Carole is King

Aha, it is now Monday the 11th and it has been one week since I saw Carole, and I shall now fill you in on that particular event and the rest of my weekend. I started early on saturday morning with a 6.50 am flight down to Christchurch (to be known as Chch henceforth). I took the bus from the airport to the city centre and met a lady from Paraparaumu who had come to see her friend get Ordained in the Cathedral. As we had some time to kill we went for breakfast together at Robert Harris - a venue Sally may recall from our own trip to chch, for we had a nibble there and then progressed to ballentynes where she purchased her lovely yellow top. Anyhoo. I then went and caught my shuttle to Akaroa, which departed at 10.00 am and was a lovely informative journey complete with photo ops and an educational tape on the geography of the banks peninsula (that ended with a rendition of wild theme - i got quite emotional at that point). The photo you see below shows the bays surrounding Akaroa. It is in fact the crater of an extinct volcano. Pretty fab i think you'll agree.

The town itself is on a French theme due to the French being the first people here. It's very quaint and roses abound. The hostel had a private garden which i used with great enjoyment on the 2nd day, but it was a bit noisy on the first day so i took off to a place called tree top farm i believe. It was a beautiful day prefect for wandering around the extensive gardens. There was flowers everywhere - but this is the only place i could get a photo of me, and i did want at least one in.

After my tea i went for another wander and sat on the jetty for a while looking at the distant hills, as you see here.

Sunday was a bit grey, but still warm, so i spent most of the day reading, with the occasional saunter thrown in for good measure.
Monday saw my return to chch and once i had settled into my new hostel i went for a walk in the sun to the Botanical Gardens. This is a pic taken in the rose garden.

I feel the first time we went to Chch we stayed on the wrong side of Cathedral square as I loved it this time, and saw why they call it the garden city. It's beautiful, and full of green parks. I spent a couple of hours sat on the riverbank as it snowed dandelion clocks. Bliss.

But then it was time, oh yes!! At 7 pm I caught a bus out to the Westpac Centre and saw the legend that is Carole King!! She was fantastic. She played ace songs (goes without saying really) and chatted to us like we were in her living room, hence the name of the tour i suppose (the living room tour). She had two other musicians with her, who were both brillo, and below you see them playing smackwater jack.
I can't explain how amazing the whole experience was, to hear her talk about how she writes and what her first song sounded like. She didn't have a talent for lyrics and she totally made fun of herself for it (but then she was only 13 at the time). The only song I wish she'd done that she didn't was Home Again, but I can wait till next time for that. She did an ace medley, and surprised me once more with how many fab songs she has penned (eg. one fine day, something tells me i'm into something good, and so many others).
As an encore she did You Make me Feel Like a Natural Woman, and You've Got A Friend. I shed some tears to that one. The final song was one that i won't forget for a while - The Locomotion - not just because she was boogeying away with the rest of us, but because she got some of her backstage crew to dress in sheep costumes and come out to dance. It was so funny. So yes a good time was had, and I can't wait to both see Carole once more, and to head back down to South Island in February avec Ma and Pa.

Thank you, and goodnight. xxxxxx