Santa Claus is Coming to Town

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Picture the scene: It's 2pm on a Sunday afternoon, the sun is shining, it's almost December and the streets of Auckland are lined with literally thousands of people waiting excitedly for one of the biggest events of the year. The occasion? The annual Santa parade, of course!

We joined the throngs of people on the kerbside along the slopy banks of Queen Street, just past Vincent street where our hostel is located, and the atmosphere was almost electric. Parents had camped out for the best spots and kids everywhere were waiting with baited breath for the masive procession to start. We were promised a grand parade and we definitely weren't disappointed.

The parade was made up of all sorts of wonderful elements such as clowns that painted kids' faces and cheerleading squads waving their pom poms and performing backflips all down the road. There were dancing cartoon characters - we spotted The Simpsons, Scooby Doo, Spongebob Squarepants, Bananas in Pajamas and lots more. Local immigrant communities also put on excellent performances and we were treated to not one but two displays of Chinese dragon puppets; the Koreans did a great show of dancing drummers but our favourite group had to be the Japanese who not only danced and played music but were extremely graceful and seemed to put their heart and soul into putting on a good show for the crowds. There were several brass bands, at least 3 pipe bands and all through the procession we were impressed at the vast array of bright colours and fabulous costumes.

It was a Santa parade in a completely different league to the one we saw yesterday in Matamata which was a more home-made affair. We enjoyed both parades equally but there was something about the vibe in Auckland that made it that bit more special. It was hardly surprising to learn that over 20,000 people turn out to the parade in New Zealand's biggest city every year but what surprised us the most was that there wasn't any trouble. We hardly saw any police officers as we followed behind the procession through the city centre later on and the only barricades we noticed were in place purely to close certain streets to traffic - there was nothing needed to keep the crowds in place as everyone was just there to enjoy the show. Even the masses of litter generated by such a large crowd was quickly collected by an army of designated litter-pickers.

It was all really well organised and made us feel even more that living in Auckland could well be a viable option. Still, lots more places to see before we make that ultimate decision!

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Comments

[Judy]

It really looks neat. Btw, who wrote this time? Was it you or Jude? Why am I asking? Well I like the way it's been written. I got caught up in it. Good job. Something tells me Jude did it. :)