November: Gypsies, Taiko, Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit and CS Adventures [Part 1]

I went with the raggle taggle gypsies oh.

And went and went. In fact, the past month has been very influenced by the Gyspy Fair. I did end up catching a ride with Karlos along the windy road from Napier to Gisborne, through sun and sleet and hail (I thought I was missing out on winter!), stopping along the way to collect pine cones for woodstove fuel and camping up overnight on a little beach islet, jamming late into the night and being rocked to sleep on the couch shelf by the wind broadsiding the caravan. We met back up with the rest of the fair folk the next day in Gisborne, and after walking around on my own for the afternoon, helped my new friends set up their booths (it all felt very familiar and comfortable from my years of growing up around the craft fair circuit) and spent the evening huddling in various people's housetrucks, hiding from the bitter wind before heading off to bed down in the vardo stage (closed up for the night for me to sleep in... don't worry, I wasn't sleeping out in the open on the stage) because apparently if I stayed in Karlos' caravan around the other fair folk, "people would talk." I guess there are upsides and downsides to living in such a small nomadic community.

In the morning I caught a ride from the fair grounds to the bus station with a matronly Maori woman who told me atleast five times that she'd just had to pull over because she saw me walking and kept thinking, 'she's gonna fall over with all that luggage,' then caught the bus to Hamilton. On the way I texted Woody to wish him Happy Halloween and to find out where his travels had brought him, and when he replied that he was hitching to Hamilton--what were the odds?!--we decided to meet up. He met me at the bus station, walked to the backpackers to drop luggage, went out in search of a cup of coffee to catch up over, stopped by the bus station to see when the local bus went out to Waikato University where I was to meet folks from Wai-Taiko to get a ride to the taiko show outside of town, found the last bus that would get me there in time was leaving in one minute, so both jumped on it. We had a beautiful evening with Wai-Taiko, filled with drumming, a GIANT bonfire, some cool poi and staff spinning and a mass release of paper lanterns floating up to the sky, little specks of glowing orange amidst the country-bright stars and nearly full moon. It was incredibly beautiful, and I promise to post pictures. The next two days we played back through The Foureigners repertoire, did some busking (made enough for one coffee!) and recorded a video of 'The Rock Song' for our youtube channel on the statue of Riff Raff (the writer of Rocky Horror apparently worked at a barbershop in an old cinema in Hamilton that showed a lot of B grade scifi flicks to which he credits a lot of his inspiration; they've erected the statue on the site where the cinema used to stand). You can check out the song here:

Another important event that shaped the last month was that for the first time I can remember, I remembered Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit. For those of you not familiar, this is a tradition wherein on the first of each month, if the first thing out of your mouth is the phrase "rabbit rabbit rabbit" you are supposed to have good luck for the rest of the month. There are various other rules that people subscribe to (have to have gone to bed before midnight, have to have it be the first thing you think, have to do a summersault to the end of your bed before saying it, etc., etc.--you can read about some of them in One Page Production's book, 'Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit'), and although I made the mistake of saying Rabbits instead of Rabbit, I have had an incredibly wonderful month, and I thank my good fortune at least in part to my first successful Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit.

From Hamilton, I travelled down the west coast of the North Island with a CSer named Reade and his station wagon Hobbes. He'd posted to the Ride Share NZ group about going to Northland the week I went back to Napier, and although I couldn't do that journey, after looking at his profile and discovering that he too was travelling with a mandolin and poi, we decided we should go on an adventure together after he got back and I was closer to him. We had a lovely week camping at sites from his 'NZ Frenzy' book for cool places on the North Island off the beaten tourist track and some along it, such as the hot water beach at Kawhia (at low tide you can dig yourself a pit in a particular part of the beach and soak in the sulphorous hot water that bubbles up), The Three Sisters and all the cool caves at Tongaporutu (met a man who lived in one of the caves while on whitebaiting on holiday, waded through a river up to our armpits holding cameras and beers above our heads up towards the rainbow that arched above us, and after dark watched the fireworks the locals set off for Guy Fawkes Day), hiked up Taranaki around North Egmont as far as we could go before the snow cap required proper gear (and camping in the carpark woke up in time to watch the fierce stars fade as the sunrise turned the snow pink) and around East Egmont down into the Enchanted Forest (I have never seen trees where 'festooned' was the only proper adjective to describe their mossiness), and lazed around Waverley Beach, watching the ocean crash against the natural arch. We had great conversations at night, listened to great and electic music as we drove, worked up a small mandolin repertoire, worked on poi moves (our last night he got to spin fire for the first time), and had an easy companionship that provided a lot of support while not feeling stifling. A good time to cultivate an appreciation for time on my own while still having fun travelling with someone and spending a fair amount of time together...and I got to see all these beautiful places I never would have reached if I were just travelling from town to town by bus! Yay for CS group "Travel Companions For Exploring New Zealand!"

To be continued...