I don’t personally have any photos of the following events, but fortunately the party that I went to had a resident photograher who has generously posted pictures online. The shots are mostly PG, but be warned that these ARE pictures of a New Years Eve party.  They’re not bad, but it might not be advised to open them at a work computer.  That said, enjoy! 🙂

http://marsden.smugmug.com/Events/KAOS/2011-12-31-New-Years-party/20839226_87f5M6

“Its almost time!”

“Hush!  Get ready!”

“THREE…”

“Wait, already?  Man!  This was a quick year!”

“TWO…”

“Where did she go?  I need someone to kiss, quick!”

“ONE!”

” WOOO! HAPPY NEW YEAR!”

Honestly, it was a bit less intense of a change-over than I was expecting, but I always build things up in my head to a point that reality can never truly match up. This transition point between 2011 and 2012 found me a world away from home, in a garage packed with couches (and people sitting on them), talking with people I had never met before about assassinations and club elections. A strange combination I know, but if you had been there, you’d understand that it wasn’t quite as unexpected as one might imagine.

The day had started out quite well for me; a lazy uninspiring afternoon capped off by a quite excellent dinner of ribeye steak, marinated in a perfect brine and slow-cooked on the open grill. Once dinner had been consumed I had lazed away the rest of the time before the party reading in the spa (Ed note: “Spa” is the Kiwi term for “Jacuzzi”), reading about the heroes of the Warhammer universe on my Kindle. A good day, and definitely an acceptable way to get myself ready to end 2011.

The party that I was attending was a party that my flatmates had invited me to, a KAOS event – a group from the University of Canterbury that stands for “Killing as an Organized Sport”… not literally killing, obviously, but they run huge games of assassins – where each person is assigned a “mark”, and you get “kills” with squirt guns, pine cone “grenades” and lots of other rather sneaky tricks. As soon as I heard about their games I knew I wanted to hang out with the group, and this party would be the first real KAOS shindig that I’d been to. I’m honestly not sure what I expected, but looking back I don’t think I was nearly prepared for how insane and fun the party would end up being.

I met up with Carla and her friend Mikey on the way over, and we all rolled into the flat together – stashing our bikes out front and making our way into the main area. The night itself quickly blended into one long string of awesome, but a few highlights would be:

• Hanging out and mixing drinks with the bodyguard of the dictatrix. When we’re talking about a club focused around large-scale games of assassins, it just makes sense that the president of the club (dictator or dictatrix in this case) would be a juicy target. And thus, would need to be defended. John was that defense, and a few times during the night he was called to jump up from his drinks to “catch a bullet” for the fearless leader. But instead of a bullet, they were “poisoned drinks”… I don’t think he minded the extra shots, heh 🙂

  Unfortunately for him though, New Years Eve is when a new dictator is elected… which in this case means the elected person performs a “hostile takeover” by killing the bodyguard and dictator. Unfortunate for John, but fortunate for the rest of us, since we got a cool show when, during the current Dictratrix’s “happy New Year” speech one person snuck up behind John with an airsoft pistol, shot him, and then “poisoned” the Dictatrix with a kiss.

  Yeah, I think I like this group… their perfectly insane for my tastes.

• Smaller thing, but a good party should always be accompanied by a good playlist of songs. And this party had a quite excellent mix – Rage against the Machine, Lonely Island, Killswitch Engage, and everything else that I tend to like.
• My Christmas present to myself this year was a bottle of Laphroaig Scotch – bought at nearly 40% off thanks to my work at the Liquor Store prior to Christmas. (Ed note: See the entry “A two week contract”). It made for a quite excellent first drink of the new year.
• Most importantly, I got to meet a ton of awesome new friends, and we talked, joked, danced, and sang for hours on end. The dancing may have been uncoordinated and the singing was most definitely off-key, but that’s ok. It was most excellent, and I have to thank all the Kiwi’s that I partied with for being so friendly and inviting.
• A note of warning for any American’s traveling to New Zealand for a holiday like New Years Eve, where drinking is traditional: New Zealanders know how to drink. I was playing it light and not going overboard (since I had to bike my way home), but these people drink like fish, and if I had tried to keep up I would probably still be drunk.