Kaikora Seafest

What happens when a small coastal village quadruples its population for one day a year? It gets a little crazy. We call this, Seafest.

It was my first major trip with the car, and I was kinda nervous. More so that I was bringing some friends from Ilam Villages also, I don't mind myself being stuck on the side of the road, but with four others, not so much. I actually ended up not even driving the car, because I participated in the ENSOC BBQ. I posted about the BBQ a few weeks ago, if your curious about it.

When we arrived to Kaikora it was fairly late in the afternoon, and we jumped right into the festivities of Big Top Bash. It was two bands playing covers of some classic songs and a few recent songs. I spent so much time up on the dance floor, I had a few locals come up to me remarking about all my dancing last night. Even the artists got accustomed to me as the guy dancing in the front row.

I LOST my jacket at the big top bash. I was devastated. I'm talking about my black leather jacket, which belonged to my Dad's brother over 40 years ago. I tried getting back into the event, and the security guards said there was no clothing left. I went back to Ross's house where we staying, and told my friends about how I lost it by leaving it on the table. At that very moment, a strange, awkward moment happened. Ross's mother came walking in, wearing my jacket.
"By any chance, does that jacket say Harley Davidson on the inside"
"Oh yeah it does!"
"Yea, ummm... that's my jacket."

I slept in the car, and man it was NICE. I had a comforter, and extra sleeping bag and foam pads underneath my sleeping bag. So it was pretty comfortable.

The next morning we woke up to walk to the same tent where we partied last night. I couldn't get over the scenery on the way there, because it was too dark to see the landscape. Such a beautiful small town. I'd recommend it for a day or two to climb around, see some marine wildlife it's well known for.

Getting into Seafest many of us were a little disappointed upon entry.

One: The "Souvenir Glass" that came with the ticket was a plastic cup with shoelaces tied around it so you could wear it around your neck and not lose it. Although extremely handy I must say.

Two: The fest I thought was all about trying wine, food samples for free, because the ticket for both nights was around 65$! Not the case. They only charged MORE because you were stuck inside.

Three: The "Music Line-up" was the same two artists I spent dancing to all of the night before.

There was good food and drinks though. I went through money way too fast like the vendors strategically spent. Luckily Luke Stover does occasionally think ahead in terms of money, and only brings 20$ for the day to spend. There was one drink that had tequila and hot chilis which had a great taste, called "Hot Pants" or something like that. I also sat in on a cooking show, which was surprisingly good. The best thing I got out of it was this simple and extremely tasty dressing recipe.
Sweet Chili Sauce & Fresh Lime Juice &Ginger Powder
Just mix these together and you have an awesome dressing. Me and Ellie used it later that month on top of avocados and chickpeas.

The costumes the locals were wearing was quite interesting. I'll let the photos do the talking.



Once back at a Ross's house we started relaxing outside as Ross's Parents began the BBQ. Delicious food was had and I began my adventure to find another place to dance. After a few tries at different clubs downtown (the only main road of Kaikora) I found a great place packed with people dancing to mainstream in the front. This was alright dancing, but everyone from seafest (thousands) were scattered among the very few bars in Kaikora. So I wandered to the back and found a live jazz band playing with about 10 people listening. They were great! IT was also out in the open so you could dance underneath the southern night sky And the salty sea air nearby. After a couple of hours I ran into Barry! Barry, sold me the car, and took the bus to see the rest of the island before he left in a month. So Barry and I caught up, and had great deep discussions on traveling and life decisions, past and future. I learned quite a bit from Barry, as he's got the same mindset and goals. The convos also made me quite confident on my decisions which has lead me here, and my future.

We walked back to his hostel where we met some Scottish, Irish and kiwi older gentleman. The gents were pretty happy after most of the bottle of scotch they were enjoying was gone after the three of them. So much, that me and Barry (from England) pretended we were from Columbia with ridiculous spanish accents. Once I gave away my real Scottish and Irish heritage they quickly poured me a big glass of scotch. And I had a bit out of it, but no way was I finishing that. Turns out, Allen Dale who I met in that hostel had a passion for VW Vans. So much, he tattooed one on himself. He also brags about driving the fastest 1/4 mile normally aspirated VW van. Who new? I asked the guy what he would say to himself if he was 20 years old again. "Follow your passions in life". For him, it was paying homage to VW vans by racing and Tattooing them.

