Tag Archives: extravaganza

Queenstown

Rain, rain, rain, sunshine, rain. sunshine, rain, rain, rain! Make up your mind Queenstown! This kind of weather did not bring the crowds. Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning were completely rained out. Sunday afternoon we managed to get in our circus and magic shows and a few people turned up with the better weather. It seems like every time the Extravaganza comes to Queenstown we get rained on but supposedly the week before was the hottest spring week Queenstown had ever had!

The silver lining was, it gave us a chance to catch up with all the people we knew. Because it was so quiet in the weekend we stayed open another day on Monday in the hope we could all make some money. But of course everyone was at school and work. Very few people came until after school. I busted out my magic show.

Monday morning I took Tiwai and Lette into town to Odyssey (I explained Odessey in my last post), it was to finally get out on our own. We had a slow get-away on Tuesday morning because Dad was taking all the Extravaganza rubbish and recycling to drop off.  Poor Kathleena, one of our beloved Gypsies(tarot reader) had lost her friend and fur baby Monty whom she had since he was a puppy.

                              R.I.P lovely boy Monty.

She was so sad I felt terrible for her. She had  a big wake for him on Monday night and was no where to be seen on Tuesday morning. She usually manages the rubbish and recycle.

Tuesday afternoon saw us back at 12 mile delta. Mum and Dad made us go on an exhausting 2 hour walk to Bobs cove, beautiful but we were too tired.

If your tired enough schist is comfortable enough.

Wednesday morning was the usual school-work followed by a mission to Queenstown to pick up our broken computer(hence the irregular posts lately) and reinstall a dance pole, neither were ready. We filled in the afternoon training at the pole studio and getting chips and Yonder , one of Queenstowns many bars. They forgot our order. Mum got very hangry! Finally at 5.30pm the pole was ready to be picked up and reinstalled. We left Queenstown at 7pm with no computer, Raha would have to bring that over on Saturday. We drove over the Crown range to Albert town campground and fell straight to sleep.

 

Thursday morning school work was followed by a very interesting subject… it involved making and baking 30 polymer clay fish, cutting 20 tringle nets(pieces of cloth) and drawing and cutting out 15 cardboard boats! The last piece of the puzzle was to draw the board. We had made our own game. A good game to teach the boys number groups. Roll the dice, pick up that number of fish. Trade 3 fish for a net, 3 nets for a boat. When all the boats are taken the one with the most boats wins.Around three o’clock we whizzed over to our friend Trudy’s house. She lives in a beautiful straw bale house with grass on the roof and amazing high ceilings. I love her house almost as much as I love her. She baked a delicious quince cake.

After a fun filled 3 hours we moved on to my friend Vanessa’s house for dinner and a play. We parked the truck outside so that night I got to have a sleepover with her. Yay!…”Tick, tock, tick, tock!” “Yawn.” “Tick, tock,tick,tock.” “Grrrrrr!” Unfortunately she has a very loud clock right above my bed, so at midnight I crept out of the bed, down the stairs to the door and…Uh oh! The door’s locked! The key is in the lock but it’s stuck! I jiggle it around a bit and finally it comes loose. I step outside and of course it just had to be pouring with rain! Into the rain I go, getting drenched(slight exaggeration) in the process. The truck’s just down the street and of course it’s locked too. I bash on the door, it takes several tries and finally Dad comes to the door. I get into bed and fall asleep before my head hits the pillow. What an exhausting night!

There was some strange weather that week. Next weekend Wanaka. Bye!

 

Invercargill

The Gypsy bakers have baked yet another delicious delicacy to sell on Saturday! Lemon cupcakes filled with lemon curd(as you can see I love lemons).

Last year in Invercargill we had two 30 degree days, sooo hot and sunny! But unfortunately this year the weekend was cold and overcast. I just hoped it wouldn’t rain on the boys birthday party on Saturday night, yet as Murphys law abides it did rain but only slightly.

The boys had a pirate themed party so the entire fair dressed up as Halloween pirates. That night we played lots of rowdy party games and ate junk food. Then it was cake time and the boys eyes nearly popped out of their heads when they saw what I had created!

I am so proud of them. After the party the silent disco started. My favorite! I danced with my head phones on until midnight. So much fun!!

Monday morning saw us tired but happy heading for Queenstown. We stopped in Winton to search for Minnie Deans grave. Minnie Dean is the only woman to have ever been hung in New Zealand. Her crime was infanticide. Times were tough and Minnie Dean started taking in unwanted children for money. Eventually she was caught, in her back yard were found three tiny bodies. Gruesome!

