Hello from New Zealand!

[_ed_]

Hi everyone - just a quick message to introduce myself. My name's Richard, I'm 36 years old and live near the top of the North Island of New Zealand. 🙂

I first became a Nightwish fan almost 20 years ago, when I stumbled across Century Child during my last year of high school. But then the group of friends I hung around with at university for the following few years didn't seem to think that metal was very cool, and I kind of forced myself to like what they were into so that I could fit in. As a consequence of that (and an expensive rental property I was living in at the time in Auckland), I ended up missing Nightwish's only New Zealand show to date in 2013. It's gonna take me a while to forgive myself for that!

But since 2014 I've been living with a partner who loves metal (although she's more into stuff like Pantera, Metallica, industrial etc, but she still enjoys the symphonic stuff too), I've finally come back around again. I can't believe how long it took me to realise that people should just listen to whatever sounds good to their ears! But better late than never, I guess.

This looks like an awesome community, and I'm happy I found it.

[Fugazi]

Hi Richard, be most welcome, and thanks for introducing yourself! Were I in a band with any measure of international fame, I would make sure every tour included NZ and Australia! I know it's probably expensive to fly a band and crew and gear from Europe, but what a beautiful country! I have only been to South Island, but I'd like to return one day and visit the North too.

I guess it's a life lesson learnt the hard way, but haven't we all missed so many great shows because we weren't that much into that band or had other priorities or worries at the time. I mean, Nightwish played in my home city mere months before I discovered the band. But I was quite mad when I realised it years later! 😁

Anyway, feel free to explore the forum and join the discussions, the more the merrier!