My birth day was an event filled day. After opening a few presents we drove to Petone and spent a short time wandering the Petone Fair stalls we caught up with Sam and Jules and their friend Emma over a drink. From Petone it was north to Harcourt Park in Upper Hutt to watch some of the Grail of Chivalry events including medieval foot combat, jousting and trick horse riding. The weather was warm and we sat on a hillside eating lunch while watching people in armour engaged in mock battles on the field below. After eating we stood near the jousting field and watched richly garbed knights have too with long jousting poles and then moved into the shade as Joe Lumsden’s Rough Riders took their horses over jumps, through fire and performed stunts.
Photo by Brendon & Keryn
Photo by Brendon & Keryn
Photo by Brendon & Keryn
Photo by Brendon & Keryn
Photo by Brendon & Keryn
Photo by Brendon & Keryn
Once the entertainment was finished it was back to the car and onward to Martinborough. We had tickets to the Day on the Green concert held at Alana Estate with Crowded House headlining with support from Supergroove and Seth Hapu. We joined Lydia and Will and some of their friends on a bank overlooking the stage for the first couple of acts, eating food, having a few drinks and conversing. Will had his birthday last week and Lydia’s was the next day so it was a meeting of people getting older. We left when Supergroove finished and made our way to our seats in the posh area, I’d convinced Keryn that seeing as it was my birthday a little extravagance was called for and we had seats right at the front middle of the stage.
Photo by Brendon & Keryn
Photo by Brendon & Keryn
Photo by Brendon & Keryn
Photo by Brendon & Keryn
Photo by Brendon & Keryn
Photo by Brendon & Keryn
Photo by Brendon & Keryn
Crowded House were excellent as usual, and the crowd was very enthusiastic singing along to all the hits. We had a few extra-enthusiastic people around us and got up to dance and save our view from the encroachment of others, and it was probably better if less comfortable standing. The encore was long and involved a few song choices from the crowd. At the end the band got together on the stage before thanking the audience and then they all jumped off the stage to thank people in person, darting off to bury themselves in the crowd. It was a good night to end a good day.
Oh, and totally unrelated, one of my photos got used on AFP’s blog, that was nice 😉
hahahahaha. You are not getting old yet. I remember when the Finn brothers came as part of a band to uni in Hamilton when I was a student. Concert was amazing. Costumes were mindblowing. Split Enz. Before Crowded House were invented!!
good job on the photo in AFP’s blog!! You’re totally famous!