Christchurch & Tenacious D!!

Landing in New Zealand we found ourselves Sandhurst Hostel on Gloucester Street - both the hostel and the street name being very homely! A wee tram runs around Christchurch...even through a small shopping centre and the whole central area looks rather British. They even managed to construct some great big pointless blue sculpture infront of the Cathedral in honour of the Millenium...so just like home.

Martin, Nicky and I rode the gondola up to the top of the mountainside for some impressive views over the now-flooded cone of an extinct volcano which is now used as a harbour.

Driving down into it took us to a cheese factory to taste a small amount of luxury cheese...rather than the budget stuff we've been on for weeks, and then on to a random little French town. Apparently they beat the British to the spot by a matter of a couple of days. Luckily for the town though the only French thing that really remains are the street names!

Our final night in Christchurch was something pretty special...Tenacious D were playing at the Guildhall and unbelievably there were still tickets left when we went on the offchance that morning to buy them!

So yeh...it kicked-off with some random guy doing something akin to a one-man-band...guitar in hand, bass drum on the floor and either singing or doing extreme guitar solos on a kazoo or alternatively just working the harmonica.

And just as he was packing up and we were thinking that he was a slightly strange warmup act, next up was two kids aged about ten, one on a fullsize guitar which looked poised to overbalance him at any moment, and another on a 3-piece drumset. In fairness to them they were awesome considering they were singing classics like dock at the bay, managing to keep time, sing mostly in tune and contend with 2000+ semi-drunk over-enthusiastic spectators!

Forget "We Will Rock You", or "Jesus Christ Superstar" - Tenacious D concerts are officially the most awesome rock operas! It is the only gig I've gone to where the whole thing actually is based around some crazy story about electrocuting yourself with an electric guitar built from cardboard and extension lead (surprise) and ending up in hell, grooving with the Antichrist, the Devil himself and Charlie Chaplin...there because he's gay! hahaha

Men pay attention:


Tribute (to the greatest song in the world) was one hell of a way to end our stay in Christchurch. See now all you people we met in Aus who Joe, Martin, Nicky and I subjected to poor drunken renditions of this fabled song can now see just how great it is when performed properly!