We fought the typical Wellington crowds yesterday at the Petone Carnival. That is we ended up parking a block away from our meeting location! The hardships of living in Wellington.
At 11:00am we met our friends Andrew, Cheryl and their children Jacklyn, Rachael, and Megan for a day full of adventure. The first few hours of which were at the fair.
Petone is the far north community on Port Nicholson Harbour (wellington harbor) It took us 15 minutes to drive there from the house (including time to find parking!)
Pretty much a typical carnival, a few rides geared towards younger kids. (Dennis loved them.) Overpriced food and the ubiquitous Wellington coffee merchants. In this case I counted four traveling coffee vendors all of which made premium coffees.
The fair started at 11:00am and continued until after 7:00pm. In addition to rides, foods and other vendors there was chalk drawing, petting zoo, costume contest fireworks, sculpture and a few beach fires - more about those later.
The costume contents was coupled with a polar plunge. Yes contestants had to run down the beach into the water and go swimming. This was greeted with typical kiwi enthusiasm to dressing up with many folks just itching to go for a plunge in their costumes.
The beach sculptures were quite interesting with many teams building a wooden something or another to show case their favorite group. However with everything kiwi there is a twist. These sculptures were to be burnt just before the fireworks. Wonderful beach fires. The best sculpture by far was the driftwood guy. He had a nice collection of drift wood dogs watching him build a driftwood horse. It was a hunting theme afterall! I went up and stuck up a conversation with him. He loves building these things and goes from event to event. He had no problems seeing his creation going up in flames - says he enjoys watching the children's reaction to the fire. And you do get to see the children's reaction to the fire. In a typical kiwi fashion the burnings took place with everyone bunched up around the platforms. They burned them one at a time and we just went down the beach in a crowd. I was about 15' away from the fires myself and the kids were all lined up on the rope with their faces aglow.
After the burning the fireworks! Let me tell you they were excellent! Fifteen minutes worth all very close right off the end of the pier. They surprised everyone with a few water based explosions. A simple array of flares coming out of the water. As these were nearer, and did not go as high they had a different feel than the typical fireworks a nice touch. You can read all about them here http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK0907/S00274.htm
I like the picture I took of the driftwood guy with his half finished creation. It shows Wellington in the distance quite well. Click on it go get a bigger view. And here is a link to his details in case you ever want a driftwood creation for your yard :) http://www.myspace.com/driftwoodguy
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