Ensoc BBQ

I had participated in the ENSOC's (Engineering Society of Canterbury) annual end of term BBQ. And it was quite crazy.

Upon waiting on a line which stretches across Ilam rugby fields for over an hour, sometimes more, you join 1900 other students in a fenced in area. They shouldn't call this a BBQ, because there is a puny line for sausages on toast(of course) with about 6 people standing on line. To the left of this stand, is about 500 students pushing and squeezing and screaming to get to the front of the line where there is: 60 kegs of Alcohol. Not bad eh? Not bad when you hear how fast these kiwis (and myself) went through it: 2 hours.

In the center of the party is a roped off arena for the chundy-mile: Final year ENSOC students dressed in wacky costumes run around to various stations where they have to chug beer, eat raw eggs on toast (or throw them at eachother) and sloppy-joe sandwiches, and slide around on slip-n-slides. I believe the original plan was to see who could last the longest number of laps eating, drinking and sliding. But instead, it was complete carnage. The problem may have been that the final year students had been drinking one hour before the race, taping into the unlimited supply of alcohol. For me, it was a great way to see New Zealand's finest. Upon charging to the first station in the race, about 50 of these students toppled the table of food right over. A mad scrambled, some quickly moved on to the next station while the remaining were slowly getting back on their feet, but as usual wrestling started to occur. While all of his was happening, the nearby security guard grabbed a carton of eggs, and put them behind his back so i could have access to 12 gorgeous eggs for throwing at people. It was great, one of my friends clipped a final student in the ear causing him to fall over. The security guard pounded one kid in the chest with an egg. This kid thought it was from the crowd, ready to throw back food. He quickly realized that it was the security guard he was about to chuck a sloppy-Joe right at. Quite humorous to watch, but not the best part.
This may be the grossest thing Ive seen in my life, so pass if you do not like throw-up stories.

As one guy(guy 1) was scrambling to eat his food at the station in front of me, another guy (guy 2)charges right at him and throws him to the ground. The guy 1 retaliates and pushes the guy right over the table. Guy 2 decides to tip the rest of the food on the table on top of guy 1, lays on top of guy 1 and table, and guy 2 stuffs his mouth full of food. Guy 2 spits/vomits his inner contents into guy 1's open mouth, and runs to the next station. Guy 1 is too drunk to capture all of the situation. I on the other hand 10 feet away am gagging at the site of this once in a life-time experience I had witnessed. A final year student dressed as a baby is flailing his arms running past me. Only in New Zealand.

Travels to Governors Bay

I realized its been quite sometime since I posted, and that I am greatly behind. I still haven't finished posting about the rest of my spring break! Well, I'm going to send it all to you at once, and just get it all out of my system and up to date. So I apologize for the flooding in of randomized posts from the last month and a half of my travel/adventures.

On a current note, I have 2 more classes left of the semester! I can't believe it, and I am scared to death. Finals are shortly around the corner, which leaves me with a little over one week to study four physics courses worth of material from this whole semester. I have already been studious enough to turn down (although very hard to do) a four-day hike to Milford sound, one of the most beautiful places in New Zealand. Ellie has been out and about, taking great photos which I'll be posting soon.


Here's a post about one of my short motorcycle travels out to Governor's Bay, near Lyttleton.




My Trip Governor's Bay, and a few lesson's of motorcycle riding I've learned.

