Hello everyone. Welcome to the first of many Opshop blogs from the road on the MORE FM Winery tour 2009.

It's some 20 odd degrees outside. It's been a stunning few days in terms of weather for the two shows we've played thus far (we didn't play the first Matakana show due to a family wedding last Thursday but we hear Hollie Smith subbed in admirably).

It was said to have been 40 degrees in Gisborne over the weekend and the trip to Napier on Monday afternoon saw us staving off temperatures in the mid to late 30s.

The MORE FM Winery Tour is in its third year and its such a privilege for us to be asked to join Anika Moa and Dave Dobbyn and their associated bands on the road.

From my hotel room I can see some of the crew guys enjoying a few quiet ones beside the pool enjoying the early Monday evening on their day off.

By crew I mean the guys who set up the staging and all of the production equipment and generally make the show run behind the scenes.

I only mention this because somewhere along the way it seems the terminology has changed and if you ever meet any of these guys DO NOT make the mistake of calling them "Roadies".

They are technicians or techs, as in guitar techs, drum techs, sound techs etc...

Oh and there are some other important people involved like promoters, tour managers, PR and Merchandise peeps.

There's a real family atmosphere emerging amongst the 52 people in the touring party.

Like any family I'm sure there will be tears, tantrums and anxious times (one roadie... I mean tech, has already lost a laptop to a beer spillage), but all in all I can tell there will mostly be fun times ahead.

I can't think of a better way to spend the last weeks of summer.

It appears the crew have now started a bellyflop competition in the pool... sounds painful from here.

This is the second tour of the summer for us the one thing I realise as we drive around the country is that I never get sick of the view from our, thankfully air-conditioned, Previa.

We certainly do live in a beautiful country!!

I think we might be going off to dinner now... be sure to check back regularly for more blog action in the coming weeks. Who knows, if something interesting happens on video you may even get the odd vblog.

Cheers

Bobby.