Maz NZ and Oz

For those of you who don't already know - I have shunned Christmas on Bondi Beach to return to New Zealand for Christmas with Andrew and his family in Nelson. It's a lot more like home here in Christchurch today - freezing cold (thanks to a Southerly wind coming up from the Antarctic) and pouring rain. But we're hitting the road to Nelson (which is at the top of the South Island and is sheltered from the Southerly by all those mountains) in an hour or two, so we hope to encounter better weather there. Mind you - this Christchurch weather feels a lot more like Christmas than Sydney did... so it's not necessarily a bad thing :)

Happy Christmas to you all and if you want to text me - I'll be using my NZ number until the 30th of Dec when I return to Sydney to catch the New Year's fireworks at the harbour.

Nollaig Shona agus Athbhliain faoi Mhaise Daoibh go leir :)

St Patrick's Day was a little late this year... U2 finally touched down in Auckland on the 24th of November a few months later than originally planned. Most of you will be aware that the band were supposed to be playing Auckland on the 17th of March, but the last few dates of their vertigo tour were postponed early this year. I hopped in a plane from Sydney after work on the 23rd of November and flew to Auckland. Andrew drove up from Hamilton to collect me and Gen met us at the airport having arrived from Wellington earlier that day. My flight was delayed a wee bit so it ended up being 2am before we got to Hamilton. I was soooooooooooooooooo excited about the concert that I couldn't sleep though, so I was a tired wee girlie the next day. Trish, Gen, Andrew and I hit the road back to Auckland the next day and arrived at the venue at about 1pm. We managed to get a parking space ridicuously close to the stadium so we asked one of the security doods if we were alright to park there and he said 'Sweet As' - so we trotted on into the grounds and into the big top where the queue of fans was being sheltered from the elements. It was really well organised - no pushing or queue skipping; everyone just settled in to wait patiently. I had the travel backgammon with me so Andrew and I played a few games. Soduko book was also very handy for passing the time as was Trish's Rubik's Cube - spent aaaaaaaaaages on that one so I did. A few hours in, a guy came in to talk to the people waiting and told us that since we were among the first 1,500 people there, we were all definitely going to be in the 'Ellipse' (That's Pit to most Irish people). He was also there to warn us of the evils of running into the stadium. He said that if anyone was caught running towards the pit (sorry, 'Ellipse') they would be taken aside and made to watch the pit fill up with everyone else before they would be let back into the stadium. Sobering words indeed. When the time came, the security crew let about twenty people in at a time and everyone walked to the pit (with the guy's warning about running ringing in their ears). We sauntered into the pit when our turn came and staked our claim on a spot between the two catwalks which came out of the left and right of the stage.

As the stadium started to fill up, Andrew got in touch with his brother, John, who was also at the concert. He and Kath were sitting up in the stands and we were waving happily at each other – doesn’t make too much to entertain me, you know ;). Paul and his mate Gordon had arrived early in the evening so were out with the rest of the masses standing on the pitch. They still managed to get a good view so that was great – we didn’t feel too bad about being close enough to count the stitches in Edge’s Beanie. The support act, Kanye West (or some such spelling) came on at about eight o’clock to the bemusement of most of the crowd. To be fair, he’s not bad and it was a good act – but definitely not in the same genre as U2 and certainly not what the crowd had each paid nearly $100 to see. Still though – it meant that things were getting going so it was all very exciting.

The U2 show itself was absolutely amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing! We were sooooooo close to Bono and the boys – especially when they came out on the catwalks (as you’ll see in the pictures below). The showers which had been blowing through all day stopped out of respect for the band (well that’s my theory anyway). The light show was phenomenal, the music incredible and the whole show was just mind-blowing. After two encores (or was it three? I think only two maybe….) we popped off to buy some t-shirts and then left the stadium to find that Trish’s car wasn’t where she’d parked it. (Remember the security guards from earlier in the day? You knew we shouldn’t have trusted them, didn’t you?) So we then had to find someone who could tell us where the car had been taken to. The first policeman we met was unable to help us, but then we went back up to the stadium (taking a wee moment along the way to pity the poor souls queuing up at the gates with their sleeping bags and flasks of tea for the Saturday night show) we found a very helpful policeman who told us exactly where to go to find our car. Luckily we had Andrew with us who knew where we had to go, so off we set for the train station to make our way to the tow-yard. This however, proved easier said than done, as a couple of thhousand concert-goers were also waiting outside the train station. We gave up on that as a bad job and managed to get a taxi to the tow-yard where we met a number of other disgruntled U2 fans who had also been caught out by the sneaky Council. Anyhoo – we were on the road after paying a wee after-hours release fee and home in bed in Hamilton for 3am. I had no trouble sleeping was out like a light once my head touched the pillow - dreaming that it was me that Bono took up on stage.... sigh!

What a fantastic night!!