Camping with the Hookers (not the seals)

It was a cold and blustery evening. At approximately 6.00pm, Gitika and Rebecca make their way down to the Marion Street Post Shop. They set up base camp in the doorway of the shop, receiving continual stares from those passing by. Obviously they were oblivious to the excitement about to unfold in 15 hours from then.



During the next several hours as darkness crept in, visitors began to drop by.

First of all, Paddy the Irishman brought his mattress down to mark his place in line ...

Jess bought Hot Chocolate in a thermas ...



Marianna and Hugo bought Havana coffee and chai tea ... (Hugo isn't normally that small .. I just cut and pasted him in, just so you know)



Femke came to sleep over ...



But it wasn't until the wee small hours that the excitement really kicked in.

Here is a photo of us just after we had talked to a man/woman street worker (I mean no offence to someone if I use the wrong terminology) about a Johnny Farnham concert - we never figured out what the hell he was talking about. Those were the only two words we understood but she seemed satisfied with our conversation.



Significant points to remember:

12.35am Man in a company (an inter-island ferry company) van picks up a male street worker. IN A COMPANY CAR FOR GOODNESS SAKE!

12.55am Four girls in ball dresses and a guy in a suit jump (all about 14 years old) leap out of a car and get changed into 'going out' clothes, on the street. Marion Street. Could you possibly think of a worse place?

Finally Gitika realises she really should sleep and she climbs into Femke's car (Femke had been sleeping for awhile by now, inbetween the chairs).

Trevor (another irish man .. is that bizarre or what!) joins the queue after I spend 45 minutes on "my own" reading and speaking to the StreetWise people. He has an IPOD and kindly shares it with me. We listen to U2 (of course) mostly. It's nice to have some company and I don't feel so scared now with two males around. Okay Paddy has been sleeping since about 9.30pm so he wasn't going to be much help should we have had people decide to mug us :)

Eventually the sky lightens and more people start to join the queue. It's getting exciting now with people bustling about everywhere.



We are front of the queue when the doors open at 8am and to pass the time inside we look at the plan to decide what tickets we want. Having had our heart set on the $199, we were pleased to learn that the General Admission were centre field and only $99. So we went with them.

Gitz kindly takes us through the Five Minute Quiz.



The boys strike a pose out of boredom.



THEN ..

We counted down (hey it made it pretty exciting) and I was first there. I must thank Gitika for her amazing kindness in letting me go first. Long story short (too late many will say) .. I WAS THE ONLY ONE TO GET TICKETS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I tried not to leap up and down and look too much like a moron in front of the other 40 people still lined up in the shop. There were A LOT of disappointed people here as I'm sure there are everywhere in NZ.

Unfortunately all my tickets are spoken for and I have no more that I can pass on to all the wonderful friends I want to come with me!

But guess what ...


SHITE!!!!!!!
I'M GOING TO U2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


And i'm still so hyped I can't sleep. In fact .. I'm not that tired .. wonder when it will hit me.... 30 hours awake and still counting...

oh and just so you know, tickets on Trade Me average about $500 each.
Crazy.

The End