Waitangi Day Pub Crawl

I was told this day was going to be huge and it was.

My day started at 7.30am on Sat 3 Feb (I didn't go out Friday nite as I'd been out every other nite. My flatmates had tho so took awhile to wake up) when 2 of my flatmates, Dan and Shaun, and I went to breakfast at Paddington where we met 2 of their mates, Chris and Blinkey. Breakfast was an essential start to the day, I had been warned.

About 9.30am we wandered down to the first pub and were part of the first 20 people arrive. Now knowing that last year there were 8,000 people (yes you read correctly, eight thousand) I knew the crowd would soon grow. And it did.

The idea is to go from Paddington to Westminster using the Circle Line tube (its one of the underground tube routes here) getting off at every stop, having a drink at the nearest pub and moving on around. You want to get to Westminster by 4pm for the haka which is performed by the guys. Now for logistal reasons, its not possible for all of us (8,000 remember) to all be in one pub at the same time so most of us bought drinks along the way from off-licenses, which is the equivalent to dairies back home, except they also sell alcohol. This made the day relatively cheap as well. So imagine, 8,000 (quite possibly more) jolly (drunken) kiwi's walking the streets of London making our way to Parliament square. What a day!

People were dressed up in all sorts of outfits, there were blow up sheep everywhere, NZ flags being worn as caps, general mayhem.

The best (and proudest) moment of the day was when the 2 guys I'd had breakfast with (my flatmates mates) raised the NZ flag outside one of the flash hotels along the route, which meant taking day whichever flag was flying (didn't see which one it was). The staff at the hotel weren't too bothered by all this, as us kiwi's have a good reputation of being nice drunks, as opposed to English football hooligans, of which I've seen plenty. Not only were we all proud of seeing our flag flying in London, but we all burst into the National Anthem. Trying to get NZers to sing our anthem at big sporting events is normally a mission, however being over here, away from home, but with so many other kiwi's, I was proud to hear we all new the words and were quite happily belting them out (in tune or not, it didn't matter!)

We all finally made it to Westminster where apparently the haka was performed. I could see the arms doing the actions but it was way too packed to get anywhere near where it was being performed. My flatmate Dan said it was a whole lot more organised last year, quite possibly because there were less people to organise. Who knows.

The day didn't end there of course. Off to a pub (the first one I'd been into all day!) for a few hours of dancing then made my way home. Flatmate Dan was home by himself so was pleased for a drinking buddy when I got home, flatmate Shaun fell through the door an hour or so later.

If you're ever in London around Waitangi Day, this day is a must.

Will try send through some pics when I can.

Here's a link to my friend Andrea's pics:
http://www.kodakgallery.co.uk/ShareLandingReg.jsp?Uc=ax3tkah1.50r58c0l&Uy=-foqtlg&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=314514696134_218459494133

Just click on View Slideshow. And excuse the drunken ones, its to be expected!!

:)