AOTNZ tour Reefton

Reefton. Bloody Hell. A town carved out of a coal seam. Significantly better than our gig two years ago, we had about 18. Not a lot of response and I felt we were going over like a cup of cold sick but they all thanked us effusively afterwards and seemed to have genuinely had a good time. Daisy, the organiser from the Inangahua Community Arts Council, is a delight. We dined in style at Alfresco's restaurant just up the road from the motel. The waitress had to wear a ski jacket as she had to go outside between the restaurant and the kitchen, and it was very cold. She was doing the cooking as well. From time to time the caretaker would pop in and tell us the rugby league score and all about his knee operation. We drank them out of pinot noir (they had two bottles) and slid home along the frozen footpath. The Lantern Court Motel was luxurious. They rushed us out at 10.00am so we stocked up on groceries and took off for Karamea through thick fog, emerging into brilliant sunshine at Westport where we assembled the Nils Olsen Memorial Sandwiches and Terry made coffee with his portable stove. Diverted to Denniston en route to Karamea and were all fascinated by the history up there on that bleak plateau. Must read the book. Karamea very quiet - apparently they have a few booked in tomorrow night.

Andrew