Sydney ✈ Christchurch
Bowie
With so much Bowie nostalgia floating around (and rightly so), I thought I would revisit some of my favourite Bowie collaborations. If it wasn’t enough for him to be an amzing solo artist, Bowie also had a knack of picking just the right people to perform with. And who wouldn’t want to collaborate with Bowie? Gives you instant coolness by association.
Bowie & Placebo
This one seems like a natural fit, particularly after Placebo made an appearance in Velvet Goldmine, which was loosely based on Bowie’s Ziggy days. Suitably dark, suitably Bowie.
Bowie & Arcade Fire
There are so many good moments between these two artists, it’s hard to choose. In 2005 there was a live EP released on iTunes featuring versions of Life on Mars, Five Years and Wake Up. But for me, Bowie’s brief appearance in the bridge of Reflektor (2013) adds that special something to an already great song. Jump to the 4:50 mark and then wait for the way he belts out the third repeat of the lyric “Thought you were praying to the resurrector / Turns out it was just a reflector”. Chills.
Oh ok, you can listen to Bowie sing Wake Up as well
Bowie & Gervais
Given the amount of laughs Gervais has at the expense of others, nice that Bowie was able to help address that balance. Pug Pug indeed.
Bowie & Stiller
Look at the way Bowie takes those sunglasses off. That single gesture is cooler than anything I’ll ever do.
Bowie & Henson
Ok, I’ll admit this song is rather terrible, but the outfit well and truly makes up for it. Plus there’s a Labyrinth boardgame coming out soon, which means we can all own a Bowie-as-Goblin-King figurine. I’m sure I’m not the only one counting down the days.
Home again
Queenstown ✈ Sydney
A*mazing
We all know Queenstown is the adventure capital of New Zealand. Bungy jumping, jet boating, canyon swinging, gondoluging (ok, that one was just Holly misreading the gondola and luge sign, but it’ll probably happen soon enough) – it’s all there. So of course we decided to drive an hour out-of-town and walk through a maze instead.
The Land Before Time
The day starts pretty early when you sleep on a boat. First, at about 6am, the generator starts (incidentally, that also means the toilet will once again be flushable – an important point, and, I suspect, the rock upon which many a relationship has dashed itself to pieces). Then the anchor is hauled up, which when you’re anchored in a fjord with sides that go straight down 40 metres, involves the winding of quite a lot of noisy anchor chain. Finally, the engine coughs into life, and you’re off. I consider myself to be pretty adept at sleeping, but if you can sleep through all that, you’re a more accomplished sleeper than I.
I keep thinking I hear wine. Rain! I mean rain!
Holly looking out the window after completing a Pinot Noir tasting flight.
This is the Sound
We’ve had a few days in the wilderness (sans wifi) so here’s a quick catchup of our recent activities.
Dunedin Bonus Feature: A Majestic Murder
While in Dunedin, we stayed for two nights in accommodation located on the beach in a suburb called St Clair, in a building proclaiming itself to be MAJESTIC MANSIONS. As a lover of Agatha Christie from a very young age, it immediately occurred to me as the perfect spot for an unlikely amateur detective to solve a murder.
Disaster in Dunedin
Don’t let that photo fool you – today was not the best day of the holiday.
Lake Tekapo
Leaving Christchurch behind, yesterday we set out for Lake Tekapo. We’d been driving along for a while when suddenly, out of nowhere, we turned a corner and someone dropped a whole pile of huge snow-covered mountains in front of the car. It was pretty unexpected to see them with so much snow this late in the year – we knew there would be mountains, but I guess we hadn’t really thought about how big they actually were.