Sunday November 1, 11:59 AM

Black Seeds tour blog

By Yahoo!Xtra Members of The Black Seeds and John Brown's Body will be blogging exclusively for Yahoo!Xtra as they embark on their nation-wide tour of New Zealand. Catch up on their latest antics.

10/29/09 Queenstown

Mike Keenan (John Brown’s Body - guitarist)

We woke up early today because Barnaby had arranged for a group of us to go Bungy jumping. Elliot, Matt, Daniel, Barnaby and myself were the lucky ones. I am happy to say the barter system is alive and well in New Zealand. We successfully traded guest list spots for bungy jumps at AJ Hackett Bungy. I'll be honest, my legs went a little weak as I prepared to jump but I somehow managed to step off a 300’ bridge. We hear this is the small jump.

Later in Queenstown the Black Seeds' manager Chris surprised us with a traditional Maori greeting cere mony. Pretty amazing. Queenstown is posh and mountainous and reminded us of Park City , UT. Minus Robert Redford of course.

This has been a sick day. The gig should be icing on the cake.

10/28/09 Invercargill

Mike Fab (Black Seeds - guitarist & vocals)

Home of the Ranfurly Shield. Tens of thousands on the streets, they said. When we arrived, there was only two people on the street, and they were having a brawl.

Many more showed up to our gig, later that night. No brawls that I know of. Marcus Luch was there. I dedicated a song to him, "Sometimes Enough". I hope he heard it.

It was wonderfully strange to see the boys from JBB removed from their American context and placed deep into Southland. The audience loved them. The next day as we drove to Queenstown on State Highway 6 I stopped in front of an incredible mountain and was pleased that they would be witnessing such kick arse wilderness so early on in the journey.

Mike Keenan (John Brown’s Body - guitarist)

We met the Black Seeds in this working class town that we have heard playfully referred to as the armpit of New Zealand. It seemed cool to us. It was great to see and hear the Black Seeds again. The crowd was rowdy from the first note on. It was great to start the tour with a warm reception.

10/27/09 Oamaru

Mike Keenan (John Brown’s Body - guitarist)

"Sad to say I must be on my way, so buy me beer and whiskey 'cause I'm going far away" An immortal and appropriate Shane McGowan lyric that applies today. I left Saturday night at about 7:30 to catch a train to Boston, a car to NY, a flight to LA, a flight to Auckland, a flight to Christchurch, and finally a 4 hour drive to Oamaru.

Almost exactly 48 hours after leaving home we got a bit of rest and our first taste of NZ. It’s a beautiful country. As is customary after travel most of us went out for a pint, this night at a place called The Last Post. We found out there is an endangered Blue Penguin colony here.

We split off into groups and wandered around town trying to find the penguins without paying the $20 entrance fee. Tommy, Drew and I walked through the historic Victorian part of town and spoke to some locals that said if you wait until dark the penguins are all over the streets.