Haare Mai

Sunday 30th November 2008

It's another blog guys sorry they have come thick and fast but we have done quite a lot the last week or so and want to share it all with you.

The last day of spring had crept up on us and it seemed to signal the first day of Christmas here in NZ as today was the 75th annual santa parade and we were heading into the city to watch the spectacle and we didn't know quite what to expect.As we stepped off the ferry you could hear the crowd noise getting louder as we walked up Queen Street.

As we were swept along with the masses we managed to step aside and find a great place to watch the parade from.Right on 2pm the first band struck up and the theme to rocky played out as they marched past and the thing was underway.Over the next 90 minutes we were treated to a fantastic show as display after display passed us by.It was 24 degrees and the pavements were lined with people sitting on rugs and enjoying the show.

The favourites appeared to be Kung Fu panda and Sponge Bob (not very chrissmassy,i know but the kids loved them!!) Mel and I thought that the pipe bands were the best and a very good standard.There was an announcement to say that 340,000 had turned out for the parade,which is a quarter of the Auckland population!!!

Right at the back of the parade was Santa waving to the crowd and ho ho ho-ing as he went past with his reindeers with streamers and glitter filling the skies.We ducked out of the sun and sat with a cold beer watching the entertainment as it carried on in Aotea Square for the next few hours.

As we walked back down Queen Street later on the only sign that there had been so many people around was the amount of litter and post parade debris on the floor,but the cleanup process had begun and little carts whirred around while sweepers swept everything into neat piles for collection later on.It turned out I had read the timetable incorrectly so we had a short wait for the next ferry to arrive (turns out even I am not perfect,which was a shock to me too!!!) and just like that another day had breezed by.

Lots of Love

M & M

xx