Travel Around Australia and New Zealand

[dce]

While European fans are still lamenting the departure of Leonard and the UHTC from their shore, those of us "down under" are excitedly awaiting their long awaited return.

For my part, as I've mentioned in other threads, I have gone a little crazy and booked myself (and my gf) a kind of LC Australian Tour holiday. We have tickets to concerts in most of the places the band will be playing (actually everywhere except Christchurch) and have a complicated schedule of flights to allow us to get to them all from my home base of Adelaide.

It's going to be a heck of a ride, spanning the next five weeks. I thought I would create this thread as a place I can post concert reports and maybe some travelogue-y stuff or pictures related to the tour. We'll see how we go.

If, BTW, forum folk want to come up and say 'hi' at the venues ... I should be fairly easy to spot. I will be the only guy wearing a home-made "Leonard Cohen Forum" lanyard (see below) copied from Maarten's design for the upcoming LV show (hopefully he won't sue )



The first leg of my travels begins tomorrow with a 4am wake up to begin the long journey from Adelaide to tomorrow night's tour opening concert at Vector Arena in Auckland.


Dean (from Adelaide)

PS: In answer to the obvious questions ... yes, I know this is probably terribly indulgent and excessive and no, I probably can't really afford it. But ... this could be the last time Leonard tours our part of the world, so the temptation to take in as much of it as possible is just too great.

[Maarten]

(hopefully he won't sue )

I won't, nice design by the way

Have fun and don't forget to write down setlists for us!

Maarten

[ladydi]

What an exciting adventure, Dean! Looking forward to your reviews and travelogues! Enjoy....(with a hint of envy on my part )
Diana

[dce]

OK ... after having woken up a little before 4am in Adelaide and been on planes, cars and airports for most of the time since then ... I've finally arrived at my Auckland accommodation. Still an hour and a half until doors open on the first LC performance of the 2010 Aus/NZ tour.

Time to go for a look around Auckland ahead of the show ...


Dean (from Adelaide)

[jarkko]

I have moved several messages from this thread to the Concert Report!

[dce]

So, looking at the pictures on Joey's tumblr page, Leonard and the crew travelled today by air from Auckland to Wellington. Having a little more luxury of time (since I don't have sound checks and rehearsals), I decided to do the same trip by land ... and to split it over two days, going via a more scenic route. As Joey notes on his page, things are far apart in this part of the world so it does take quite a while to get from A to B by road. I always find NZ country driving particularly deceptive ... even things that seem close on a map can take hours to get to because of big mountains in the way, or insanely windy roads, or ... all sorts of other things.

But the countryside is almost always eye-poppingly stunning, so you don't mind the fact that you spend hours in the car. This is what LC and crew won't see (well, not really ... at least not in much detail).

So anyway, after about 5.5 hours of driving from Auckland, I'm about half way ... in Napier, a small city on the East Coast (famous for its many many Art Deco buildings).

Recognizing this has very little to do with the the subject matter of this forum ... here are just a couple of pictures from my driving day, to give forum readers a small taste of my travels.

Low on human fuel (caffeine) in the early afternoon we made a short stop by Lake Taupo to fill up. Notice how sunny it looks (although the temperature was already much, much cooler than in Auckland):


On the road to Napier ...


The weather in this part of the world can change pretty quickly. Here's the view just a few moments later:


Hopefully a few more photos tomorrow, as we make our way down to Wellington.


Dean (from Adelaide)

[ladydi]

So lovely Dean...thank you! I've been enchanted with New Zealand for a few decades but have never been there. Your photos are wonderful and I can appreciate what an amazing adventure this must be for you and your girlfriend! Keep safe, and I will keep following....

All the best,
Diana

[dce]

The second half of my trip from Auckland to Wellington ended up taking a lot longer than expected, because we took a very indirect route. In part this was planned -- we wanted to see a truly unique NZ attraction (see below) -- but in part it was due to my SatNav sending me down a road which was longer and windier than needed. I got to see a LOT of (very green and beautiful) NZ pastureland. All up, our trip from Napier to Wellington took somewhere close to 6 hours.

Again this has nothing much to do with Leonard Cohen, but here are a couple of pictures from our day.

Napier has many, many beautiful old buildings ... so why does the official earthquake museum look like this:


OK, it's sad that I get so excited about this ... but, NZ is the home to (one of) the world's longest place name. It's a fairly unremarkable hill, and it's a long way from anywhere, but I just had to pay it a quick visit:





If any readers (particularly UK-ers, Aussies or New Zealanders) are of the right age, they may recognize this place name as the very long name spoken as part of the intro theme to a season of Kenny Everett's TV show in the 1970s.


Dean (from Adelaide)

[dce]

Between concerts, I had some time to walk around the city of Wellington ... which is actually far more interesting and beautiful than I remember it (from when I was last year, well over a decade ago). I mainly remembered it as being very hilly and very cold .. and I guess it is both of these (although, perhaps because of the blessing of having LC in town, Wellington has turned on some superb weather over the last days). But, it's an interesting mix of corporate centre, federal capitol ... and also a funky haunt for artistic types.

In a city prone to earthquakes, it's a pretty bold move to make your public artworks look like this:


Wellington has a very pretty -- if very steep -- Botanic gardens. If you're going to visit it, taking the cable car to the top and rambling down the winding paths is definitely the way to go:


Now, back to the topic of the board


Dean (from Adelaide)

[neo]

I really enjoy reading about your travels.
Thank you very much Dean!

[dce]

A Small Respite

I've just arrived back in Adelaide from my amazing 6 day trip to NZ (which included four Cohen concerts).

A few days "break" (back at the office) before I head out for the second leg of my holiday: Brisbane and Sydney.

Looking forward to it already!


Dean (from Adelaide)

[blonde madonna]

Hi Dean
Enjoyed reading your posts and sharing your fun.

I'm not seeing a concert until Friday week but getting excited just at the thought that they are about to head to Australia from NZ.

Feel like my long wait in nearly over.

BM

[B4real]

Thanks Dean,

For your tour diary and concert reports. Most enjoyable and informative. You will have travelled some kilometers before its all over.
I will be at the Brisbane concert (front row) and maybe I'll see you there. I'm hoping like crazy that Leonard sings Avalanche AND NIght Comes On!

[dce]

On the move again

Well, the suitcase is packed again (actually never really got unpacked). I've checked in to tomorrow's flight from Adelaide to Brisbane. I've booked the taxi.

Looks like I'm just about ready to head out tomorrow morning on the second part of my Leonard Cohen holiday.

Next stop: Brisbane Entertainment centre and the first Australian show for 2010 ... looking forward to it immensely!


Dean (from Adelaide)

[dce]

Lanyards for LC Forum Members

I've had questions from a couple of Australian forum members about whether they can get LC Forum lanyards to wear to concerts or at planned pre- or post-concert meet-ups.

I'm happy to make up a generic (non-personalised) lanyard for anyone who wants one. In fact I've made a few up already. I figure there are three main options for folk who are interested in grabbing one of these:

• if you can track me down at one of the concerts, you can get one from me there (assuming I haven't run out)
• if you really want one mailed to you, I guess I might be able to do something like that (keeping in mind that I'll be spending most of the next few weeks on the road). Send me a PM.
• if you want the 300dpi image file I've used to make the Aus LC Forum lanyards (so you can make your own), it's below ...

Dean (from Adelaide)