Sochi and Moscow

Final Band Images from Aachen

Here are some stunning images sent to me by a very talented photographer - check out the website: www.bilderkino.de.

Privet from Russia

A quick hullo from Moscow! I just spent a few days in Vladivostok and what a wonderful time I had, thanks to my great hosts Martin and Ira Tate. I stayed in their home by the seaside and woke up to the sight of wind surfers on the water. In between meetings, we went out on yachts and to Martins farm in the countryside where I was fed wild honey by a local man! It was fantastic.

Hi from Seoul

Yes, our European Tour is over! Its great and sad at the same time. When I get to Russia tommorrow, I will try to catch up and post up all the remaining photos. I have some great ones but lost my USB (or is it UBS)so was unable to do that while in the UK.

Thanks once again to Sol, Renate, Pascale, Claudia, Leonhard, Daniel, Katarina and Maru - everyone around us who spoilt and supported us. We all miss you already.

Rule Britannia...(yeah right!!!)

HI from London. We have been in the U.K for a week and to be honest, it was hard at the start. For one thing, it is very expensive here - a pie, mashed spud and peas costed out at nearly $NZ24 - far out!!! Sounds strange, but hard to understand what people are saying, and guess what - they're all speaking English!!!!

Hartlepool was memorable because we had Te Hiras birthday there and we met a couple of nice men at our concert, one being the manager of the Studio and the other being a member of the audience.

Anyway, three memorable things from the U.K - Hebden Bridge, a beautiful, lovely looking village full of very cool people - activists, socialists, feminists, unionists - every 'ist' there is. We had a wonderful night at the Trade Centre. The place rocked. We loved it. The second thing that happened was that the lovely Ed Simpson had organised concerts in 3 picture theatres. After each performance, we screened documentaries produced by my darling Toby Mills (with me helping out!). It was a wonderful atmosphere created by Ed, a great concept.

The 3rd thing taht happened was that we met Bruce Simpson thank you (don't even know his late name) who invited us to park up Helga the bus outside his 'apartment' then invited us in to feast on a boil up. We were shown such wonderful hospitality that it has totally transformed our opinion of England. Bruce is even organising the transport of all our luggage (and believe you me, there is tons!) to Heathrow today. Yesterday, we sat in the Old Vic pub and had a few drinks for hours, it was a very pleasant way to spend the day. Last night, the wonderful roopu of Ngati Ranana welcomed, entertained and hosted us. They are all great performers, singers and I was so embarassed at singing publicly in front of them - after a great party at Bruces that ended at 5am that morning - the voice was a little worse for the wear! Anyway, check out these photos and I will post up some more during the next couple of days when I am more organised.

A great time in England - thanks to some very lovely people we met along the way...the Tribe has and continues to expand.