For a small town in a small country, New Plymouth seems to have some big acts come through. Paul Simon and Sting were here earlier this year, and the TSB Bowl of Brooklands (our big "arena," if you will) has previously hosted Fleetwood Mac, REM, Jack Johnson, Santana, and some others. In that same tradition, this past Friday through Sunday was WOMAD weekend (WOMAD = World of Music, Arts and Dance): an internationally established festival to celebrate, you guessed it, world music, arts, and dance. Initially co-founded by Peter Gabriel in the early 80s, there have been more than 160 festivals in (deep breath): Abu Dhabi, Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Sardinia, Sicily, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, UK, and the USA. WOMAD has been coming to New Plymouth for the past 10 years, and it's pretty obvious everyone looks forward to it months in advance (there were several BIG colorful signs at the airport, in Auckland, when we arrived in January).

Your 22,000 closest friends

Maybe it was the heat, or maybe I'm just too old for music festivals, but I felt a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing. Six stages with 31 different bands playing over three days, intermingled with different kiosks of world cuisine, a kids zone, roving women on stilts dressed like peacocks, vendors of various flags and banners, LOTS of alcohol, neon lights, people with wreaths in their hair, etc. Regardless, we sunscreened everyone and had a go.

Music Festival? Sounds good, just let me finish lunch.


Did we pack any snacks?

And a Mango Smoothie for second-lunch dessert

In all seriousness, the music was phenomenal. There were a few big acts (Rufus Wainwright and Sinead O'Connor), but the real treats were some of the lesser-knowns. Here's the full line-up:

http://www.womad.co.nz/line-up

And here are some favorites (thanks YouTube):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8nyjsDj-Is#t=11

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jBAJs3otcY

Not to mention, I got to spend the day with this princess:

Mom, I'm a beautiful butterfly!

Overall, I'm glad we went and can check it off the Must-Do-In-Taranaki List.

Speaking of other must-dos, Pat and I have been pretty busy carting the kids around the North Island in an attempt to see all the local sites before heading further abroad. (Our first trip to the South Island is in April, and we're hoping to find an excuse to visit Australia, Singapore and (dare I say?) Fiji in the near future.)

It's been a pretty amazing summer here in New Plymouth (we've heard), so we seized on the first truly rainy weekend as an opportunity to head over to the (drier, hotter) Pacific Coast, specifically Hawkes Bay and Napier. Hawkes Bay has lots of cool things going on: Cape Kidnappers is home to the largest Gannet (a type of bird) colony in the world. It's also a huge producer of wine (80 wineries producing 80% of the county's Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah) and lots of yummy fruits and vegetables (all the apples and plums I've seen in supermarkets around New Plymouth come from Hawkes Bay). The beaches aren't really surfable or swimmable, but they're nice to look at.

We had a great time walking through Napier, which was completely renovated as an Art Deco Capital after a Richter-7.8 earthquake demolished the city in 1931 (still classified as New Zealand's "most tragic disaster"). As an added bonus, the ICC Cricket World Cup was being playing in Napier the weekend we arrived (not that we would ever take a toddler and preschooler to an all-day game that no one really understands anyway).


Art Deco brunch in Napier


Team Afghanistan fans with some huge wickets

I'm actually finishing this blog entry from a rental house during our NEXT (current?) mini-vacation to Taupo and Coromandel, but I think, for time's sake, we'll save that for next time.

Now for the fun-fact: Radiata pine trees grow faster in New Zealand than anywhere else on earth (warm days, cool nights, good volcanic soil, lots of rain). The Kāingaroa Forest in the central North Island is the most extensive plantation forest in the southern hemisphere (189,000 hectacres). This may seem arbitrary to most people, but our house this winter will be heated almost exclusively by a woodstove, so we're happy for the fuel!