Day 3: Ōtautahi (Christchurch)
Nau mai
Inanahi, i whakatangi mātou ki Ōtautahi, Aotearoa
As is the normal behaviour for any Aucklander driving along George Bolt Memorial Drive on the way to the airport I gazed up to the left expectantly as we approached the Māngere Mainfreight hub looking for the words that would inspire me the rest of the day.
While the above message was certainly full of goodwill it didn’t give me what I needed, so I started searching. My first port of call was the Mainfreight website which listed the quote of the day was “These are fabulous times”. I wasn’t sure if this was sarcasm, or if Mainfreight is currently enjoying a boom, but either way I wasn’t satisfied.
Next I dredged up an old thread from the Mainfreight facebook page which said that there is a list of these sayings on Mainfreight’s Internet Site, on the right hand side under shared documents. Sadly my clearance wouldn’t allow me to access shared documents – dead end, again.
I decided to go straight to the source and placed a quote request through the Mainfreight Internet Site’s online portal, and was blown away when receptionist Maureen Paine responded to my request within fifteen minutes.
She went above and beyond the call of duty providing me with the actual quote of the day ‘Keep it Simple’, along with two bonus quotes. I followed up and asked about the list of Mainfreight sayings and where I might find it, and received this reply:
“This list is a very closely guarded component of our company culture and cannot be divulged (even if I had access to it)”.
Thanks anyway, Maureen! I appreciate the effort.
For my parakuihi I kept it simple, a bagel with Marmite and melted cheese, topped with a generous amount of cracked black pepper.
The flight to Ōtautahi was exceptionally smooth. Our Airbus A320 came down onto the runway with barely a hint of a bump and we rolled up to the terminal, disembarking along the airbridge and immediately feeling like we had left our warm Auckland spring for a Te Waipounamu Winter.
On the walk to the pickup area we passed Gregor Kregar’s iconic ‘Cumulus Gate Pavilion’, a stainless steel sculpture based on a cumulus cloud.
As usual Anthony had already completed the rental vehicle pickup and was waiting for us with the cargo doors open. The cargo area of our 2016 Ford Transit 370M was a huge disappointment. Only half a metre deep at the bottom and getting even shallower toward the ceiling. We packed in what we could and threw the rest in the cabin.
There was ample time in the day for leisure and after offloading our equipment at the venue we took a stroll and stopped for a bite of lunch. Then it was business for the rest of the afternoon with a long soundcheck and some rehearsal.
It was great to be back in the James Hay Theatre, the smaller of the two beautiful music venues in Ōtautahi’s town hall. The building was badly damaged in the 2010/11 earthquakes and was reopened in 2019 after extensive repairs and refurbishment. As evening fell show goers began to arrive, passing through the glass doors of the entrance and assembling in the foyer with its exquisite modernist décor. Pointed ceiling mouldings hang boldly above white marble floors, while bright red carpets and upholstery and shiny brass fittings provide a level of glamour that is startling after the cold, concrete exterior of the building.
I was lucky enough to catch the majority of Dawn Diver’s set during which they claimed that their flight down to Ōtautahi was even smoother than ours. They played a brilliant show and the incredible detail in the band arrangements and beautiful subtleties from each performer carried easily in the excellent acoustics of the auditorium.
Christchurch were a great crowd to play to. Their defining trait was the frequency of goats that they threw and of course the frequency was high. At the end of the night we headed out to the foyer for some meet and greets. The audience members impressed me with their etiquette throughout this process, presenting themselves at the merch table to deliver a succinct comment about the show, maybe a quick signature, and then moving on to allow the next person a turn.
📷 Anthony Metcalf
📷 Anthony Metcalf
Ka kite āno!