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Published: February 23rd 2007
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New Zealand
Representing New Zealand!! The day starts with me travelling to London to meet up with Vicki (New Zealand friend) we are staying near Paddington Station and have plans to join the circle line waitangi day celebrations. The idea behind it is that a whole bunch of New Zealanders that are living in Europe all get together and hop on the circle line (Tube) stopping at every station and getting off to have a drink (basically a pub crawl).
Apparently the pubs, tube station and police have caught on to this and pubs are not letting people in, tube stations won't let anyone on and police are everywhere! It was an amazing experience!
First of all Vicki and I meet up with two of her friends, Mylka & Rob (couple) at Paddington station, the pub crawl started at 10am but with Rob working till 1pm and me not arriving till 12pm we hope to catch everyone up. Luckily Rob has a friend Donny who has been going around and everyone is at Gloucester Road station, we arrive, rushing up the stair case to see a sea of black, New Zealand flags, buzzy bee's and all other types of New Zealand memorabilia. People are
The group
Rob, Mylka, Vicki & Donny all over the road, in trolley's, and very drunk! First step for us is alcohol! We find that everyone has brought alcohol and is drinking along the street, the local mini tesco's (supermarket) has run out but we find a small corner shop buying vodka and orange (yum) the only problem is cups! I come up with a brain wave of using pot noddle cups and it works, we even become legends from people walking past. Saying 'Go pot noddles!'
We start drinking as fast as we can in hopes of catching up with the others who are well on their way. Walking with the crowd on our way to Westiminster station to see the haka that starts at 4.00pm. The tube station finally let's everyone on after lots of shouting and singing of New Zealand songs. Everyone crams into the tube, I feel so sorry for all the passangers already on the tube who have no idea what's going on. Not just that, but there is a rule - NO holding on! can you imagine what that's going to cause? people pushing, falling over, screams, laughter. Everyone's having a great time, singing maori songs, dave dobyn, crowded house
NZ Flag
NZ Flag flying sort of anything we can think of.
Arriving at Westminster it's a gorgeous day and everyone crowds onto a nearby green, there is one guy risking life & limbs walking around with an Australian rugby jersey on. Although half the people I met were Australian, or another nationality. Meet a guy who was a truck driver and actually knew where little old Ohope beach was which is amazing and being half way around the world in London I see two people I know! Laurette who I use to work with and my next door neighbour back in New Zealand Kirstin. How freaky is that? By then I had downed a few drinks and I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. Of course after drinking so much alcohol a toilet is going to be needed and being classy New Zealanders we pop down a side street and meet up with others with the same idea. There are three large bins lined up, someone has come up with a great idea of moving the middle one slightly so that people can get in behind being shelted from the two other bins and squat. Not worrying about the cctv camera on
Next door neighbours
This is Kirstin the next door neighbour from in New Zealand the building above.
Once the sun starts setting, the haka is finished we head to a club on the other side of town. Lot's of New Zealander's from the Waitangi celebration are there and I even spot a maori poster on the wall. All and all it's a great night but after a long day of lots of talking, drinking and walking we head back to the hotel for some much needed rest before the next day when we head to church.
Sunday - Rise and shine it's church time! Now this church in London isn't your typical church, it still has singing, a stage, whorshiping but it's all of a different kind. Apparently it's a place for New Zealanders, Australian's & South Africans to get together and drink. (But many other nationalities are welcome) The bonus is they can tell their family back home that they are going to church.
We walk inside and it's a large old theatre, there is already alot of people there, one guy up on stage in a leotard singing old songs and cracking jokes. You need to buy three drinks at a time which saves people from going
Goulchester Station
This is what we see when we first arrived from the tube station up to the bar all the time. We buy three simornof ice and make our way into the crowd of people, we meet three lovely american guys who speak to us most of the day, there are people with scottish kilts on, people wearing only their bra's it's a crazy mix. Vicki and I even get to see a female stripper, a great performance by some polynesian dancers, a beer boat race, unfortunately New Zealand loses to the English and what a scot's men wear's under his kilt. The church is only open for a couple of hours on a Sunday, so it's not long before we are back on the tube station heading to get something to eat before I need to get the train back to Loughborough.
It was defintiely a weekend I will remember, crazy, fun and lots of alcohol!
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LyDz
non-member comment
cool
looks cool aunty!!