2/25/2008 (Monday)

Deaner's Tour Diary

Auckland, NZ 2/25/08
Jesus good god. The past few days have been a major blur, more like one long day really. We woke up Friday morning in new hope and there was 5 inches of snow on the ground, this is right after I mentioned that I haven't had to shovel my driveway in 3 years. We had a 2pm flight to los angeles and then our connecting flight would take us to new zealand. Most of the flights out of philly were cancelled but luckily ours wasn't so off we went. The flight sucked, seemed to take forever, and of course this was only the start of it. Anyway, we made it to NZ, only the airline lost my red stratocaster. I'm waiting for it to be delivered to the hotel today, figures that all of our baggage made it except the one thing I can't do without. Anyway, I don't even wanna talk about that right now, it's too disturbing. New Zealand is as beautiful as I remembered it, and we were lucky enough to be treated to a full on kiwi barbecue last night on Waiheke Island courtesy of Claude's lovely wife Ila (and her extended family), who are from New Zealand. After a beautiful 30 minute ferry ride across the harbor from Auckland we arrived at the island, famous for it's vineyards and olives. We enjoyed one of the finest meals I've ever experienced on tour which included all sorts of traditional fresh Kiwi food. We had fresh mussels the size of your average cell phone, scallops which were picked fresh off the beach that afternoon, clams which were dug out that same morning, traditional "white bait" fritters, fresh trevally prepared in lime juice-ceviche style, fresh calimari over rice prepared the same way, lamb, steak, and wine from the very same small island on which we were dining. The whole evening was magical and you could just taste and feel the love in every moment. After a beautiful sunset we drank and partied into the night and then we were treated to some traditional maori songs performed by claude's neices. We caught the last ferry back to Auckland and then I finally slept for the first time in days. Words can't do the day justice, it was one of the greatest days I've ever had on tour and now we are ready to give new zealand some payback. My fuckin' guitar better show up today unscathed though or I'm gonna have a nervous breakdown. One one final note, please get in touch with me about fishing, we have plenty of time on this tour, we already have a trip planned in Wellington but none for the rest of the tour. More later...