 

That night we arrived late and even more tired at 12 mile delta just past Queenstown. After schooling on Tuesday morning the social times began. Our first destination was the pole studio and Raha of course! Raha is Mum’s bestie. We trained and played then tumbled out for dinner at the Bombay palace.

“Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!” Today is Wednesday and it is the boys proper birthday. Presents, pancakes and a gorgeous 4 hour walk around Mt Creighton loop track (A.K.A Sam summers hut track). We find nature grounds us after every frenzied fun filled weekend.

 

\Now its trick or treat time! Oh yeah, have I said the boys birthday is on Halloween? Awesome! Guess what their birthday theme will be for the rest of their lives?

 

Dallas and Jaz looking pretty uneasy.

We invited ourselves to go trick or treating with my friend Mia. I was nervous about meeting all of her friends, but it turns out I knew all of them anyway. Lake Hayes is prone to migrant trick or treaters from all over Queenstown. The spooky decorations let the hordes of sugar crazed trick or treaters know which houses had lollies. My brothers got so scared at one particularly spooky house that they ran down the path scattering their lollies in the process! From then on they were super timid about knocking. I meanwhile was off in the neighborhood gathering a massive haul of sweets, my Mum’s worst nightmare!

Candy here we come!

Thursday greeted us with school-work. “Yay.” In the afternoon Raha took the boys and I for their birthday treat, The Odessy sensory maze. Odessy is not really a maze, it’s a series of rooms filled with a-maze-ing things you can touch, hear, smell, see and overall enjoy. My favorite room was filled with balloons far over my head. Even if a person was right in front of you , you wouldn’t be able to see them and the very loud rustling of the balloons masked any small sounds. Perfect for hide and seek!

That night we sneaked onto the grounds at warren park. We put up our awning ready for 100km/hr winds and torrential rain.

What an awesome fun-filled week! Bring on the weekend! (just not the rain or the wind!) Bye!

Dunedin

“Crunch! Crash! Kaboom!” Ok I am exaggerating a bit but there was definitely a crunch involved when Dad backed into a bus on George street, one of the busiest streets in Dunedin! When he was backing into a car park a bus nosed in right behind him. He backed up and suddenly smashed into a massive bus, crushing the button that opens the doors. But it gets worse, with the doors stuck open the bus couldn’t  drive so it was stuck in the middle of the road on George at 3 o’clock, end of school time in a university city! Intense right?! And our new car was damaged! Oh well, its just life!

A while ago I came up with an idea for a business and now it shall be brought to life! The Gypsy bakers! Lettie and I baked a scrumptious carrot cake ready to sell on Saturday. As part of my schooling I worked out the cost of making a carrot cake. Believe it or not its $20 including icing.

At 7.30 pm Friday night a T.V crew came from the Project, channel 3, to film the Extravaganza in action for 15 seconds. It seems like a short amount of time but when your doing it it feels even shorter! 30 minutes of preparation, 15 seconds live and then it was over as fast as it began.

The weekend was Labour weekend so we had a three day fair with nice unremarkable weather. All in all the weekend was better than last year. The Gypsy bakers was a stunning success, we completely sold out. As tradition goes Jonas put on a cheese fondue for all the Gypsies. Yum yum!

Don’t drop it, don’t drop it in!

Tuesday morning Dad was fixing the car so Mum the boys and I hopped into Simone’s bus and wound our way to the quaint charming port town of Port Chalmers. We ate lunch at a cute cafe with Simone, Tiwai and Lettie. It started to drizzle a bit as we climbed the steep streets to get a view of the town. We finally got to the lookout and saw the whole of Port Chalmers spread out in front of us, it was strange watching the modern barges come too and fro while the quaint old town seemed to be stuck in the past (in a good way), full of beautiful old churches and art galleries. I would fully suggest a visit! Then we got a text from Dad saying he had fixed the car and it was time to go. That night we stayed at Saint Kilda again.

In the weekend a guy came to our shop saying he had 6000 crystals and 400 bonsai trees. A bonsai tree is a form of Japanese art; they plant a seed in a small container to produce small trees that mimic the shape and scale of full size trees, creating a mini lifelike landscape.He also gave us his address and said we can visit him when ever we like, after buying over $100 dollars worth of crystals! So Wednesday we navigated the steep roads of Dunedin to the given address. But all we found was a row of rundown flats none of which could possibly hold 6000 crystals let alone 400 Bonsai trees!

