Waitangi Day Celebrations in Wellington

This Saturday we decided to head into Wellington again to join in with the Waitangi Day celebrations. This day marks the signing of the Waitangi Treaty on February 6th 1840. The Treaty was signed between representatives of the British crown and various Maori Tribal Chiefs and gave New Zealand a British Governor and provided Maori with all the rights of British citizens. It also recognised Maori land ownership and gave Great Britain sovereignty over New Zealand. It is considered by many to be the founding document of New Zealand.

The Treaty was written in two versions, one in English and one in Maori. This has led to various problems as the two versions actually say slightly different things so there is no definitive consensus as to what was actually agreed at Waitangi. Nevertheless it is obviously a very good excuse to celebrate by dancing a lot, listening to some good Reggae music, eating a lot of ice-cream and watermelon and generally having a good time in the sun.

There was a really good drumming group that got most of the crowd dancing.

The boys really got into doing a their Haka dance.

Some really beautiful dancing.

It was also the Rubgy 7s in Wellington this Saturday. This meant that as we wandered along the waterfront we kept being passed by people dressed up in a wide variety of weird and wonderful costumes. It seems to be the tradition to dress up in order to watch the 7 minute rugby matches.

The girls were delighted by Batman and Robin in flip flops, a whole troupe of bright red crabs, Roman Centurions and a group of Crusty the Clowns. It made our walk back to the car extremely entertaining!