Hi! So this blog is a summary of the start of the season, Blenheim, Nelson, Christchurch & Ashburton. It has been crazy busy, but super fun!
Our first fair was in Blenheim. It was soooooo great to see my Gypsy family again! After lots of hugging and “Wow you’ve grown so much!” & “Dammit your taller than me!” & “How was your winter?” we setup the fair. Sadly as it was still level 2, we could not perform our shows yet to the public. So we performed them on Friday to the gypsy’s instead. They loved them!
The rules of level two state, that any performance or entertainment where people sit or stand close together for any period of time, has to be less then 100 people. But if it’s a market where people are walking and moving around, then the coronavirus “won’t spread”. Obviously its ridiculous, but that’s the rules unfortunately.
We spent that week at Kina beach, chilling and practicing our shows for the weekend. We love Kina, the sound of the sea lapping against the stony beach, the way that at night you can see all the way across the bay to Nelson, the rope swing over the muddy stream that is the confluence of kids.
Bess the lovely journalist and Martin the friendly Photographer came on Tuesday, to interview us for an Ashton family article, about our lives on the road. It comes out in November, so I shall put the link on Gypsygirl then.
Thankfully we went down to level one for the Nelson fair, so we were able to preform our shows to all our friends from Motueka. The new shows went smoothly…. just kidding! We were quite overwhelmed as we hadn’t preformed to large audiences for 6 months, we forgot props and made mistakes, but the audience still loved it😅. By the end of the day I was a wreck! Life on the fair is intense, but we love it!
In the week after the Nelson fair, us and some of the other gypsies headed for the Waima river mouth sand dunes. When we got there the fist thing we did was get stuck. Dad had to spend three hours (!!!) jacking the truck up, and placing heavy blocks of wood underneath, where would we be without you daddy bear! We stayed for one night/two days then carried on to bike the Haumuri bluff walk.
As you will see in the video it’s an idyllic ride along the sea, the only down side was that the path was covered with large stones, that made the biking part itself rather unenjoyable! Nevertheless I loved the view, and the seals! We spent all of the next day at Hanmer springs soaking in the hot pools. Unfortunately a change in the timing of our tour, meant that we arrived in the school holidays, when Hanmer was at its busiest! Aggghhh! Us gypos hate waiting in queues! So we had to satisfy ourselves with just soaking, no waiting in a queue of impatient shivering kids for twenty freezing minutes for the hydro slides, NO thank you!!!
Christchurch fair was fun, busy and super hot! That weekend we got into the swing of things again, we preformed the shows beautifully😁. Dad and I went out on Saturday with Lime scooters, for our annual father daughter date at Sweet Soul Patisserie, YUMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!
For the week in-between Chch and Ashburton we decided to head over the hill to Akaroa. Akaroa is a small town on the Banks Peninsula, it is known for its French heritage, so there is the most delish French bakery. I could eat a thousand almond croissants🥐🥖🥐🥖🥐🥖🥐🥖😍!!!! By chance my godmother Sunny sky and her daughter Indigo were on a road trip together and had come over to Akaroa, we spent the week with them exploring the bay.
The first thing we did was walk through town, check out the museum and have lunch (for me an almond croissant & a nutella crêpe😁) then we went up the road to the Giants house. The Giants house is a historic Akaroa house full of beautiful artworks, terraced gardens with stunning sculptures, mosaics and ceramics, all made by artist Josie Martin. Josie brought the house 23 years ago. She loves gardening and was digging in the garden 20 years ago when she found shards of lovely old china, buried because there was no rubbish collection in those early days. She saved it up and decided to try mosaicing the front step, then she did the conservatory, then the pathway, then turned the whole garden into a wonderful sculptural installation!
We have a friend in Akaroa called Pip, Mum and her used to work together at Hackett bungy in Queenstown, twenty years ago! The last time we saw her I was 7 and the boys were 6 moths old. As it so happens she has a job at the Black Cat Dolphin Cruises, and as it so happened we got on free! We’ve got friends in high places😁.
The tour was stunning! We saw five Hectors dolphins, which was unusual as they normally travel in groups of two or even one, only occasionally do they join forces with others. Like always Dallas puked, which left him with a large appetite for the fish and chips afterwards. There’s nothing like boating then eating seafood! Thanks Pip for the free cruise!!
Hector’s dolphin is the smallest dolphin species. They are known for their rounded dorsal fin, in the tour guides words “Imagine Micky Mouse’s ears on a dolphin”
Ashburton fair was quite cold and not too busy, but our shows were the best we’ve done yet!
I hope you enjoyed this post from Blenheim to Ashburton. Until next time😘!
Love Dylan Daisy❤