remember remember

Remember Remember the 5th of November
Gunpowder treason and plot
We see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

Wellington celebrated Guy Fawkes Day a night early this year with fireworks over the harbour. Guy Fawkes Day is a holiday celebrating the foiled plan of Guy Fawkes to blow up Parliament in London. It's celebrated with bonfires, fireworks and everything that goes along, and why they celebrate it in New Zealand, I don't really know.

But Amy and I were eager to join in on the festivities, so after a small dinner party last night, we walked down to the waterfront with a group of friends. It seemed as if all of Wellington had the same plan as us; all the benches, walls, rocks, and anything else that could be sat on, were crammed with people. Teenagers seemed to be everywhere, setting of Roman Candles and chasing each other with sparklers; parents bought their kids ice cream and french fries at vendor booths; and those lucky enough to own a boat or kayak were sailing out to the middle of the harbour to watch the show from directly underneath.

We decided to head over to Oriental Beach, which was full of teenagers setting off fireworks, but as soon as the main show began at 9 when it was finally dark, they calmed down a bit. The fireworks were huge, with red, purple, white, green and orange sparks falling in an array of shapes - the standard firework shape, hearts, waterfalls, firefly like things and so much more. After sufficiently "ooohhing and awwwing" for about half an hour, and the fireworks ended, the masses of people left their seaside perches and headed into town, while the teenagers resumed their own haphazard fireworks shows from the beaches, rooftops and hillsides.

All the cafes, restuarants, bars and foodcourts in town were packed. Even the grocery store was swarming with people buying beer. But eventually we found a cafe on Cuba that had almost enough outside seating available and we sat down to enjoy late night coffee and dessert, only occasionaly interupted by waves of smoke drifing down the street from the ongoing festivities, which of course wouldn't be complete without Roman Candles, smoke bombs and a full drum corps.