Hi Folks
On Sunday the 14th May we flew out to Norfolk Island with a group of 25 people on our 10th anniversary Personalised and Exclusive Norfolk Island Country Music Festival Tour 2017. Well we actually flew out with 22 people as we had 3 of the group flying in from Australia. One Kiwi and 2 of our Aussie friends that would become honorary Kiwis for the week. We also had Annette’s nephew, Alex, joining us again in 2017. There’s no show without Punch. We also had Des and Sharon Fatt with us who were also celebrating their 10th trip with us to Norfolk Island. Little did anyone know that 2008 would be the beginning of a 10 year association with Norfolk Island and the descendants of the Bounty Mutiny. It has been an amazing journey in our lives.
Once everyone was settled in to their accommodation we all gathered at the Paradise Hotel and Resort for our welcome dinner with entertainment from our good friend and local entertainer Lully Nobbs. It was a great evening and an excellent way to kick off the festival.
On Monday morning we were up early for our exclusive Norfolk Today Tour with Baunti Escapes. We had designed a tour which covered over 80 % of the island and included the roofs of Cascade Rd, Two Chimneys Rd, Rooty Hill Rd and Queen Elizabeth ll Lookout, Kingston, Quality Row, Bloody Bridge, Lone Pine and Emily Bay, Mt Pitt with a talk from the Norfolk Island Parks Dept, lunch at Captain Cook memorial, pottery demo from Steve Ryves, gospel singing at St Barnabas Chapel and home via Headstone and Hundred Acre Reserve. We must thank everyone at Baunti for helping us with the tour especially our wonderful drivers, Rachelle and Lynn and Rebecca from The Travel Centre. This tour gave the group a taste of Norfolk Island and what it has to offer.
Tuesday morning was our usual mini golf competition with everyone enjoying a fun and hilarious morning and getting into the team spirit. A lovely morning tea was once again supplied by Agnes and her team. We hope everyone enjoyed receiving our new cd “The Best of Annette and Kim” and the commemorative 10th anniversary plaque made from native Norfolk Pine in their gift packs. Congratulations to David Krebs the individual winner on the day and also to Elaine Mitchell and Elain Foster 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Tuesday evening we were all taken to the South Pacific Resort for the Island Fish Fry due to the possibility of inclement weather at Puppy’s Point.
Entertainment was provided by Pitcairn descendant, Trent Christian, with a dance demo by the Tahitian dancers. Plenty of fish was supplied for the evening dinner with no one going hungry. Full tummies all round.
Wednesday and Thursday were free days for the group to explore the island and for those with passes to join in with the NICMA activities. Those that wished to joined Annette and I at the RSL for our Wednesday twilight gig did so before heading off to the Trans-Tasman EOY Awards which we will cover later.
Friday we were all booked in for lunch at the RSL where Annette and I entertained once again. We would like to thank Terence and his staff at the RSL for their great work and for inviting us to perform. Thank you also to all the local islanders that came to hear us. Over the years we have built a great friendship with many of the locals and we really do appreciate your support. Playing at the RSL also gives us a chance to catch up with some of our Aussie friends that we only get to see at the festival or when we venture to some of the Australian festivals.
Friday evening was our farewell dinner at the pirate themed Jolly Roger restaurant with entertainment by Craig Stewart. Craig writes a lot of bush ballads and is a regular performer at many Australian festivals. The ship and the evening was well run by a young friend of ours Sophie Harris and her team. It was an awesome way to finish the week.
Saturday morning was again a free morning for the group with a couple of them taking advantage of the Pitcairn Settlers Village tour option. The afternoon saw us all gather at the Crown Motel departure lounge, kindly supplied by Wendy and Lee, for a wine and cheese afternoon and a bit of a wind down and group sing a long after a very busy week. It was also time to say goodbye to our Aussie friends, Doreen and Colin, who were heading back to Australia on the Brisbane flight. The rest of us would head back home on Sunday morning.
NICMA had organised a full week of music for all attending the festival. Monday evening was the NZ showcase with Headliner, Jody Direen, supported by Midnite Special (Lex and Michelle Greaves and Robert Katipa jr ), Kelvin Cummings 2016 Trans-Tasman winner and Laura Lowe 2016 Intermediate NZCMA Entertainer of the Year. With backing by the Huckleberries and Echo in Harmony who also handled the M.C. duties.
Tuesday evening was the Aussie showcase with Headliner Shane Nicholson and featuring Georgia White, Drew McAlister and Warren H Williams And Dani Young backed by Tonally Functional featuring the amazing Michel Rose on Pedal Steel. The show was M.Ced by Aussie duo Nielly Rich.
Wednesday was the gospel show held at All Saints Church Kingston for platinum and gold pass holders which featured most of the contracted artists and which Annette and I were kindly asked to perform on. This gave us a chance to try out some of the songs we would like to record on a Gospel album at some stage. Wednesday evening was the ever popular Trans-Tasman competition. All the competitors did a great job with the winner on the night being Mason Hope from Australia with runner up going to Kiwi Keith Pereira.
Next year will be the 25th anniversary of the festival so don’t be late booking if you wish to celebrate this milestone.
Annette and I will also be taking a tour to Norfolk Island in January 2018. This is the “Count Us In” Music Tour with Alan and Maureen Webster from Australia. It’s going to be a great week of music and mayhem so don’t delay if you want to join us for this tour. Norfolk Air will be chartering a direct flight for Kiwi travellers. Please contact us if you would like a tour package or go to our web page to view the package.
