Waitangi Day

Waitangi Day isn't something that really is celebrated in New Zealand.
I think it needs to be a day where us New Zealanders can have the day off and be proud to be a Kiwi, but it usually just ends up being a big fuss about how the land was 'stolen' or whatever each persons view might be.
Waitangi Day in London was most definitely an experience I'll never forget. It was really about us kiwi's over here in this big place all banding together and making a big statement from a small country! It was a day we're we could shout at the world and say we are kiwi's and we are proud! It was really what Waitangi Day should be about. And though I may have missed the haka at Parliament Square in Westminster but there were 7000 other kiwi's there to celebrate it.

Waitangi Day London style involves a Circle Line Pub Crawl, which starts at 10am and finishes at 3pm with the Haka. The pub crawl I didn't attend, but I did go along to the after party. The Waitangi after party boat that is, on the HMS President on The Thames. I also managed to bring along some great friends who aren't from New Zealand, but keen to join in with the celebrations. We all painted each others faces with the red Southern Cross stars off the flag, we we're dressed in black, I was wrapped in the New Zealand flag and ready to show them what a kiwi party is like! When we arrived at the boat we were greeted with K Bars and Speights, and the Speights went down a treat. Everyone on the boat was all dressed as a kiwi icon, there was the Mad Butcher, the 4 Square man, a girl dressed as a pavlova, Watties tomato sauce, there was lots of bumble bee's and even a kiwi to name a few.

There was live bands, a sausage sizzle, and an amazing atmosphere. I was so excited, it was great to be around some fellow New Zealanders and chat with those who had never been to this before and people who had. I did talk to a guy and this was his 6th year out in London for Waitangi Day. There we're plenty of non-kiwi's there too which was great to see. It was just an all round great night out, but then again I was just so excited about the whole situation.

As the night went on, so did the dancing, drinking and having fun, but that did soon have to come to an end so as the crowd slowly disappeared and the band packed up it was time to finish our drinks and head home. We'd all had an absolute blast! And it will definitely go down as a great night out in my book.
I'll be doing that again next year, and I plan to dress up as something amazing, though I'm not too sure what yet, I do have 363 days the think of a costume.