Just as I was starting to wonder if it was time to stop wishing people a happy new year and start getting on with the year that is, along comes another convenient reason to turn a new leaf. A large portion of the world’s population including many resident or visiting Chinese in Queenstown are celebrating Chinese New Year over the next two weeks and welcoming in the Year of the Dragon. Having been lucky enough to join the celebrations with a Kiwi Chinese family and friends here in Queenstown on ‘New Year’s Eve’, it surprised me how the Chinese New Year tradition mirrors western celebrations over the Christmas and New Year period. It also surprised me how large and active the Chinese community in Queenstown is, albeit with little fanfare.

It’s a new year and for those engaged in the sporting arena comes a new set of goals and new hopes for the twelve months ahead. Past successes and failures are just that, the past. It is a fact of sporting life that those who sit back and bask in their own glory for too long inevitably turn into the losers they defeated not so long ago. Likewise if a loser dwells on their misfortune beyond a reasonable cooling off period they will forever be a loser. That much is certain.

Over the New Year period myself, my partner and six friends went to the Earthtonz MESStival! We were all looking forward to spending the weekend in a great environment and awesome atmosphere. Upon arrival at the festival we were told all cars were going to be searched for alcohol (not drugs, Just alcohol!!) because bringing a few stubbies to an event is far more damming than LSD, Ecstasy and even P!! So the car was turned over and we all got through the gate without so much as a pat down or a sniff round the crotch from a sniffer dog. We arrived at our chosen camping spot and instantly noticed the lack of people and the fact there was only one stage? My partner described it as similar to a Tuesday after the Glastonbury Festival (after everyone has left)!

Anyway, we headed off to the beer tent where we had to buy vouchers…Tui was the only Beer available, over priced and in a small can. On the Friday we had no problems buying 12 cans at a time (as there were 7 of us and we were carrying them back to the camping area). But this was not possible on the Saturday. For some reason the lovely bar staff were told completely different rules to the previous day. They had to open every can they sold encouraging us to drink them quicker before they got warm, which seemingly defeated the object of slowing the drinker down! The live music on the small gig bus on the Friday night (which was gone by NYE) was pretty cool and a pretty good atmosphere considering the 100 people that were dancing and seemingly getting stoned from the mass cloud of weed that was brought (and not smuggled) into the event. Saturday morning came round and I was up early to grab a cup of tea before the masses arrived… Nowhere was open till 10am and the Gypsy hot dog van could serve coffee, not tea. Anyway, food was of the order… A ropey bacon sandwich, a raw cheeseburger and an underdone egg sandwich was about it. It was red hot by 10am, everyone there could tell it was going to be a scorcher but there wasn’t anywhere to sit in the shade to watch the music. Anyway after realising the lack of people, instead of the 10,000 we were led to believe would be turning up, everyone decided to have a wee dance to the Freestylers who were actually pretty good. Come 11.30pm it was time for Mr Tommy Lee to start his set. Well, I have to say I’m a seasoned Drum and Bass head and have listened to Dance music for many, many years and I have never heard so much garbage in my whole life. It was similar to someone smashing pots and pans (off-beat). His stage presence I have to say was good and the highlight was when he started counting down the New Year’s celebrations a minute too early to the actual countdown!

The toilets themselves weren’t too bad considering, although I’m wondering the state they would have been in if 10,000 people had turned up. The coffee dudes from Dunedin and the Security staff I have to say were really friendly and even the cops walking round chatting to most were of good nature…

Next year we are considering having a festival in our back garden, I’m sure we will be able to provide better music and pull in more of a crowd!