Sunset & St Peters Hall

Saturday just gone we took a break from packing and headed to the Kapiti Coast. Local songstress Jess Chambers was performing at St Peters Hall in Paekakariki and I decided we should attend, I’ve been meaning to catch Jess play for a long time but the dates just haven’t worked out to date.

We drove over the Haywards and took a short diversion past our soon to be home (rental, we move in later this week) in Camborne. Then it was up state highway one before turning off and arriving at Paekakariki. My plan was to catch the sunset and then find something to eat and the first part came together nicely, the sun setting over the ocean with some nice colour and some interesting clouds in the sky.

Photo by Brendon & Keryn

Photo by Brendon & Keryn

Once done on the beach it was back into the township to find something to eat. We had planned to use a voucher from our Entertainment Book at the Paekakariki Cafe but discovered the opening hours on the voucher disagreed with the actual opening hours, the place was shut for the day. We had a look at the pub across the road but this didn’t suit (I was grumpy, Keryn was non-committal, it didn’t work out). After deliberation (i.e. random driving) we eventually headed up the coast to Paraparaumu and had pleasant pizza at the Mediterranean Food Warehouse.

Back to Paekak and we parked up near the Hall and waited in the warmth of the car. We saw other people entering the Hall so went in ourselves. St Peters Hall is next to the Church from where it gets its name and is a fairly traditional small town hall in that its of wooden construction, has a large open space inside and a stage at one end. The Hall also contains the local library in a partitioned section at the front, making good use of the space available. We paid for our tickets with a comment on the distance we had travelled “All the way from the Hutt, wow!” and then found a seat. There were short trellis tables set up with a mixture of chairs arranged around them. We sat near the back right and watched as the crowd grew to obviously larger than expected size. More chairs were squeezed in and when there was no more room a rolled up carpet was taken to the front and laid out so people didn’t have to sit on the bare wood of the floor. There were tea lights on the table and it was BYO, all very cosy and comfortable.

The opening act was a guy named Fraser Ross and he played inoffensive songs with weird little twists, the humour of his on-stage antics getting more attention than the music. He was entertaining, but I can’t remember much of the songs.

Photo by Brendon & Keryn

After Fraser was done Jess Chambers and Peter Hill were straight on to the stage. We were told that the PA system was borrowed from the Wellington Ukulele Orchestra and had been set up by Jess and Peter themselves. There was an awkward moment when they found out the left hand speaker wasn’t working but no one seemed to mind that much, the hall intimate enough that one speaker did the trick.

Photo by Brendon & Keryn

Jess sang well, playing acoustic guitar while Peter filled out the sound with his electric guitar on some songs, mandolin on others. The country-folk vibe was perfect for a Saturday evening and the effect was only mildly spoilt by one lady who insisted on talking throughout the night. Not owning any Jess Chambers songs (other than some Fly My Pretties stuff) I was surprised at how many of the tracks I did recognise. The set was closed with the ARPA Silver Scroll nominated track Island which is a favourite of mine (which I do now own thanks to a quick itunes download). We had a good time and it was nice to feel like a local, if only for one evening.

Photo by Brendon & Keryn