Hi Folks
The 2nd of October saw us in Rotorua at the NZCMA Entertainer of the Year Awards held at the civic centre. We headed off on the Thursday and spent the night with my cousin Colin and his partner Barb just out of Tauranga. They have an awesome spot up in the hills overlooking the bay. Colin was working on his new hotrod, a 32 3 window Ford coupe, which he was preparing for the Nationals on the 23rd October. It’s going to look and sound amazing. On Friday we shot through to Rotorua for rehearsals in the afternoon and to settle in to our motel. Saturday morning the weather was clear and sunny so we decided to take a paddle on the lake in one of those peddle boats. They are a bit wobbly to get into but once you are sitting down it is full steam ahead. It was nice and relaxing out there with the swans and the ducks. Saturday afternoon we went to the first show which was great. We then managed to grab a quick bite between shows with Susan and Richard Pinny who had come down to support us. Which we really appreciated, thanks guys. Then it was off to the evening show which was sold out. It was a fantastic show everyone sang well and the overall winners were hard to pick. The headline act for the weekend was The Warratahs and they were awesome. Barry Saunders has written some great country songs and they performed most of them on the two shows. It was also good to catch up with many other friends we had not seen in a while. Before heading home on Sunday we took a look at a model train expo being held at the race course. Annette’s nephew, Alex, is building one with his dad so we were looking for pieces for him. I didn’t realise there were so many different sizes of model trains but we got a good run down from one of the exhibitors, a fanatic I think they call them. After that it was homeward bound.
On the 16th October we were part of the Whangarei Country Music Club artists who helped with the “Kids with Arthritis” charity concert. This was to raise funds to send families to the United States for the International Convention which assists them in dealing with arthritis individually and as a family. They are then able to bring that knowledge back to New Zealand to teach others. It was an awesome concert. Our club members did a great job and were very professional. The arthritis society was blown away. The headline act for the show were The Hamilton County Blue Grass Band. A great show which was enjoyed by everyone in the audience.
The 13th November we will be in Te Awamutu for the prostate cancer charity concert run by Val and Ray Thurgood. It will be the first time to Te Awamutu for me so I am really looking forward to it. The other guest artists joining us are Roger Tibbs and Graeme McCardle.
On the 21st November we will be guest artists at the Little Tennessee Country Music Club awards to be held at the Kawakawa primary school. Thank you for the invitation it should be a great day as well.
We have just received our contract for the Barham festival which runs from the 13th to the 20th February and can begin making travel arrangements. This is going to be very exciting. We fly into Melbourne and travel by bus 4 hours up to Barham which is just across the border in NSW. It is a week long festival and we will be performing every day. Apparently it will be very hot at that time of year. I hope there’s a swimming pool handy and no snakes.
e are full on organizing our tour to Norfolk Island in May. We are looking forward to this one as we know all the contestants competing in the Trans-Tasman Award next year. Hopefully there will be a big NZ contingent supporting them as well. If you haven’t already you can down load the tour package from this website and join us we would love to have you there. Any questions just drop us a line and we will be happy to help. It’s an awesome week of country music and relaxation. Don’t miss out!
That’s about all for now we will catch you later.
Take care and Keep it Country
Annette and Kim
August / September 2010
