Frontman and founder Dave Baxter puts being able to squeeze the 16-date national tour in their hectic promotion of debut album Our New Life Above the Ground down to good management and the "exciting experience of travelling around New Zealand and some beautiful scenery and meeting awesome people".
Tour-mates the Mutton Birds and Gin Wigmore were "the nicest people and you can learn a lot from them as well, like Gin is very upbeat and her sets are really energetic and the Mutton Birds are Kiwi classics and they've got a great live set and they're so talented and it's great to see them back together playing again."
Calling from Nelson yesterday, half-way through the tour, the multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter said Avalanche City had what is traditionally the hardest job of being the opening act.
Nevertheless, everyone in the audience had been excited to be there and wasted no time in getting into it, he said.
His instant classic song Love Love Love was especially well received, but Baxter said he had no idea it would become the highest-selling single to debut number one on New Zealand singles charts for a New Zealand band and achieve platinum sales in its first week of release alone.
"I knew it was kind of like a catchy song, but I didn't really know it would be a hit or whether it would go well on radio, so it was a surprise. You really have no idea how a song is going to go."
Baxter said his Apra Silver Scroll award for best song for Love Love Love was on a coffee table at home.
The Cromwell concert will be the closest venue to Queenstown the tour will play and the closest to the resort the English born and Tauranga and Hamilton raised artist has played professionally.
"I love Queenstown. It's a beautiful part of the country so I'm really looking forward to it. I came down to do some skiing once when I was in high school and really loved it."
Tickets are still available for the sixth annual Classic Hits Winery Tour featuring Gin Wigmore, the Mutton Birds and Avalanche City at Olssen's Vineyard, Cromwell, on Tuesday, February 21.
Children under the age of 12 will be admitted free when accompanied by an adult ticket holder.
Tickets are available from Ticketmaster, TicketDirect and the winery tour website.
Gates open 5pm, first act at 6pm and concert ends at 10pm.
Snag Bus offers a service for $40 per person. The Queenstown bus will leave from the Pig 'n' Whistle bus stop at 4pm and will pick up at Goldfields bus stop at 4.10pm, at the Frankton Bus Shelter 4.15pm, at Lake Hayes corner at 4.25pm and at Arrow Junction at 4:30pm.
The bus will leave promptly after the concert from the main entrance at 10.15pm and will take concert-goers back to their original pick-up points.
