santa that is.
today was the santa parade. if you were looking for a cute small town parade that you hadn’t seen since the 50’s then it didn’t disappoint. it will not be confused with the rose bowl parade or spectramagic – but i enjoyed it more.
(everyone lined up ready for santa / the royal marines marching band)
bring out the yorkies
(recent immigrants / not so recent immigrants). scots are the biggest ethnic group in nz.
polar opposites on the commercialization scale
there was a big hubbub over the request of the falun dafa church to participate. ultimately there were allowed. i suppressed the irresistible urge to join only be avoiding direct eye contact.
and then comes the romanians. i’m enjoying the parade and then – whoa! – i’m pulled out into the street to dance with the romanians. [ed. the photo is not up to the usual fryphone standards, but with the main staff photographer out in the action the shot was taken by an occasional contributor to nzblog]
the parade was sponsored by the wellington city council and farmers. farmers is an nz department store chain that reminds me of sears or jc penneys from the 60’s – they will have larger stores in cities like wellington and little storefronts in the smaller towns.