Christchurch on the Up and Up.

We spent the night in Kaiapoi just down the road from the New World Supermarket in the derelict earthquake area which is soon to become a 2 hectare dog walking area beside the river.

I went looking to get a cover made for the unicycle to keep the harsh Central Otago sun off the tyre, however businesses in town are very busy, saying next week we can do it... so I found this solution  

..which is closed cell foam door protector purchased from Para Rubber.

This is the Halswell Menz Shed. A most impressive place, just to mention the drive in, through lovely gardens out at the St John of God in Aidanfield.

Chatting to the guys at smoko I found they were only open because they had been out demolishing a kitchen somewhere, so they can reinstall it at the shed for their kitchen. These guys are enterprising,,, they did up a motorhome which they rent out to fellow sheddies. They recently sold it and are going to buy another. They also have a ladies night where the ladies pay $5 per night. 

Most of their machinery is donated and or passed onto other sheds. I spoke to Des and Malcolm among others, and managed to do a few more jobs on the bus despite excessive chatting.

A very tidy shed with signage around on various machines stating the main points to be aware of for safety and proper use.

 I some how bent the bracket on the leg on the bike rack at the back, which attracted quite bit of banter from the guys. But that was soon flattened and brought back to shape in the engineering shed

 We parked up in North New Brighton near the Bottle Creek mountain bike park which also attracts a lot of dog walkers

A nice day ... and my thoughts turn to riding my unicycle.

It's amazing how delicate the balance is to get on it...if I don't ride it for a week or so, it'll take me 3-4 attempts just to get on it and stay on it.....

 However it's great entertainment for the watchers...

waiting for disasters.

Safety first....between the flags.

Trips into the city reveal how Chch is coming back into its own, below is the new bus depot

 Outside a new skyline is emerging in the central city. 

 Strange visitors from the north invade the sidewalks!

The tourist side of Chch is definitely moving back to happier times, 

with the trams getting good tourist patronage. 

All the way from Invercargill???

 The day we viewed the cathedral they were starting to remove the iron girders which held up and supported the entrance of the cathedral, which has looked a sad and sorry state for such long time with the workmen going up to assess the damage and start to plan its rebuilding.

This shot is taken from the new Christchurch City Library which borders the north side of the Square.

It is ultra modern, with many (for a library) great services and features. 

 Four floors of books, computers, magazines, newspapers common to libraries, but this one has a Creative Hub on the 4th floor featuring music recording studios, art programmes, 3D printers and fabric printing, also sewing machines available. All with back up help in the form of free videos and how to and regular classes on such subjects as below.

Teenagers dancing along to the big screen fitness exercise programme, have all come along way from the studious, be quiet librarys of my childhood (and even adulthood)

 The creative hub is a super place to learn and play and to be creative... wish I was young again!

A  3D printer .... if only I knew how to work it!

My niece lives in Christchurch and has three children, two of which have gone or are going to a preschool school for 2-5 year olds. I asked if I could perform for them and below are the results.

This was my first unpacking of my travelling show, so it took some time with an attentive audience of under 5's at first in complete silence, but that soon opened up when I started chatting to them!

All in all a very successful and satisfying first showing, 

with many learnings to integrate into future shows.

With Christchurch under our belt we headed south towards Ashburton...and found...

You'll have to wait till the next blog.

Till then...have fun...be joyous and stay safe.

Cheers

Jimu & Christine

New Year, New Bus, New Tour!

Whoop dee do we're off again and on tour!
My last trip chasing the Ukulele Masters Paul Jonson and Manitoba Hal took me down to Hokitika where I happened to spot a Bus for sale in the Supermarket carpark.

The owners Graeme & Diane were on a 6 week tour of the South Island and contacted me when they returned. Long story short, we bought it as it fitted all our upgrade list of what we would like!

Here are a few quick photos to show our new Bus. We will be selling the old bus once we get back from touring, so if you know of anyone who wants our lovely, colourful old bus the Toyota Coaster, do let us know!

 

Our new bus is a 1990 Mitsubishi Rosa Custom, very well looked after by the previous owner who  imported it from Japan in 1999 and did the conversion, and since that time has only put on another 33,000kms

It has a swing out bike rack, giving excellent access to the very large boot which goes under the north/south bed. We now have a lot of extra space, which I've used for my clowning props and the new Shadow Puppet Show.

The old and the new. The new one looks much bigger, in reality it's only 700mm longer but quite a bit taller.

But before we could hit the road, I changed over some of the older bus's better features.

The solar panels and their controller had much newer and better solar. We also installed the inverter, which gives us the ability to charge up all our devices and also run a Bullet juicer with 240 volts.

Once again I helped with the big bubbles at the Nelson Lantern Parade and also had my first showing of the new shadow puppet performance called "Piwi the Piwakawaka".

Here I am all set up ready to go...later in the night I had continuous shows as 3300 Lantern festival people went home down the track past me, from the top of the centre of New Zealand going home!

So now all this kit is packed in the bus ready to perform wherever and whenever as we tour around the South Island. I have to thank my brother-in-law Jim who happened to be visiting us and kept me focused and together we got everything ready to go on the road.

I have been getting some clowning/performing/juggling advice and help from Paul Klaassen, a seasoned juggler, busker and classy theatrical circusy type of performer.

His input has been invaluable.

We had friends come to house sit in early Jan so we timed our trip to start then, however with the new bus set up etc we needed to spent some time in Richmond getting familiar to the new motorhome and finishing our set up ready for touring. Christine had spotted Richmond's Jubilee park as a possible park up which proved to be really good.

Here is our park up at Jubilee park...

.... and the view. I used to play football (soccer) here nearly 40 years ago and even went out onto the field to do some yoga ...reflecting on the fact that 4 of the guys from that Championship team back in the late 70's are no longer with us! 

After a few days and with much help from Dave Meier (thanks Mate) regarding solar power issues we were finally heading out to start our next 3 month south island tour ... new bus and all!

An invite for Dave to check out the solar workings and to park up the night at his home (and workshop) saw me out walking early morning in Brightwater and here are some photos.

Oh it's such joy to be able to wander and see things and take photos.

A 1920 Mail box.

I think this was the old Post Office? But not now! 

Hmm collecting your mail from a pigs behind?

What a lovely old church called St Paul's.

Moss notifies that the air is very fresh and clean in Brighwater.

Blacksmith's skills ... from another time and space. 

Nature's beauty simply astounds me!

 Off we headed, bound for Murchison to the NZMCA park behind Dust & Rust, the antique and general curiosity shop.

It's not every day you see a stretch Volkswagen Beetle near an old horse gig and an old sack barrow anywhere, .... let alone in Murchison.

However we recovered down at the River Cafe ...oh yum!

Next blog will be Christchurch, a performance at the Hoon hay preschool and various Menz Shed visits...plus an update on how Christchurch is looking these days (up I reckon).

Till then stay safe and be creative ... your good health depends on it ... I reckon.

Cheers Jimu & Christine.