It was a gorgeous day for an outdoor festival!
There was plenty of great entertainment, including the Beat Girls, a fab girl group playing tons of covers spanning the decades...
They had us up and dancing-- here's Ranjeeta (the locum from the UK that I replaced) and Denise (my superfun neighbor)
I found some wandering performers that actually made me look SHORT! :)
Oh yeah, and of course--- the tasty mussels! Some beautiful displays by different local cafes....
New Zealand has a TV show called "MasterChef" (similar to "Top Chef" in the States). Their Season 1 winner, Brett McGregor, came and did a cooking demo....
And then we got to try his tasty Asian inspired sweet chili mussels. Yum!
There were heaps of competitions going on throughout the day, including an attempt by Christchurch mussel worker Ratanak Keo's attempt to break the Guiness World Record for Mussel Opening!
The record was set 4 years ago at the festival by his older sister. He shucked 100 mussels in 2 mins 21 seconds, which missed her record by 10 seconds. Still fun to watch, however!
Lastly was the Mussel Munch, in which yours truly signed up to compete. Forty people from all over the globe- to see who could eat a container of mussels the fastest! Here I am, geared to go!
Munch munch munch munch!
That container must've had about 25 mussels in it. I won my heat of 10 competitors, finishing in 1 minute 31 seconds (without spewing, haha). Unfortunately it wasn't enough to be the overall winner-- some guy from France finished it in 41 seconds!
The Havelock Mussel Festival was a great day out. However, I'll be perfectly happy if I don't have to eat another mussel again anytime soon :)
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