I’ve been back at work for two weeks and it has been the
Longest. Two. Weeks. Ever. After an amazing few weeks off, I did not look
forward to returning to the office last Monday. This year for Christmas was
spent much differently than last (last year we went on a North Island road trip
with our good friend Chris from Canada) but definitely no less fun.
I unfortunately had to work until midday Christmas Eve. We
were graciously invited to spend Christmas Day with Kevin’s handsome colleague
Bunny and his delightful family in Days Bay, Eastbourne. The Mossmans were so welcoming
in adopting us as orphans for a delicious Christmas lunch followed by wharf
jumps into the ocean (I love Christmas in summertime!). Christmas Day ended up
being an absolute stunner amidst the pretty average weather we had been seeing.
Bunny, Kevin, & I on Christmas Day
Kevin and I then whisked back home to Skype both our
families, say our Merry Christmases, and then drove over to have traditional
North American Christmas dinner with another colleague of Kevin’s and our good
friends Jason and Kellie. To sum up our Christmas Day 2013, I can say we had
amazing company and way too much food!
On Boxing Day, we loaded up Sophia and drove to Daisy Bank
Farm in Martinborough to help set up La De Da, a music festival that Bunny’s
brother puts on each year. The crew consisted of about 15-20 friends and
friends of friends, most of who have worked at the festival each year. We spent
four days building fences, scrimming (a word that was not previously in my
vocabulary), building a cafe, setting up signs, driving quads (my first time!),
etcetera, etcetera. I discovered that manual labour is hard. And that I would
make a terrible construction worker.
View of La De Da from the top of the hill.
Papa Sam working hard behind the scenes.
Looking good boys!
Our entire stay was catered by the head chef at Pravda and we got to experience the whole “backstage” experience during the festival. Kevin and I have been to a ton of festivals but this was our first time behind-the-scenes. We worked in the mornings of the 30th (directing traffic) and 31st (cleaning out A$AP Rocky’s dressing room—yup, you heard that right), but were able to enjoy the afternoons and evenings of the festival. The highlights for me were definitely Flume, Opiuo, and Dead Prez (dream come true!).
Crew camping - home sweet home!
I'm not allowed to say who this is playing on a quad before going on stage. Take a wild guess.
Panoramic view of La De Da from crew camping.
We spent the 1st and 2nd January taking
down everything we put up. This process is much
quicker. We had a giant bonfire and burned a bunch of old materials, and sorted
out all the confiscated liquor that people tried to sneak into the festival (this
probably equated to over a tonne of unopened alcohol). We headed home in the
evening of the 2nd and I had never been so happy to see my own bed!
The weather in Wellington for the last three days of our holidays was awful, so
I felt zero guilt about spending most of that time in bed catching up on my
guilty-pleasure TV series (I won’t confess which ones).
Tonight, we head off to Taumarunui with 30 friends for
a three-day canoe trip down the Wanganui river for Wellington Anniversary long
weekend! Crossing my fingers for sunshine!