Christchurch, New Zealand.....The drive from the North Island of New Zealand is quite beautiful, with a three-hour ferry boat ride connecting the two. Early in line is the best advice for boarding the ferry boat, you get on board sooner, get a good window seat, and can enjoy the luxry of a good coffee or even a light breakfast. Very crowded during the high season, it is always advisable to get advance tickets.
Bob & Sheila Everhart are just starting their 3-week tour of the South Island. They drove south from Picton (where the ferry boat landed) to a campground in Kaikoura, well known for it's whale and dolphin watching expeditions. They didn't see either, they were late getting in, but enjoyed the new hot water spa and swimming pool at the campground.
"We always stop along the way," says Sheila, who is the navigator, "to visit book stores and out of the way places. In the town of Blenheim for instance, we had lunch at a Turkish Restaurant, and just across the street was a store that deals with all things Dutch, and of course that included some fine Dutch cheese which we got. We also stop at a super market for our evening meal, which we cook at the campground when we get there."
The Everharts, on tour in New Zealand for three months, travel with their 11 year old daughter Bobbie Lhea. "I like to stop along the way too, just to watch the seals. There are huge colonies of seals along the roadside, and they are fun to watch."
On their way to Christchurch for two concerts, the Everharts stopped along Pegasus Bay for lunch at one of the more distinguished wine producing companies called Pegasus Bay. "We got to taste some delightful wine here, and also had a vey nice lunch. While we were eating, a helicopter landed right outside the window we were seated at. A gentleman and his wife hopped out, entered the restaurant and had lunch. We were amazed. They didn't have a lot to eat, and finished before we did. They hopped in their helicopter and flew off. I asked the waiter who that was, and they just tossed it aside, saying it was someone who lived on an island off shore, and came in about once a week for lunch." an amazed Sheila related.
The first performance for Bob & Sheila was at the Harbor Light Theater in Lyttleton, just outside Christchurch at the waterfront. The Harbor Light was actually an old movie theater, but now renovated into a rather large performance center. The concert was arranged by some old friends that attended their festival (Aug 25-31, 2008 in LeMars, Iowa) last year, Johnny Possum's Good Time Hootin' Band. "This groups plays a lot of bluegrass music," Bob is quick to relate, "but they also play some excellent string band music, and were quite popular at our festival last year. Wow, are they popular in New Zealand. The Harbor Light is quite large, but they had to turn away people at the door. It was also the CD release party of their new CD "Twister," so that accounted for the large crowd. We had a blast playing our old-time country music there."
Annette Mehrtens is the lady responsible for setting up the Everhart tour. She also does a weekly radio show on a large FM station in Christchurch. Bob Everhart was invited to appear on it just before the Lyttleton show. "It went quite well, Annette plays some very good old-time music artists for part of her show, and plays excellent Irish-country style artists too, quite a nice radio program. We had a nice time chatting about our festival in LeMars, as well as our second concert which would be at the Working Man's Club in Kaiapoi, just north of Christchurch.
"That was a stunning show," said Sheila, "it was all acoustic, had Johnny Possum's group on, as well as the Queen of the Banjo, Jenny Blackadder, who is a flawless 4-string banjo player. She plays in the style of Eddie Peabody, and the end result of a long conversation wiith her is that she'd like to nominate Mr. Peabody (now deceased) for our Hall of Fame. We are now looking for some relatives of Mr. Peabody who might be able to attend the festival and receive the honors."
Next program for the Everharts is across the Swiss Alps to the west coast of the South Island to the port city of Westport for an 8pm show at the Buller Club Feb 19. They will visit the Country Music Museum in Hector, and go on to Greymouth for another concert at the Regent Theater at 8pm on Feb 20.
"The Everhart's are doing well," Ms. Mehrtens says, "they play some very nice traditional country music, and with the addition of Warrick Sinclair (from Christchurch) playing some lead guitar behind them, we have a winner."
Don't forget our big 33rd annual Old-Time Music Festival moving to the Plymouth County Fairgrounds in LeMars, Iowa, August 25-31, 2008. Over 600 performers on eight "sound" stages, including celebrities. AND, our brand new festival October 5-6-7, 2007 at the Christensen Field House in Fremont, Nebraska. Visit our website: http://www.oldtimemusic.bigstep.com/
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