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.