Capital Crusader

First stop Taihape, the Gumboot capital of the world (odd). A drink in the sun amongst creepy garden statues was pleasant enough and we set off again for Taupo.

A great drive through the Desert road showed us awesome views of Ruapehu and Ngaruahoe.

Such a bizarre landscape through the volcanic plateau. Almost sci-fi like. Taupo was warm and we had a beer on the waterfront after settling into our digs at the "Lake View Motel". Then after the usual useless wandering around looking for a bite to eat we found an excellent Italian Bistro and a great meal was enjoyed by all. We returned to the Motel to bask in the glory and power of Adam's new iPod speaker system. I've heard more power out of a half dead blowfly. After Robert and I suitably slayed this pathetic purchase, we convinced Adam had to redeem himself with the aquisition of a new Bose Companion system (bloody amazing, check it out), which he did a couple of days later while we were in Auckland.

So Friday came and the excitement of an impending U2 concert was clear to see. Karen and Pete were meeting us in AK that afternoon at the city backpackers. so the thought of some pre-concert beers was high on my agenda. But before that Robert took us to the Huka Falls, which I found thoroughly impressive. The perfect place to throw a horny cricket umpire or banker into.

The drive from Taupo to Ak was shit, in particular Cambridge was bloody awful, Adam's front seat co-driving had us stuck in traffic for about 15 minutes. He was quick to shout "Do a U'y!" at any opportunity to fix all driving issues. What a shit hole Cambridge roading is.

The last part of the Journey into Ak was quite simple, some great map reading from a new co-driver saw us arrive into downtown Queen St with ease. We checked in, met up with Pete and Karen and started drinking. (Bliss!)

Getting to the concert proved to be quite a challenge (except for Karen who left about 2 hours earlier us telling us how easy it was) We alas were amongst the masses trying to catch buses in downtown Ak. I felt like a WW2 prisoner heading off to a death camp getting shoved onto a overcrowed bus not knowing really what was going on, as with WW2 prisoners, we were separated not knowing if we would ever see each other again. I could see Big Pete above the crowd miles back in the queue as i was pushed into a door. Who knows where Justine was?

By the time we got to the concert it was pissing down, and we had to walk for about 30 minutes around the whole bloody park to get into Gate C. We found our seats and Just and I decided to go get some T-shirts. That done, I devoured a burger made from old shoes and dog food.

U2 opened with "City of Blinding Lights" which was awesome and got the crowd to a frenzied state of excitment. They played all the old favourites as well as some noobies. "One Tree Hill" was probably the highlight song with special care taken to explain its meaning. The light show was incredible, sensory overload!

The concert lasted about 2 hours with a couple of encores. Then we jumped on the bus for a trip back into town and to find a pub to post mortum the event. We found a great pub in Vulcan Lane called the Queens Ferry Hotel. Some pints were chopped in the corner with great satisfaction after a concert well worth seeing and waiting for. U2 were brilliant.