New Brighton and Marlon WIlliams

Saturday 30 May

Cloudy but surprisingly balmy kinda day - we pottered around doing bits and bobs in Banjo and marvelling at how warm it was… double figures when we woke and almost T-shirt weather when the sun popped out.

Headed over to New Brighton late morning for a wander along the pier and down the beach. Turned out to be surprisingly chillier out on the exposed coast as the wind was quite strong - especially along the pier.

Walking out along the pier was lovely - looking out at a beach artist raking a 20c coin image in the sand below, a family fishing & crabbing off the pier, gulls large & small swooping and landing on the rails, and moody views in all directions.

Pier action - there were gulls hanging out by one of the fish gutting stations, remains of pipi shells that gulls had smashed on the pier & a crab caught by a family with a crab pot dangled over the pier. The big black backed gulls drifted in on the wind and sat there looking rather ruffled; and red billed gulls with their amazing eye liner wandered up and down the railings!

We wandered down to the beach and walked a couple of kilometres down south, admired a few dogs, watched a speedy blokart, picked up a bit of litter and walked back - warmer now we were at ground level and not up on the exposed pier.

Back to Banjo for late lunch and chill time then we scrubbed up well and drove into town… excited as! Spent a wonderful evening enjoying Marlon Williams in fine form at his final gig before he takes time out from music & touring. The man has a stunning voice and is so humble and personable. He took requests, sang Pretty Woman very dodgily, ran out into the audience to chat with people, welcomed Kommi & two old friends on stage, and bantered with the crowd as they called out messages of love & gratitude for his music.

How he remains under the radar for so many kiwis and the world is beyond me - an incredible talent and a wonderful human. He just won three Aotearoa Music Awards this week but still people say “who?”

Marlon Williams - tu meke!