feed on
This past weekend was huge for Wellington. On Saturday was the One Love music event, celebrating Bob Marley’s birthday and the whole weekend was the Rugby Sevens tournament, with international teams packing out the stadium, culminating in a huge street party. Plus Saturday was Waitangi Day, celebrating the day the treaty was signed between the Maori and the English, making New Zealand an official super colony.

I went to One Love last year and just like then, we had amazing weather for the festival held in a velodrome. Nice grass pitch in the middle of the bike track. Super sunny, perfect day for hanging outside and listening to good live music while chilling with friends. The music was pretty sweet, although not as good as last year. The highlight was definitely the dub from Scotland. Nothing like a red haired Rasta from the land of Braveheart.

The place was packed, over 10,000 this year. Ran into a bunch of people I knew throughout the masses. Lunch was a hangi, the traditional Maori meal cooked using hot stones in the ground. Damn tasty and filling for a cheap price. 3 types of meat to go with potatoes, pumpkin, kumara and stuffing. Nothing like food cooked through steam over several hours.

For the Sevens, everyone dresses up and parties. It feels like a mardi gras mixed with Halloween. The 35,000 daily tickets sold out in 5 minutes and most of the people were all dressed up at the stadium. Huge screens around town and every bar making heaps of money during the weekend. In the night after the final, the city came alive dancing in the streets with DJs on rooftops and in the streets keeping the feet moving.

Moved into my new flat on Friday as well. In town, close to everything, 5 minutes to work on level ground, and a big room. I’m only here for the next 5 weeks before taking off to travel, so it’s working out good to be in the city centre again after crashing at a mate’s place a half hour away. Loving the city and going out with a bang.