After that failed venture we went Op shopping. I absolutely adore Op shopping, you never know what you might find, unfortunately it gives me a terrible headache and makes me starving!   By the time we had visited at least 10 Op shops my head was pounding and my stomach was shouting at the top of it’s lungs! (can a stomach have lungs?). Salvation came when we found the starfish, a lovely cafe on the waterfront. We ate a delicious lunch (even though it was 3 o’clock) and went back home to watch a documentary and chill out.

Thursday morning and as usual we jotted out some school work then hit the road to Invercargill and my Aunt and Uncle, Sheryll and Pete’s house.

We arrived at 4 pm and since I was due to make the boys birthday cake I set to work at once, and kept on working until midnight. I was asleep before I hit the pillow! But the cake was a masterpiece.

All in all it was a pretty unexciting but still fun week. Tomorrow setup for hopefully a sunny weekend in Invercargill. Bye!

Oamaru

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!

 

Timaru

Have you ever tried to get dry grass out of your clothes, while in the middle of a fully fledged grass fight? its hard! When we arrived at the grounds Thursday we found a field full of dry cut grass. perfect for grass fights, but a night mare in your clothes and house!! Then it rained and the grass became even more sticky! no more grass fights for us.

OK time for the weather report. You are here with Dylan Daisy Ashton, for Saturday we have sunshine, sunshine and more sunshine not to mention an extra helping of busy. As for Sunday we have sunny weather yet not quite so busy. As you can see the weekend was a blast, apart from the fact that Tiwai and Lettie aren’t coming until Oamaru!!!!!!!!!!! I know that’s only next weekend, buts it’s too long to wait!

After having a wizz on the scooters around the car-park we wizzed to the Timaru public pool. CODE BROWN! CODE BROWN! Someone had POOPED in kids pools. How embarrassing for them! Luckily there was another shallow pool so our time wasn’t wasted. “Time flies when your having fun”, unfortunately for me it went too fast, the pool was a ball!

We left Timaru going in the opposite direction of Oamaru our next fair. Back tracking to Gerildine and Peskies park-over property, a beautiful peaceful backyard garden. One of our favorites. That night we watched a documentary on a tribe in the Amazon. Very interesting.

The next day was a peaceful one full of school work, Lego, training our circus show and having a nap time. Perfect before a late night at Peter Aldous’s Observatory. It was incredible! The ratio of how big we are, how big our planet is, how big our solar system is, and how big our Universe is, is mind blowing!

 

Wednesday we finished some school work and sped (with the slight hiccup of Dallas puking) to Fairlie for the best pies in New Zealand. Those are the only pies I will eat anywhere.

Pork belly and apple sauce

Finally! Back to the blissfulness of hot pools. We had been away from hot pools for too long! Tekapo hot pools were the perfect place to start. It was luxurious on our sore bodies! We arrived back late and fell asleep.

Three hours of skin wrinkling bliss

My brothers have been acting terrible lately. They take turns at tantrums over everything, especially school work. Feeling deflated we drove to Omarau but the thought of Tiwai and Lettie arriving kept me going.

Tiwai and Lettie arrived! Finally!!! And in time for dinner with us! I am one happy girl!!!

On that high note, bye!

Ashburton

Oh no! Here they come! Nerf guns in hand, four little boys chase me around the house. What is wrong with me? I have been reduced to playing with little boys! Four of them!!!!! On Friday night we visited Dan and Nicole’s house for dinner. They are Mum and Dads friends from when they had a life before kids. They have two little boys my brothers age, they all get along very well. Unfortunately for me, it was pure torture!

We had a great weekend, sunny on Saturday and a bit cloudy on Sunday. Everything went smoothly. We watched the B.F.G on Saturday night, projected onto the stage outdoors, it was awesome!

Monday morning and yet again we forgot about Monday grumpy’s. But you can’t be grumpy for long when you go shopping for toys! It was another shopping Monday though this one was a lot more enjoyable. We went to the Warehouse for toys, Warehouse stationary for school equipment and Farmers for three new scooters! Best of all was the Book Barn in Chertsey. An entire barn full of books! Row upon row tempting me, teasing me! So when I came out I was laden with books of every kind. It was book heaven! After that we moved on to a park over property with two strangely friendly sheep. They even tried to get into our truck.

Funny, it smells like a dog, but…?

We stayed a night there then sped to Peel forest campground to school, play and relax. I even got to bake my first ever carrot cake. It was (as usual) delicious! The next morning was spent preparing for our walk. The plan was to climb “Little” Mt Peel / Huatekerekere(1311m). At one o’clock we started walking , our dogs being baby-sat by a gypsy (thanks Yani). From the car-park we looked up and saw the most massive mountain. That could not possibly be our destination!…But it was (Dad knew it, but he kept it to himself). After an agonizing FOUR hours we made it to the top! It was definitely worth it!