1. Take off sunglasses before entering NZ's longest tunnel.
After school, I decided a great way to experience the gorgeous days of spring which keep getting better as the days go on, was to take out the bike. I decided to try a few roads along the bay near Lyttleton. I decided to head out to Lyttleton and follow the coast stopping in various places. It was a bright sunny day, and I decided to try out my new 4$ sunglasses I used for a "greaser" costume a few nights ago. Approaching the tunnel I forgot I had been wearing the sunglasses, because the glasses made the sunny day look like a typical cloudy day in Christchurch. Aaand pitch dark. Crap. Well, just follow the brake lights ahead of you, follow its speed because I cant see the speedometer. You have to give me a little sympathy, as this tunnel is much darker compared to the United States' tunnels. Back in the States I remember playing "disco" from the bright orange lights flying past you at such a fast rate, as they were spaced probably five feet apart. Here in the NZ, lets say 25 feet. Once my eyes were adjusted I discovered other horrible features of riding a motorcycle through a tunnel like:
2. Stand back from vehicles ahead of you, as exhaust gasses tend to accumulate in tunnels 3. British Motorcycles are better suited for "Tunnel Travel".
This is extremely true! My Honda has no tachometer, and with the deafening roar from the acoustics in a tunnel, I had no idea of how my poor little Honda was handling certain gears. Now if I had a Triumph, this would be ok, no need for sound, or a tachometer, because I could feel how the engine was working based off how quickly my legs were turning numb. I'm pretty sure Edward Turner had this exact reason in mind. Mr.Honda had it all wrong, with no engine vibration.

So after traveling through New Zealand's longest tunnel (2km) coughing on exhaust fumes, blind, deaf, and two gears away from what I should have been, I turn away from civilization and head out
to motorcycle paradise. And, as usual of New Zealand, I find it, again. twisty, winding roads which touch the coast and then shooting back up hundreds of meters was a great time to test out if I could get away without having 3rd gear. I had a blast on these roads, and although I thought I was going fast, a young woman driving a Miata convertible didn't thinks so. She passed me, and I decided to see if I could follow her moves, as she had obviously done this road more than I have. It was a fun game of cat and mouse, She seemed to take off on the straight-aways more than my 250cc could handle, but I would catch up to her on the corners. Once she pulled off to I'm guessing her village I proceeded until I found a nice place to pull over. See that itty-bitty pier at the center of the picture to the right? I decided to going there. After going through a village of around twenty houses I walked to the pier, and took in the surroundings. The colors of the fresh green grass, yellow flowers on the mountainside and the almost Caribbean blue water can't do you no wrong. Butttt, I get to excited for more, so I proceed to my next destination. I reach Allendale Reserve, where I walk the dried up portion of the bay, find a little box stuck in the mud I call my treasure chest, and enjoy a peanut-butter and jelly with gummi bears that somehow got shaken into the honey of my sandwich. not good.


5. As usual, always be on the look out and never trust any other drivers.

On my way back from Allandale Reserve I was going my merry way when I saw a van approaching the other direction. I keep to my motorcycle training taught at MSF and stay closer to the center of the road rather than the far side. It's supposedly makes you more visible, deters drivers in the other lane from drifting over in your lane, along with some other defensive driving skills. As I am just about to drive by I noticed the van slowly turning into a nearby parking lot. I quickly swerve to the left, missing the van, and notice the van in my mirrors completely stopped halfway between both lanes, he must have never seen me til the last second!

6. You may navigate though the middle of the desert without a map, but in the city, its impossible.
To get to Lyttleton, as with most of my short trips, I don't bring any maps. It makes things a little more exciting, and full of adventure. I have all day to go wherever I want, and I like when I run into places I probably never would have seen if i hadn't gotten side-tracked(not lost, side-tracked). So going out to Lyttleton was a piece of cake, head east out of the city to the view of the Port Hills, take the coastal route or tunnel, and then keep the bay on my left as I tour around. That, I can do great. I can also get back to the city limits from sight, a vague recollection of the sun and all the signs pointing to Christchurch (these are slightly better than my sun-gazing skills). But once I get to the suburbs of Christchurch from a different direction I came out of (which i always do, because I do not like back-tracking), It's impossible. It's worse than a corn maze, and I'll tell you why. Corn mazes, usually have 90 degree turns so after turning a series of turns, I can say, hmm my new direction is 0, 90, 180,270 degrees off from when i first entered. CHRISTCHURCH SUBURB ROADS DO NOT DO THIS. They have slight bends in the road, which you hardly realize, and before you now, after taking a few slight bending turns, you hardly realize you've turned around. This is my main reason why I get lost coming back to Christchurch. A typical way for me to get out of this is going to a bus stop, looking at a bus route map and then finding a familiar road name. So who needs maps?