Monday, February 11, 2008

Waitangi Day - London Style

There are approximately 20,000 New Zealanders living in the United Kingdom. About 80% of those live in London.
Waitangi day has become a big deal.
A big, drunken deal.

Pub Crawl Map

Note: the tube line is not actually shaped like a kiwi


A lot of people started at Paddington at 10am. That was too too early even for us and we didn't leave the house until 11am. When we got to Paddington there were ... a few people scattered about & we called a friend who was on the crawl and found which station he was at.
We tried to catch up and amazingly, found him amongst all the thousands of people.

Cute photo of Craig & I


We ended up walking half of the tube stops. It was the first day since we've been back in London where (if I was in the sun) I honestly did not need my jacket.
No scarves, hats or gloves were worn. Craig spent the day in a tee-shirt.

Goat Tavern


Apart from standing outside this pub, and one for a toilet break, we didn't step foot inside a pub all day.
We followed the advice of TNT (the NZ, Australian & South African magazine) and brought our own.
I even brought plastic cups for my wine.

And my camera.



Nurse taking over the steel drums.

Our little Crowd

Happy Birthday?

Being sensible near Sainsbury's

Craig and Chris being the sensible grown ups that they are.

Hey Chris.

Westminster Abbey & a plane

(I'm secretly and less obsessively continuing this mini project)

New Zealand guy

We got to Parliament square at around 3pm. The haka was scheduled for 4pm.
The crowd grew and grew and grew.

Crowd at Westminster

A Sea of Black.


The tv3 cameraman almost pushed me off the wall I was standing on. Not pleased! His boss (and perhaps reporter?) apologised but he (grrr!) did not.
Not that I hold grudges or anything.

Hi Tanya!

We missed the haka. We could hear it and see a swarm in the middle of the mob but ... we were too far away.

Even the guy looks wary.

ick.

Red wine? Baaaaad idea.

New Zealand shirt

Blue eyed boy

(my new favourite photo of Craig.)

Parliament & so many kiwis

Horse-headed cow

Crowd at Westminster



Dusk. It's after 4pm!!

London at night