Home sweet home!

The view was so incredible, I can’t find the words to describe it.

Looking out over the world makes your soul soar and your mind clear. Usually I would fly up a track like that, but I was just recovering from a nasty cough and we hadn’t done many missions over winter, so it was a bit more challenging for me than it might have been. I was really proud of my brothers, they flew up the track making it look easy.

I’m at the top of the world!

After a beautiful sunset, darkness fell and with it came the lights of every town from Christchurch to Timaru. You would expect dark patches between the bright lights of the towns, in their place was the flashing strobe lights of hundreds of irrigation machines working until dawn, A man made wonder.  The shelter was in the perfect position to get the best out of the sunrise. Light flooded over the land, one by one extinguishing the lights of the night.

The walk down was a breeze. Literally! A hint of summer haunted the cool spring air. Summer is coming! Back at the truck we unpacked and drove to the new grounds in Timaru. Getting there on Thursday night made for an easy setup on Friday.

Bye!

 

Christchurch

Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi! Jezz! What a lot of hi’s and hugs to give! Greeting everyone on the Extravaganza is no easy task. It was great to see everyone again.

That night I realized just how much I missed my friends from school. Leaving them was hard in the first place, but now they are gone it was worse than I had expected. It felt like a dull ache, especially now that Tiwai and Lettie are not coming until Timaru (two fairs away). Oh well I’m just going to have to suck it up and “make the best of it!”(our new family motto).

That weekend was the busiest start of season anyone has ever seen. And it was sunny!

                 A visit from the Wizard of New Zealand and the new Wizard of Christchurch.

We forgot about grumpy Mondays and boy did it hit us hard! We grumped our way around the city doing jobs and visiting op-shops, going to the Margret Mahy playground and picking up our new car.

Finally we made it to the New Brighton working men’s club (not glamorous at all!) and bunkered down for a wild stormy night.

Opps! I forgot one important detail. On their way to Christchurch for the Extravaganza Mels and Jonas’s bus caught fire in Wellington! They arrived back from dinner out to find the inside of their bus on fire, with their two Chihuahua’s trapped inside! They managed to quickly put the fire out and save the dogs. Mels had to give Izzy (the puppy) mouth to nose resuscitation, luckily she survived. Everyone came out almost unscathed apart from a few burns. They had to throw everything out. Completely strip out the bus!

OK back to us. The next day we moved onto Rakia gorge camp ground. Unfortunately it was right next to a loud under construction bridge, nothings perfect! I had developed a rather nasty cough, so when we went for a four hour walk I only did half an hour. Dad took me back to the truck while Mum and the boys carried on.

After that failed adventure we drove twenty minutes down the road to Te awa awa rata reserve, a favorite with the gypsies. We found all of the Lucky star crew fixing up the mother ship, (Mels and Jonas’s bus) so we gave them our moral support. Dad went hunting and shot a Red deer. Well done Daddy. The boys played with Koco (Mels daughter) and I made a delicious Lemon cake. We stayed at that peaceful haven for two nights, then sped off Friday morning for setup.

What a brilliant first week! Bye!

Winter in Motueka

Winter is a welcome holiday for us Extrava-gangsters. We fill it with buying stock, preparing our shop, maintaining our truck and for our family, making our new shows and practicing them. Not to mention going to school. Well sort of a holiday! The boys had their first day at school and it turned out… they loved it! Mean while I was loving being back at Rudolf Steiner my old school. It was great to see all my friends again, they welcomed me back with open arms and hearts. I had a lovely time.

                                           My classmates and I at a Hockey tournament

To begin with we stayed at kina beach. We said goodbye to last seasons shows with a ceremony involving throwing our end of season bouquets flower by flower in to the ocean.

After a couple of weeks we moved to Marchwood park (motor caravan camp ground).

Soon my birthday appeared on the agenda, so we planned a pretty primo party. It involved most of my class taking the ferry from Mapua to Rabbit island with our bikes. We then cycled along the trail to meet up with Mim (our truck) where Mum had set up a party. We ate, played and partied for the afternoon finishing by cycling back to the ferry.

                                                          Playing Port / Starboard

A month later Mum’s birthday came around. We decided to do something special with her. We packed up the car and headed to Golden bay to walk into Wharawharangi hut for a night. Mum and day had their usual mid winter swim in their birthday suits! We lit a fire on the beach (below the high tide line), toasted marshmallows and had a wonderful time. Happy birthday Mum!

