Tag Archives: All day bay

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Oamaru

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The week after Ashburton we tootled down to a spot by the Waitaki river, we spent Wednesday and Thursday practicing the shows, doing schoolwork, and the men of the family fishing and failing (again). On the Thursday afternoon we sped off to Oamaru, and parked on the grounds for set up tomorrow. We cooked up our second gypsy bakers, a carrot cake, everyone said it was the best Lettie and I had ever baked!

Oamaru is one of my fav towns, I love the Victorian precinct with all its old Oamaru stone building’s covered with ornate carvings. I love the quaint little shops, like the Slightly foxed bookshop, and Tiger Lily antique clothing store, Harbor St collective café with its indoor playground and yummy cakes.

Every year in Oamaru on the Saturday night, all the gypsies walk to the steampunk HQ and train. Where we use our $2 coins to fire up the train and make it spout fire and steam!

On top of the fiery train!

After the train we all quietly went to check out the penguin colony right next to the fair. Penguins are hilarious and adorable at the same time! Out of the water, their natural habitat, they clumsily hop from rock to rock to their little wooden homes to feed their chicks.

🤣

The weekend was cold windy and sunny all at once, the freezing wind pierced through our many layers of clothing, and froze us to the bone. Nevertheless we still got large and generous crowds for the shows!

Sophia Leon de la Barra a wonderful lady who watched our shows, offered us free penny farthing lessons! We took up the kind offer and the next morning we were out in the street with Sophia, our penny farthings and a nervous/excited feeling in the pit of our stomachs. Sophia was a great teacher, so we soon we got the hang of it and were pedalling around the carpark. It feels very strange and quite different to a normal bicycle, but once you get used to it you feel quite posh!

The week after Oamaru we headed over to All day bay, where we hung out with the other gypsy kids, and did schoolwork (the boys a bit too reluctantly). Lettie and I took some glorious beach pic’s!

Then we left for Trotters gorge. Trotters gorge is a beautiful nature reserve, dominated by large limestone cliffs and native bush. The last time we went there was two years ago, I was 12 and the boys were 5! We climbed to the top of the hill, and were greeted by a spectacular view of the sea and surrounding countryside. Last time Mum and I ran ahead and hid in a cave to scare Dad and the boys, but when they arrived it was us that got the fright. We turned our torch on, straight above us was heaps of Weta! We screamed and ran out of the cave, consequentially terrifying the the boys😂. This time there was no shortage in weta either, I get so squeamish around bugs!

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Love Dylan Daisy❤

Uncategorized

Oamaru

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I’m sick sick sick! I hate being sick especially with a nasty cough. It’s Friday, its setup and we are being buffeted by strange weather from all sides, from hail to rain to wind and even sunshine. Perfect whackey weather for an interview with Donna Demente in her grain-store gallery. It was like looking into another world.

Yet another reason to ban plastic bags!(Did you watch the video?)

She a master mask maker.

The weekend was a windy one and I became more sick than ever! I had endured that cough for five weeks but never as bad as it was that weekend. Saturday I was too sick for shows and had to stay inside in bed. No fun at all! I did get to go out that night for a gypsy romp to the steam punk train. The train is a retired locomotive jacked up on some rocks as if about to take off. When you slide two dollars into the slot the train shoots out jets of “steam” (dry ice) and fire from the chimney. All us gypsy kids go sit up on the roof of the train while the gypsies slide coin after coin into the slot. It was rather entertaining! Afterwards we visited the Little blue penguins. They are sooooo adorable! Sunday I was still too sick for our circus but I managed to perform the magic show. That night we packed up and left for All day bay. What a weekend!

It was Monday and I had a bad case of Mondayitis. As we all know Monday is our grumpy day. After some school work many of the Gypsies arrived. All day bay is a Gypsy favorite, so with all the Gypsy kids here we set about building our fort. That night we had a relaxing fire on the beach. The next day followed almost exactly the same; schoolwork, fun, and relaxing on the beach.

Our tattered wicker laundry basket goes up.

Wednesday saw us practicing our shows, doing school work and a mad dash for the Evansdale cheese factory before it closed. We feasted on smoked Brie and venison salami. We met up with Simone, Tiwai and Lettie. I traveled the rest of the way to Dunedin with them.

Thursday morning mum and I got up very early and drove into central city to do a radio interview with the Breeze radio station. We were nervous and excited! The interview went very well and we were able to expound on the awesomeness of the Extravaganza.

With Damian from The Breeze FM.

That afternoon we relocated to St kilda by the beach. Dads phobia of sand got a little out of hand! After a big clean up we all hopped in the car and spent the rest of the day at the settlers museum. Looking at the old [phones and technology was almost alien. Technology has advanced so much over the years.

My favorite part was dressing up in an old fashioned hoop dress. It made me realize how hard it would have been to get around the place especially with all that mud in the old days! Life for the early settlers looked challenging and exciting with all the big technological advancements happening.

Friday morning we drove to the Oval for setup. Another varied fun week. Bye!