Auckland trip (Part 2)
On the day of the Big Day Out, I spent the morning wandering town grabbing last minute items (Water, subway, hat), then headed up to catch the special buses put on. Bendy bus packed full barely made it up Queen Street, the doors got broken at the top letting on 2 people who were already wasted and after finally fixing the doors the next hour was stuck in a traffic jam from the city to Mt Smart stadium (Auckland is hopeless). On the way the bendy bus I was in had a drag race on the motorway with a full double decker party bus and then later everyone watched as a cop closed the other side of the motorway (No idea why).
Right where the bus dropped everyone off, there was a table set up by Kronic, it was tempting to have a look but I didn't want to ruin my day. Once in the stadium, I took time to walk everywhere to find all the different stages and such.
A view from the Speights drinking area, looking towards the orange and blue stages.
While waiting for the Deftones to come onto the orange stage, I caught much of Airbourne's show (With ear plugs. I don't know if it was the band or how the blue stage with set up, but the high pitch was hurting my ears). At one stage one of the members of the band decided he wanted to climb. And climb he did.
Except when he tried to play from up there, he found he was too far away from the stage and the sound system was only picking up every second note. So he climbed down a level and them proceeded to play a good 15 metres above the crowd.
Deftones were alright and the crowd didn't get too crushy. After the Deftones I headed off to the signing area, because Rammstein were due to start signing :D. Stood in the que for about an hour, worried the whole time that I'd miss out...well worried until I go to the metal barrier areas. But the closer I got, the more German I forgot (I could only remember 'I hate' by the time I got to the front) and then my English knowledge started to slip away too (This happens in fangirling moments). But I managed to remember my manners, so in the end all I could get out to each band member was along the lines of 'thank you so much' with a few 'hi's thrown in too. What was cool though is as I was making my way, heading right along the table, I heard a comment come from the left end say 'These New Zealanders are so polite' ♥
So after fangirling, I went to find some dinner...and decided on pizza.
Yes, I went to Hell for dinner :D
But while waiting in the que, I saw a weird performance on a nearby stage.
That guy does have his head in a giant balloon. He got his whole body in there and danced in it to different music. Then he stood up in to, put a rubber glove over his head and blew it up with his nose till it popped. I will never see anything like that again. (I believe it was a performance by 'The Balloonatic')
After dinner, I went to catch Shihad (It started to pour down too :( )and got a bit of Pacifier on video. It's good to see so many in the crowd getting in to it. After the song the comment was made about how the band could hear the crowd over their own systems.
Click to viewAfter Shihad, I had an hour till Rammstein come on and when they did it went mad. The stands were full of people and the grass area was packed and turned into a giant mosh pit of sorts. So I spent much of Rammstein jumping around, which was pretty fun (Also meant the rain didn't hit the crowd, cause the crowd was so hot). Did managed to get one decent photo.
With all the jumpping around I was doing, I have no idea how I got this photo.
I decided not to bother staying around for Tool, there was no way they could match Rammstein. So I headed back to town and the next day I headed home. On the way to the airport, I got a pic of a volcanic cone.
Mangere Domain, erupted ~18,000yr ago.
The flight home was rather bumpy, seat belt sign on the whole time and once we got under the clouds near Wellington it got worse. It was a good old windy, wobbling Wellington landing :D (It's a good way to keep the Aucklanders out of the city). I was home :D