So

[Ducky]

Gisborne mission.

via Ohope for a surf stop. Cottage overlooking Wainui Beach/Pines.

Did yoga. Surfed.

Went RnV. Sweaty heaving disgusting messes everywhere i turned.

Chase n Status was rubbish, poor sound engineering, and a put you to sleep dubstep mix.

I leave, stumble across what appears to a refridgerated container unit, frothing with ravers near the food stalls. Turns out to be the worlds smallest nightclub, complete with sub-stacks, mc, dj and about 6 people crammed inside. Girls and other junglists are cutting shapes out by the Churros stand.

I like.

 

Go to see Fly-Lo play an awesome set with live jazzists. Mellow but beautiful music.

Gaslamp Killer went bezerk on his wireless chaos pad. Maniacal steez.

Then some english chap gets behind the decks and announces, "hello, I go by the name of High Contrast, Im going to play you some Drum n Bass".

Proceeds to drop severely epic tunes, mixing flawlessly the whole time all without breaking a sweat or getting too excited in general. Pro, right.

Then he abruptly just stops and says,"Thats all folks". "oh, you want more, ok, ive only actually got two tunes left i havent used, and well, no-one has ever heard them, so i hope you like them". Plays two of the sweetest souliest banginest HC tunes to date. You missed it. I was there. Shame.

 

New Years Eve was surprisingly more mellow, with the Jafa Mafia thunderdome, Optimus Grime and the DNB Fridge "Rudeness, dnb noodness" sessions my highlights.

 

New Years Day = surfing at Dawn, burgers, more yoga.

A few more days in Gizzy and then mission home, stopping off at my fav spot in the gorge for a naky plunge off some lounger type rock formations.

 

.

Keen for another one. Whens easter?

[Grind]

How was new years then?

 

Fucken awesome... at the last minute we decided to look at hiring a house somewhere out of Aucks and ended up landing a huge 5-double room holiday/party house in Paihia, up in the bush kinda, with views over to the Waitangi lighthouse...sick pad. Will definitely return.

 

Sounds mean, is it up for rent to the general public?

 

Yeah bro. It was this one:

 

http://www.daysinthebay.co.nz/property.htm?area=Bay_of_Islands&pid=6

 

Bear in mind we decided to look for places on the 29th and had paid and were up there by the following day on the 30th...so it was ultra last minute. There could even be better places around.

[Grind]

Caught rock crabs and ate them

 

Wicked bro, how exactly did you catch them?

 

we went armed with a stick, tongs, gloves, a bucket and the spear i bought for spear fishing.

 

Worked pretty well, we managed to catch 8 or 9 of the suckers one morning which was enough to have a bit of lunchtime snack for the whanau back at the batch!

 

Wicked bro. So were they big fuckers? The purply/orange rock-crabs? How did you cook 'em? I've heard of a technique of catching paddle crabs in the shallows by setting down net traps and baiting them with bits of cooked chicken tied to string / weighted down by rocks.

[Pakage]

Caught rock crabs and ate them

 

Wicked bro, how exactly did you catch them?

 

we went armed with a stick, tongs, gloves, a bucket and the spear i bought for spear fishing.

 

Worked pretty well, we managed to catch 8 or 9 of the suckers one morning which was enough to have a bit of lunchtime snack for the whanau back at the batch!

 

Wicked bro. So were they big fuckers? The purply/orange rock-crabs? How did you cook 'em? I've heard of a technique of catching paddle crabs in the shallows by setting down net traps and baiting them with bits of cooked chicken tied to string / weighted down by rocks.

 

like this guy:

but not as purple.

 

They weren't huge, but they were big enough to get a bit of meat off them for sure.

 

We basically just looked for crevasses in the rocks where they might be hanging out then if we saw one in there we tried to block it from running away with the stick and get in there with the tongs and snatch em up. Or if they were too deep for the tongs id ping them with the spear.

 

took us most of the morning but it was a fun mission.

 

Also, crabs battles are awesome. RIP One Claw, you were a true gladiator.

[Dr Awesome]

Crab... Battle...

 

[Aphra]

 

These are some them battling it out. Not very big at all but still yummy!

[zzzp]

chur. hitup waiheke for 5days, low key too. new years night involved mint women, shit beats aka highlife / lowlife. expected average beats but ho dam the shit played was horrid. not to worry, good vibes for sure. catching the wrong bus back to the crib @ 3am on form, on a silent dark bus that took one hour was rather testing. vanatu for the last week n coro from the 23rd if anyones down there.

[Eaze]

I would like an in depth review of Phat now please, make me weep.

 

Phat was definitely smaller this year with the 2nd stage being more of a bar area. There were no visuals (wish really disappointed me) but the lights and effects were a step up from last year imo. The sound system was wicked as usual.

 

The weather was absolutely amazing, no rain over the duration and abit of cloud cover in the afternoon kept things from getting too hot.

 

All acts were exceptional, all big kiwi acts namely truth, OG, som & concord were strong but my pick would be Organikismness, his sounds were twisted and unique which were amplified by the sound system.

 

1st Night:

Breakage played a slick set and show cased his classy production, cant wait to catch him again in the future. BSE smashed it with dark and pounding tunes, my highlight was block control VIP and extraction, a track from their new album. Set of the night was break imo who opened with Slow down. absolute badass tunes and mixing, cant wait to hear more from him. unfortunately I missed Dbridge & conequence

 

2nd Night:

Andy C followed by Camo & crooked were great party sets, alot of dubs i havnt heard before. Excision & datsik followed and played great sets (datsik's gf is freakin hot). Alot of people complained there was too much brostep but hey they knew what was going to happen and quite frankly I had a great time.

 

3rd night:

Gigantor from Evol Intent played some heavy dnb and dropped a couple of brostep tunes which every body responded well to. Digital played the best set of the night for me, totally blew me away with dark & twisted jungle tunes, was awesome (was trippin a wee bit).

 

all in all it was a great festival. It was refreshing to be surrounded by friendly people who partied hard. Great way to kick start 2011

[Teret]

Set of the night was break imo who opened with Slow down. absolute badass tunes and mixing

 

Would have to say after catching Break in Melbourne that his mixing has come a long long way in the last couple of years.