Hi all,
Sorry for the lack of posts last week, I was super busy in preparation for taking Xamia Arc Clothing all the way up to Hamilton for the Atomic Market – one of the largest annual vintage events here in New Zealand. Anyway on this post I’m going to talk about my trip as well as the actual event itself, most of the pictures will be from my Instagram, so if you follow me there sorry for the double ups!
I woke up at 6.30am on Friday in order to get the 7.45am bus to Hamilton. I pretty much just rolled out of bed into comfy clothes and made sure I had everything with me. I usually wake up at around 9am on weekdays as I really despise mornings. I ended up doing my makeup on the bus and it wasn’t too shabby!
The whole trip took 9 and a half hours which was the longest I’ve ever bussed, or travelled in one go. It was nice to see the country though, it’s so green at the moment as we’re at the tail end of spring (and 90% of NZ trees are evergreens, we don’t get a leafy autumn). Here’s a picture of Mount Ruapehu I took as we were going along the Desert Road.
We arrived in Hamilton and headed straight for the hotel. The bus was a little late so we got in at 5.20pm and had to find and walk to the hotel as check in closed at 6pm. For dinner we wandered around for a while exploring the main street of Hamilton (I think) but decided on Subway to eat at the hotel. We stayed at Camelot on Ulster and it was really nice. Also our apartment has very low water pressure so taking a shower was amazing, and pretty much like getting a massage. It was so hot in Hamilton, we had to have the air con on all night.
Then another bright and early morning on Saturday, waking up at 7.45 so we could be at the Classics Museum with the stall set up for 9am.
My hair wasn’t actually fully dry in the morning so I had to keep it pinned up and finish styling it just before the market opened.
My stall was situated between Made with Love NZ and Rita Sue so there were plenty of goodies to look at throughout the day. I actually bought the chevron hair bow in the above picture from Made with Love and I also bought my first snood from her!
There were so many stores and people I knew of and finally got to see and meet which was wonderful. Also seeing so many beautiful pinup ladies was great, it was also lovely as Miss Victory Violet stopped by for a quick chat.
I was also approached early on by Tony McKay who’s photographic work I have admired for so long. Definitely follow him on social media if you like beautiful images! I was hoping I would get a chance to check out his photobooth he had at the market, which also is an amazing stall idea, so much fun. He’s definitely top of my list of photographers I need to work with at some point.
I also got to meet the woman behind BellaVintage, I have been a fan on Facebook and Instagram for quite a while now! Their stall was situated directly across from mine so I kept popping over to look at the goodies. There were sooo many clothes I wanted. I spotted this red 50’s number and instantly fell in love. I have literally been looking for a red 1950’s dress with 3/4 sleeves for years, and it fits perfectly! I can still hardly get over it!
The store wasn’t as amazing looking as most of the others’ but we did come up on a bus with only one suitcase to hold the shop! The skirt I was wearing was actually the most popular garment at my stall which was pretty funny. I can see why though, I adore the fabric.
Huge thanks to the Sweet Painted Lady for organising it all and making it run smoothly!
There were also some amazing pancakes at the market which kept me going through the day. At the end after we packed up we checked out the Jukebox Diner and had some delicious bacon & egg baps which gave us the energy to get though the rest of the day.
After all that we walked back to Central Hamilton and stopped on a grassy area and rested for a long time. At the end of the market we had 6 hours to kill before our overnight bus home.
https://instagram.com/p/9xiBWyt0iz/?taken-by=xamiaarc
I ended up changing my hair to make it more suitable for the bus and got to try out my new snood! I also picked up a new petticoat from Two Lippy Ladies! My previous petticoat was a Leg Avenue one and I haaaated it, hence why I never wear a petticoat in my OOTD posts. The petticoat is by Banned and is super fluffy and lovely! But tragically I left it on the bus on the way hope, I’ve filled out a lost property form so hopefully I get it back!
In short we had some Dunkin’ Donuts (I hate that spelling), looked around a huge night market which puts Wellington to shame, and had dinner at Donburi-Ya (I love Japanese food). The bus left Hamilton at 9.40 and I spent the first 2 hours being horrendously sick, loads of fun. We were lucky enough to have special large nice seats but I still slept horribly and couldn’t wait to get home. We finally arrived in Wellington at around 6.40 and I have never been happier to be wind blown.
I had an amazing time at the Atomic Market and it was so much fun, even though I was manning a stall.
