Two reasons to drink. As if we needed more.
So New Zealand has two large events that happen in February. The first is Waitangi Day, which is essentially independence day... kinda.... Its the day when the European settlers and the Maori decided to stop killing each other and have a beer. Here in Wellington this is celebrated by various dance performances, traditional and otherwise by both the very very young and the very very old and everyone in between. There are also "art shows" which is apparently Kiwi for letting the hoodlums loose with spray cans pointed in designated areas and walls around the town, which results in some really fantastic Maori art with a touch of hip hop added in. Its quite impressive really. There is also heaps of food and drink and booths set up where people sell various crafted trinkets and tidbits. People walk around in dressed in traditional Maori garb and fun and merriment are had by all.
The second event in February is The Sevens. The sevens is the international rugby tournament for the year and its hosted in Wellington. The tourney is held over two days; a friday and a saturday. It is a single elimination tourney with a whole bunch of countries. (USA sucks at rugby, but at least we beat Wales... in your face!!) It show support for the teams one might think that a fan would wear the jersey of their favorite team, or perhaps their colors... but not in NZ. Here, fans show their support by getting as many of their friends as possible together to get drunk while dressed in matching costumes. So you look outside and see eight Captain Planets walk by. Its awesome. Usually the festivities begin friday night as soon as everyone is off of work, having spent the day listening to the games on the radio. This year that was not the case.
This year both events fell on the same day. This equals chaos. Because the start of the Sevens coincided with Waitangi Day people had the day off work, and thus were dressed in costumes and drunk by 10:30 am. It was like a two day frat party. There was free booze in the streets. Free. There were actually booths set up giving out samples of booze. Groups of cops and robbers and batmans and robins roved the city staggering drunk at lunchtime, singing various rugby chants and blowing whistles. They walked down the middle of the street and crowded the buses until the doors wouldn't close. Heather and I just sat down at a restaurant and ate some enormous chicken wings and drank some beer as we watched the hilarity in the street. It was like a mix of Mardi Gras and the Fourth of July. We even saw a group of priests that had toddler shaped puppets sewn face first to their junk. The only thing better than this was a member of the group of Obamas tripping and knocking a girl dressed as slutty bumble bee into a fountain.
The second event in February is The Sevens. The sevens is the international rugby tournament for the year and its hosted in Wellington. The tourney is held over two days; a friday and a saturday. It is a single elimination tourney with a whole bunch of countries. (USA sucks at rugby, but at least we beat Wales... in your face!!) It show support for the teams one might think that a fan would wear the jersey of their favorite team, or perhaps their colors... but not in NZ. Here, fans show their support by getting as many of their friends as possible together to get drunk while dressed in matching costumes. So you look outside and see eight Captain Planets walk by. Its awesome. Usually the festivities begin friday night as soon as everyone is off of work, having spent the day listening to the games on the radio. This year that was not the case.
This year both events fell on the same day. This equals chaos. Because the start of the Sevens coincided with Waitangi Day people had the day off work, and thus were dressed in costumes and drunk by 10:30 am. It was like a two day frat party. There was free booze in the streets. Free. There were actually booths set up giving out samples of booze. Groups of cops and robbers and batmans and robins roved the city staggering drunk at lunchtime, singing various rugby chants and blowing whistles. They walked down the middle of the street and crowded the buses until the doors wouldn't close. Heather and I just sat down at a restaurant and ate some enormous chicken wings and drank some beer as we watched the hilarity in the street. It was like a mix of Mardi Gras and the Fourth of July. We even saw a group of priests that had toddler shaped puppets sewn face first to their junk. The only thing better than this was a member of the group of Obamas tripping and knocking a girl dressed as slutty bumble bee into a fountain.