A few weeks later we were back in Golden bay for the school holidays, this time with our truck. Daisy beach and Wharawhariki beach were the highlights of our trip.

                                             Cooking sausages over the beach fire

 

Over the five months in Motueka I enjoyed weekly Dance and Drama classes.

A lot of thought and practice went into our new magic show. Dad and I took Latin dance classes. Poor Daddy!

We also practiced our family circus show about three times a week which was not always easy outdoors in winter.

In September as a late combined birthday present Mum and I flew to Auckland to see in spark arena………… P!nk!!!!!! It was the most inspirational, sensational, performance I have ever seen! She is such a strong amazing woman.

With the end of winter came my school play and my Drama class play. Both high on my list of priorities as when I grow up I would like to become an actor. The school play was a stunning success (surprisingly as we wrote it ourselves). It had me staring as Julia the love struck roman princess. The title was Ludus Roma (roman play). Thank you to all my classmates and our devoted teacher Margot.

In my Drama class play we all got to create our own characters. My character was the sassy Clarissa De Vain, a detective.

                   Clarisa De Vain

The play turned out to be fabulous. The last performance was the night before set up in Christchurch, a tight squeeze. After the play at 9pm we drove the two hours to Murchison, stayed in a cabin then continued with the four hour drive to Christchurch for setup.

Whew what a busy winter! Now back to the Extravaganza. Bye!

,

 

Taupo / Tongariro crossing / End of season!

On our way to Taupo we met up with Lette and Tewai at a secret hot pool known only to people with google maps. It is marked as “Hot and Cold”. A hot stream joins a cold stream, hot, cold and everything in-between. We had a yummy soak. Yani came along too.

After that we drove onto Whakaipo Doc reserve and stayed there a couple of nights, exploring, schooling and carving pumice which you find on the beach.  On Wednesday we got a good view of Mt Tongariro, on Thursday it was time to do the crossing!

There were plenty of gypsies keen on the walk so we got up early, crammed into vehicles and drove to the Mangatapopo car park. The track was fantastic. Steep and barren like the moon. It was fun walking with the Gypsies. The Red crater and Emerald lakes were amazing.

We all charged across with no problems. Meanwhile Mum and the boys walked to Mangtapopo hut then drove to the end of the track to shuttle drivers back to the start. By the end of it everyone was foot sore and ready for a soak at Tokaanu hot pools. Then we had Indian in Turangi with Keanau and Julia.

After much debate followed by a vote it was decided to go ahead with the Taupo fair in-spite of a terrible weather forecast. The weather turned out to be terrible and the fair was a flop. However we did have a uproarious end of season party.  Mum and Dad presented us with trophies for all our hard work in our shows.

There were prizes for all the gypsies. The usual dancing and shenanigans took place.

Sunday was a wash out so we high tailed south, heading for Motueka and Steiner school.

That was the end of our third season on the Extravaganza. So many adventures and so much fun! I am so tired I could do with a little rest! Bye!

 

 

 

 

Rotorua

“Now for the daily weather report with Dylan Daisy Ashton. Rotorua; light rain, heavy showers, sunshine, clouds, hot, cold, freezing, warm and windy, changing hourly throughout the weekend!”

We had a new and brilliant location right next to the swan spotted Lake Rotorua. Unfortunately the council had double booked our spot. Instead there was a small carnival in our place and we set up nearby. On top of that the council health inspectors came in special vests with video cameras, to shut down all our food and drink stalls. Our health certificate that had worked in every other town in New Zealand, some how did not work in Rotorua. I know, right? Ich weiBes schon gut(private joke). What beardy weirdies the inspectors were(they were all bald and bearded, even the ladies). 

Saturday night we visited the Carnival. It was… garish, gaudy yet extremely fun. My favorite game was the laughing clowns. You have five ping-pong balls to put in their mouths and see which number slot the ball goes into then add up the numbers and sum is the number of the prize you get. All of the prizes broke within two days. But that didn’t matter, we still had fun.

Like a $2 shop only its $5.

Our world travels never stop. Sunday night we visited Thailand in a stunning whorl of new and delicious flavors at Wild rice Thai cuisine on Rotoruas “Eat street”.

Monday morning after a short watch of Americas got talent, our new favorite morning habit, we wandered down to a small jetty. Out of the morning mist softly shrouding the lake, swans glided gracefully towards us and our bread. Squabbling and squawking they slowly ate all the bread as we drank our morning drinks(Hot chocolate, Tea, Coffee, Milo).  Bye!