You might say this has been a very "enlightening" weekend (pardon the very corny pun...please!). Pretty much since Friday afternoon, when Jay and I stepped off the boat from Rangitoto, we have been at beautiful Albert Park (located right in the heart of downtown Auckland) taking in the lantern festival. Every year, the Asia New Zealand Foundation holds the event to help kick start the Chinese New Year. And since New Zealand has quite a large Asian population, you can imagine how awesome this event is!
This year is the Year of the Dragon, and the scaly, fire-breathing beasts were running rampant all weekend long - albeit, in a less frightening form. (Well, except for maybe the stilt-walking dragons, which seemed to terrify the kids as much as they delighted them. Click the image below to watch the video.)
If you're in the market for any kind of Asian food (which I am pretty much any day of the week), you'd find it here - everything from pad thai and butter chicken to octopus (for those that like to tickle their taste buds with things of the more "tentacley" variety). The whole weekend was a wonderful blur of food stalls, fireworks, karaoke, karate demonstrations and more. And the best part of all? Except for the food, everything was absolutely free!
Mango shaved ice thingy, Mmmmm...
Octopus snack, anyone?
Here's a little video that Jay took near the food booths, which gives you a bit of an idea of how crazily huge the crowds were. (Note the random happy dude at 14 seconds, who we didn't even notice until we uploaded the video a little later...I love random happy dudes! Click the image below to watch the video.)
And of course those beautiful, intricately-designed lanterns....
The first sheep we spotted in New Zealand!
We have no idea who this person is. She just hopped in the photo at the last minute, haha...
Friday night, I discovered my profound love for Chinese reggae. "Chinese reggae?" you might be asking while scratching your head. Didn't think such a thing existed, did you? Neither did I, until I was introduced to the smooth, groovy sounds of Long Shen Dao - who are considered China's first, and best, reggae band. Long Shen Dao means "Way of the Dragon Spirit," so what better band to help ring in the Year of the Dragon? I raised my head to the stars in the warm night sky and let the cool reggae vibes wash over me, still amazed (and grateful) of the fact that I can forgo the winter coat and mittens in early February! I loved Long Shen Dao so much, in fact, that I ran directly to their booth right after the show and picked up their CD...and the next night, Jay and I watched them perform all over again! Here's a video I took of the band, doing what they do best. (More than anything, I loved the keyboardist's (the guy to the far left in the white jacket) sweet-ass dance moves, which he happily displayed all weekend long!) Sorry for the shaky camera work, but it's hard not to hop around when these guys are rippin' up the stage, as you can tell from the crowd. I don't have a friggin' clue what they were singing, since I don't speak Chinese (yet), but it was still sweet sweet music to my ears! And hey - music is the universal language, idden it? (Click the image below to watch the video.)
For some better quality footage, take a look at Long Shen Dao's first music video for the track "The Heart Guides the Way," probably my favourite tune of theirs...so lovely and mellow.
I have read comments that said because things like Facebook and YouTube are blocked in China, the band has no idea how far their music is reaching out into the world or the impact it has. Kinda sad when you think about it. So, if you like the videos I've posted and are keen on the sounds of Long Shen Dao, spread the word and also help spread the Chinese reggae love!
We would've happily watched Long Shen Dao perform a third time on Sunday evening, but we became too swept up in the terribly awesome karaoke performances. Some belted it out quite well; others, not so much - but hey, they all had bigger balls than I, so who am I to judge? I think we heard Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" (Canada represent!) about a half dozen friggin' times - and no, I'm not even exaggerating. By the time the sixth person hopped up on stage to croon the tune, we were about ready to split. But man oh man - am I ever glad we decided to stick around. Here are some of my favourite musical gems from the weekend. Again, just click on the images to see the videos. (I mean no disrespect to these folks whatsoever. Quite the contrary - I think they are awesome. And, like I said, you won't see me up there. For those about to karaoke, we salute you!)
Everybody was kung-fu fighting!
Country roads, take me home...John Denver's in the house!
This guy was one of my favourites from the weekend. Again - I have no freakin' clue what he was singing, but I love his enthusiasm!
To see more pictures and video, click here.
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