Once again thank you to everyone that joined us on Norfolk Island for our 10th tour. We hope you had a great time and enjoyed the island and the many wonderful things it has to offer. We look forward to catching up with you all somewhere sometime on our country music journey.
Take care and keep it country.
Best wishes
Annette and Kim
February saw us off to Melbourne where we arrived early Monday morning on the 22nd. Our good friend Rod Mc Carthy was patiently waiting for us. We had been up since 2:30am for our 6:00am flight out of Auckland. Once Rod had located the car we piled in and headed for Kyneton where Rod and Margaret live. The weather was hot as we had been warned it would be, 40 degrees plus. Margaret was waiting for us when we arrived and we decided to take a stroll into town to do some grocery shopping and have a look around before we had some lunch. In the afternoon we popped over to see Rod and Margaret’s son, Sean, who is a professional snake handler. Check out the photos of us handling the snake and crocodile. Sean also has on hand scorpions and turrantula spiders but we didn’t handle those, no way. We had an early dinner as Rod and Margaret were heading over to Daylesford to their Set dancing class. Check out the photos of Rod, Margaret and Annette in action. On the journey back to Kyneton we spotted the largest mob of Kangaroo we had seen in all the times we had been coming to Aussie for the festivals. We got a great shot of a large buck squatting on his haunches watching our every move.
Our Aussie dad, Dale, had driven across from Adelaide to spend the week with us and once we had finished the Monday Madness we were heading back to Adelaide for a few days R’n’R. This was to be done via Mildura. We headed up the river Monday arvo stopping along the way at Tooleybuc to check out the RSL, a quick stop at Boundary Bend to view the river and wild life and an overnight stop at an awesome camping ground on the banks of the Murray River in Robinsvale. What a fantastic little place it is also the site of arguably the largest windmill in the Southern hemisphere. Check out the photos. On the drive up we spotted all kinds of wildlife; Emu, Kookaburra, Kangaroos, Wallabies, Cockatoo, Willy Wag Tails and Pelicans, so many Pelicans.
Thursday night we ventured out to the Fringe Festival and the Garden of Unearthly Delights in the city centre and decided among other things to attend the Freak Show. Check out those photos. On Friday night Dale had booked tickets for us to see Adam Brand and The Outlaws, Drew McAlister, Travis Collins, Matt Cornell and Mike Carr, who were playing in Hahndorf a cool little German settlement not far out of Adelaide. They put on an awesome show playing some classic country and rock songs. The Hahndorf Old Mill Hotel also put on a very nice buffet meal beforehand. It was a fantastic night. We were up early Saturday morning to catch a couple of races at the Clipsal 500 motor racing. We were prepared this time with ear plugs, sun block and water as it was forecast to be around 39 – 40 degrees. We checked out a couple of the car displays which they had on course. One was the “Cars from the Screen” which included two Bat Mobiles, a General Lee Charger, Herbie VW Beetle, a Back to the Future Dalorian and the Monkees wagon plus many more. The other display was Ford and Holden’s through the years which included Capris, Torana’s, Falcons and Commodores. We also checked out some of the stalls on site and picked up a few souvenirs. By mid afternoon we were done and set off for home looking forward to a lovely dip in the pool to cool down.
On Sunday the 10th we had our first afternoon show with our good friend Alan Webster at the Whangarei RSA. Thank you to everyone that turned out so early in the year to enjoy an afternoon of country music. Thanks also to everyone that helped us out on the day and to the Whangarei RSA for looking after us all with food and refreshments. Alan is a fantastic Australian entertainer that everyone appreciated very much. We had also arranged for Alan to join us at the Kamo Club on the Wednesday evening for a special dance Section show and one of the biggest turn outs for a Wednesday evening they have ever had. I don’t think anyone was disappointed with either show especially with a special performance by Alan and Maureen’s granddaughter Melody, who is an outstanding young performer, at both the RSA and Kamo Club. Well done Melody. We look forward to working with Alan again sometime in the future. It was also nice to catch up with Alan’s wife, Maureen, again and to also meet his son and daughter-in-law. Hope you all had a great time seeing the sights of Whangarei and Northland.
The following Friday we had to head down to Marton for the three day country music festival run by Ann and Len George and their team of helpers. Once again it was one of their most successful festivals to date with over four hundred mobile homes arriving for the weekend. Friday night and Saturday nights shows were a huge success. Performing on Friday night were Lynn Putt, Carylann Martin, Kem Wairau, The Australian country gentleman Alan Webster and NZ country music icons Brendan Dugan and Dennis Marsh ably supported by the band Pheonix. Saturday night saw Annette and I sharing the stage with Reg McTaggart, Roberta Campbell, Keith Herbert, Peter Jackson ( fresh from filming another blockbuster) no not that one, Joy Adams, Craig Adams, Kylie Austin, Mae Valley ( Hannah and Abie ) newly signed with Sony ( congratulations ladies) and the headliner, all the way from Australia, the amazingly talented Justin Standley. Again supported by the fabulous band , Shotgun, lead as always by Derek Evans who sadly has called it a day as part of the backing band for the festival. Thank you Derek and lynn for your support for so many years. No doubt we will catch with you both somewhere in the country music arena.
