Kiwi Campers, RDU Big Day Out Road Trip

Wednesday 16th (Christchurch – Wellington)

A collective of RDU staff members embarked upon a pilgrimage to the Big Day Out on Wednesday the 16th of January. Jamie & Blair from the Cut Lunch Show & Markus Gabrielle traveling in the comfort of a six berth campervan provided by Kiwi Campers left town at 1pm on what turned out to be a mad dash for the 6pm ferry. Every thing was going smoothly until around 10 minutes north of Cheviot when the coil light on the dashboard appeared. Immediately the van lost power and the tension was evident. As the time ticked away, so did our hopes of making the coveted Big Day Out. A complex session of speed reading the onboard manual quickly identified the problem to be somewhat superficial and with a turn of the key we were back on the road. Whilst we do not condone speeding, Jamie’s driving certainly pushed the boundaries and we were making pretty good time until we hit Blenheim, where of all places we hit rush hour traffic. By the time we hit Picton we were 10 minutes late for checkin, and in typical Cut Lunch fashion, we were the last vehicle to be put on the Ferry. Upon arrival in Wellington, we parked up on Willis St for the night. Not only was this intended to provide easy right of passage to Radio Active the next morning it also meant that we could crawl home from town if need be.

Thursday 17th (Wellington-Auckland)

As it turned out the Willis St parking manuever was a wise decision, and Jamie and myself turned up somewhat glarey eyed at Radio Active at 8am after a mere 3 hours of sleep. By around 11am we were fueled up and back on the road and making good progress until about 20 minutes out of Porirua, when Markus ‘Baghdatis’ Gabrielle had a melt down and realised that he had forgotten his wallet. Needless to his say his actions meant we spent at least an extra hour on the road. The rest of the day went relatively smoothly with Markus, Ben and Myself sharing the driving load, whilst Jamie ‘The Destroyer’ Bennett made up for lost drinking time on the previous leg.  Jamie was also first to crack in a van lacking any sort of female activity and in Turangi we were forced to make a stop for  ‘magazines’ which he qickly made use of.  It was around this time that Jamie asked some dodgy questions of us, the most noteable was “Man or Goat?” I can tell you that opinion was devided but Jamie’s instant answer was Goat. Go figure! With 30kms left in the journey, and around 9hrs into the second leg Auckland greeted us with a traffic jam that held us up for a further 2 ½ hours…typical! Our problems were further extended by yours truly (Blair ‘Brian’ Ensor) not heeding the warnings of the fellow road trippers who clearly outlined the fact that the camper toilet was approaching its capacity. Needless to say it wouldn’t flush, and I found myself pulling a risky maneuver in South Auckland, to empty the tank. I won’t delve to deep, but this experience has without a doubt scarred me for life. 

Friday 18th (Big Day Out)

The Big Day Out dawned and we found ourselves somewhat jaded after arriving in Auckland at around 1am.  We were due @ the Big Day Out early doors for an interview with 95bfm’s Mikey Havoc on the Big Day Out Breakfast. This went down without too many hitches and the Bfm crew suprisingly even got the crowd to shout out a big hello to Chch. Following that we settled in for a good crack at the immortals lounge bar alongside a number of New Zealands G-grade celebrities and then went and checked out a host of acts. Jamie was hanging out for Rage but whilst waiting we managed to fight our way in to the boiler room for Dizzie Rascal. The place was crazy, packed with people hanging off the sides of the tent and climbing the pylons inside for a better view. Other highlights were Kool Keith (Dr Octagon), Krafty Kuts and the Dynamite MC, Rage Against The Machine and my personal favourite Carl Cox who layed down a masterful set to conclude the mahem of the Boilerroom.

A big thanks must go out to our sponsors Kiwi Campers who provided us with the camper for the trip. www.kiwicampers.co.nz


Thanks guys,

Blair Ensor