One. Matt & I had drinks at the Maple Leaf recently before a movie.
Two. The Maple Leaf is a Canadian Pub.
Three. I like Canadian bacon.
Four. Before the movie, they played this ad featuring Kevin Bacon (hysterical!)
Five. The movie we saw was The Hobbit.
Six. The movie was filmed in New Zealand.
The point of this post...
The point of this post...
A few weeks ago on a Saturday afternoon, we joined four thousand young
Kiwis in London as they celebrated the 30th Annual Waitangi Day Pub Crawl.
Each year New Zealanders in London celebrate with a Pub Crawl along the Circle Line.
This year the Circle Line happened to be closed for "scheduled maintenance"
but they managed without it.
We didn't actually join the pub crawl part.
(Well, maybe for just one.)
We did join them as they gathered at Old Palace Road between Parliament and Westminster Abbey for a Haka.
Doesn't she look just like Zooey Deschanel?
Everyone was in such good spirits. There was quite a bit of drinking,
but nothing too rowdy.
They had a large area blocked off for them and a decent police presence.
These airline hostesses rode through on their Boris Bikes with cardboard
Air New Zealand airplanes around them. Very cute.
At 4pm a large group of young men tore off their shirts and performed a traditional Haka.
Unfortunately, I couldn't get close enough to see it.
It was freezing that day, none of them seemed in a rush to put their shirts back on.
(Serious blogger here. Documenting life in London just for my readers.)
"Come on down from there, Mate."
He came down and they shook hands and had a laugh together.
Everyone disbursed peacefully after the Haka, off to their after parties.
I read later that there were no arrests.
The police were very friendly with the revelers, posing for pictures and
even letting them pose on their bikes.
So, if you are out and about next February
and see some people dressed up as sheep,
follow them to Parliament
and you might get to see a Haka!
