christmas and a sporting hero

 

the day started with church (and some hide and seek), then kezia and me went in to auckland on the bus to watch the annual santa parade

we happened to walk past temepara george who is one of the commonwealth gold winning netballing team the silver ferns.  i had been reading an interview with her before we left so i knew she would be there. 

This being new zealand and her being lovely she whizzed across the safety tape to have her photo taken with kezia!

then kezia and i found a shady spot under a tree and waited for the parade to start.

it was a strange mix of kiwiana, mardi gras weirdness, corporate sponsorship and christmas (in that order)

but it was great !

for an hour and half we sat in the scorching sunshine watching marching band after marching band and floats go by

various inflatables were negotiated by humans on strings (glad there was no wind)

and here’s the mayor who was pleased to see me

but not so sure about the people behind me

he’s only recently been voted mayor of the super city, so perhaps this was his progress report

there were some great maori dancers of course

and this lady who seemed to have raided a kids fairy shop was having a ball

 

 

this was probably the most religious float

it actually had two jesuses on it.  one up on the roof and the other in the float below

i liked the up top jesus best as he had a little mullet

 

and of course the kids were there to see santa

well, all the kids except these three.

it really was a great day out.  it took 90s mins for all the floats to go by

and as we walked down the hill to get our bus home we could see the precession in two directions

it was heading down the road in the distance, and then back up in the foreground

here’s temepara in the parade itself

and here’s a festive darth vader and storm troopers

one of these chaps looks like he should give his uniform a clean

more inflatable things

whilst kezia and i were in town, esther was at a fantastic birthday party.

  

the party was for her friend amy and it was a competition with 12 or so activities in as many locations throughout the local area

one of the activities was at our house so we saw her for a short while as she went by.  they are now having dinner at the beach.

    

jane’s been busy doing school work and we’re all exhausted so ready for the new week

here’s the full selection of photos from the day if you are up for seeing some more (these ladies in the foreground on the first pictures are air stewardesses who just happened to be walking by !)