new years eve in the far north was very good indeed. beautiful hot day in gorgeous surroundings. we got there pretty early, just before the queue of cars began to be a pain in the arse. bastards of fin (no relation to NZ music's first family) were noisy and fun, but their music didn't really suit that time of the day. Pluto were up next, and despite some mishaps with equipment, played a pretty tight set - pity there weren't more people at there at the time to hear what a damn fine band they are. The rest of the afternoon was spent lazing in the sun on the hill, eating mad butcher steak sammies and making occasional forays to the beer tent. Dimmer and Splitter were my favourite part of the afternoon. The queue of cars got longer as the day went on. A lot more people turned up after dark, Che Fu & the Krates were wicked and played a bit of an encore.
Zed were next. The crowd loved them and they loved the crowd. I can give or take Zed, and it was time for some food from the hangi.
We went up to the top of the hill for the final part of the Zed set and watched as cars still poured into the venue. What's with the radiohead cover? And is their cover of the beach boys 'Don't Worry Baby' the Zed plan for breaking into the US?
Fur Patrol were last. Lydia was the first song I heard in the new year. By then we'd been in the outdoors for 14 odd hours. We didn't stick around to pay 25 bucks for the oonst oonst tent. It was back to Kerikeri for that milo. All in all a very bloody good way to end the year.

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