Monday, May 4, 2009

New Zealand

Day 1:
Early flight this morning. So not right to be at the airport at 5am. Only had three hours sleep last night, maybe I should start drinking coffee to try and wake myself up...
Arrived in Auckland and went straight to the venue for a fitting and rehearsal, which took forever so we finished really late and we were all so exhausted.
When we finally got back to the hotel, I had a cup of green tea, a hot shower and then crashed into bed.
Day 2:
Had a reasonable sleep in which was very much needed before we arrived at the venue for hair and makeup in the afternoon.
The Auckland show was great. An audience of 1600 people! Had lots of fun doing that show!
After the show we had a bite to eat at a great little Turkish restaurant...olives, dips and pistachio nuts. So yummy.
Then we jumped straight on the tour bus and were on our way to Hamilton.


Day 3:
Arrived at the venue in Hamilton today and it had the smallest stage, runway and dressing room. It was hard to fit us all on stage sometimes but made for some pretty funny scenarios.
In the afternoon I had a manicure and hit the hotel gym, before we all went to see a movie at a cinema up the street.
Day 4:
We had shows all day and night. Luckily the venue in Hamilton is right near our hotel, so we had time to run back and have a nap before the shows that evening.
Ordered room service and watched the movie Twilight in the hotel room. I loved it and also loving Robert Pattinson. Wowsers.
Day 5:
Only one show today in the afternoon, so got to have a big sleep in. That night we all went out to dinner to a restaurant called The Bank to farewell the younger members of the cast who were flying back to Australia the next day.
Day 6:
We had a couple of shows in the morning, before we rushed back to the hotel to gather our suitcases, then we boarded the tour bus again and drove back to Auckland where we flew out to Christchurch that night.
Day 7:
Day off! We have a hire car at our disposal so we went to Governors Bay, down at the jetty, which was really nice, then we went to Takahe castle for lunch. Takahe castle was built in 1919 and is supposed to be haunted...I didn't think it was very scary, until I went down to the bathrooms. It was very creepy! But I'm easily scared so who knows!


Day 8:
Day off...again! A few of us got up nice and early and drove to beautiful Akaroa to go swimming with wild Hectors dolphins! It was an amazing experience! We weren't allowed to touch the dolphins because they are wild, but they came up so close to us. It was so exciting I didn't even notice it was freezing cold! On the way back on the boat we saw penguins and baby seals! Amazing day.


Day 9:
Arrived at the venue in Christchurch for fittings and rehearsals. It was so cold today, the warmest day we've had in Christchurch was about 12 degrees but most days it's at a high of 10 degrees.
Spent the evening watching movies in the hotel room and then had a relaxing candle lit bath before bed. Heaven.
Day 10:
First day of shows for Christchurch. There are less people than normal in the show so we have really fast outfit changes, but only one dresser backstage to help us all, so sometimes it's madness trying to get on stage in time, but it's lot's of fun working with the crazy cast!


Day 11:
More shows, followed by an excellent dinner at Portofino's restaurant.
Day 12:
After the days shows, we wandered around the city and did a spot of shopping before we headed back to the hotel to pack our suitcases. We ordered room service and watched scary movies in the hotel room until we scared ourselves silly! You would think that being an actress and having just recently filmed a blood filled film myself I wouldn't get sacred...but I do!


Day 13:
Last day of shows today. As soon as we walked off stage from the last show we were all in mad a rush to get to the airport to catch our flight back to Australia. We were cutting it fine, but luckily we made it in time and after a great flight we were home!