kiwi burn

Prior to arriving at the festival, I went on the Tongariro crossing, 5 hours return to the top of a volcano crossing... beautiful views of the land of Mordor!

Burning man in new zealand? I arrived at this festival not knowing what to expect - all I did know was that it was hard to imagine I was going to "burning man"; buying preparations felt unreal.

Upon my arrival I looked around, not many people here; still early in the week, gates not even officially opened. Decided to help out where I could, Corey and I helped tie knots on all the pillars of the temple in the blazing sun for a good few hours.

Now while I was on the boat crossing over to the north island; I thought to myself: there has to be a kiwi that is burned at kiwi-burn; otherwise its not really a "kiwi burn". But Bruce said there wouldn't be any... preposterous!

While I was in wellington, I saw a closed shop that was selling what looked like wooden kiwi's for 40NZ$s, sweet! I thought, I'll buy one and burn it! Only the next day I found out it was made of lead, not wood; damn!

However, now I was quite intent on burning a kiwi bird... I spoke with one of the organizers, not sure how it came up; but he was also interested in seeing a bird in flames and he told me that if I wanted to I could work in his workshop; grab some wood, and throw something together with his tools.

So, I started to work out some ideas, I wanted it round and fluffy; the idea of building a sculpture was highly appealing! Its been years since I made sculpture.

The only thing I could find though to use was a jigsaw, and some flat boards; Now that I have used some pretty full on farming tools; I figured a jigsaw would be a piece of cake. Something had to be done to make it 3D though; so I had the idea of making two sides and a head in the middle.

Corey helped sawing; Jane added wings and branches; Kathy donated the colored paper, Cass the lights for getting it lit at night. Spray paint, cut bamboo, nails for light fixtures... The whole process just kept getting more developed until I suddenly had a fully fledged art piece which took 4 people to lift and a trailer to tow up to the top of the highest hill.

There it stood, overlooking the entire festival; and at night you could see the pin lights from all around. The march to the top was arduous for some; since it was full of thistles. I've been really happy with my work; it was so cool making something beautiful to burn! People loved it, its been really special to make this suggestion come true. I also wrote a sign next to the Kiwi for people to read.

Bruce and Kathy had the best bar / camp on the playa. Free drinks all you want and excessive amounts of glow in the dark decor made the place stand out beyond the crowd. They did such an amazing job and really set the standard high for many future years to come.

Saturday was particularly cool, in the morning I worked on the Kiwi construction some more, and then by 6pm we had an equestrian competition. Horse jumps were set up on a derby course on the field and all of us gathered together. The judges laid down the rules: the horse runners would win points based on their costume, style, sexiness, speed and performance. Those who could make the crowd laugh the most would win unknown prizes. Bribery of the judges: encouraged. I was the first person to run the race: never an easy task. Fortunately I got a pink costume from the "cheap end" camp just a few hours before; and a gun from my neighbors... I looked just ravishing! And utterly ridiculous, which was exactly what I needed to ensure a good win!

I ran the course, fell over as much as I could [for bonus points] and then stopped to shoot the judges with my gun [Charlie's angels style]. There were some fantastic performances after me; so it was not really certain that I would win... everything from a green fairy who removes all her cloths half way through the race to ensure that the judges realize who needs to win, to a guy who stopped racing just to play his guitar. We had people riding each other, people balancing beams on their chins, it was amazing how entertaining this whole event idea was!

In the end, the scores were announced... and I got 2nd place! Which was really cool! Especially since there were about 20 contestants.
=-D

After the horse race, Corey shot me with my own gun and told me he challenged me to a duel in the thunder-tipi. So, an hour later, we got together in the ring and we were handed two foam sticks to bat each other with. Naturally I was still in my pink costume; I felt like a jedi; I acted as tough as I could, spitting, giving him looks to make him feel weak; playing the crowd game - its psychological in the end, is it not? But in actuality, I wasn't really into the idea of hitting someone, especially not Corey - my friend... but Corey was wanting this, so I tentatively took a little swing at him... after just two seconds though, I slip and fall on my but! Corey moves in and swings at my face and hits me in the eye! Ouch! He went for a second swing... but I rolled away just in time - NOW I was pissed off! Die Corey!!! DIE!!! So I stood up and batted at him repetitively, aiming for his head with every blow and pushing him backwards as much as possible. My flower necklace exploded all over the field like hippy blood! 3 rounds later, exhausted, but naturally I defeated this vile contender! Boohaha! I got to see a video of myself, and its uncanny how much I look like a Jedi knight in the footage! Its really cool! [I will upload it for you to download at some point, its only 4mb]

On the night of the burn, it felt just like burning man, the art bus pulled up to play beats, people gathered around and lit the man in a blaze of pyroflamania - the temple was disassembled and chucked into the flames and then the topless druids among us took us to the fire-labirenth with their flags and fire staffs: a fire-passage way carved in the earth which was lit and we all marched in line through the fire passage way in single file, winding down the passage way with drums to guide us.