Waitangi Day 2007 in London

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London
February 3rd 2007

Published: February 9th 2007

Edit Blog Post

jmgrieve

Waitangi day 2007

T-Shirt

Waitangi day 2007
“On the weekend closest to Waitangi Day, New Zealanders in London come out in droves to show their pride. This is one of the biggest and best days out in London all year! Last year there were over 8000 participants and this year looks to be even bigger to please remember to be courteous and polite to any shocked looking tube-travellers on the day. Be at Paddington around 10am for kick-off and see how far you can make it. Bring booze, costumes, and a thirsty liver! “
For more info see: http://www.waitangidaylondon.com/tipsandadvice.htm

We’ll Conor and I woke up a little late (10am) and had a quick breakfast and jumped on the tube. Me dressed in my Tui shirt with my NZ Silverfern flag as a cape, we arrived at Paddington station to a huge massive crowd of kiwi’s and wana be kiwis, all with face paint, temp tattoos, flags, blow-up sheep, full gorilla outfits we even had a team of skin-tight bobsled type guys!! By this time it was about 11am and we opened the first of our beers! I have to say it is only the second time I’ve ever started drink before 12 and it

Waitangi day 2007

Maori Face paint

doesn’t get any easier. So after having a look at all the random kiwis we thought it would be a good idea to head on to the next stop, and this is when the fun really started, just getting in to the station was a mission everything was blocked up with people drinking and talking, with a few rare Brits that had no idea what was going on! Getting down to the packed platform we waited as a district line train arrived and all who exited and entered were booed (its against the pub crawl rules) and once on its tube surfing (no hands on the hand rails), which is great fun. So everyone packs onto the train like sardines in a can and we start singing the kiwi national anthem and all sorts of Maori songs I don’t know. At he next stop it’s a mass exodus out the train past the crowded platform of even more kiwis! And up onto the crowded streets. It has to be one of the fist times I’ve enjoyed a crowd in London!
Any way the pub-crawl goes stops at all the stops around the central line and there is a Haka at

Waitangi day 2007

On the statue

Westminster at 4pm so Conor and I went around at least 7 or 8 of the stops having to walk a few times as there were so many people the police had to close the tube stations!! Well after many drinks with random kiwis we made it to Westminster, for the Haka, I decided to climb up a bit of a monument for a better view which was good fun, of course is didn’t see much but I did hear the it=)
Shortly after that we headed down the road to a pub, unfortunately as soon as I arrived I had to head off to pick up Ryan from Victoria station.
Being the way of things I had to wait in the station for a good hour for Ryan’s train to arrive, so when he did arrive he found me slouched against a wall looking rather like a drunk bum lol,
After waking up a bit we started off home, unfortunately due to “engineering works” the central line we needed was closed so it took about 3hours to get home! Poor Ryan it has taken him shorter to get form Spain to London than from London to my place.