Cuba St Carnival

Saturday was the Cuba St Carnival. It was a huge party all day. We walked around the streets in the city center. There were booths selling clothes, art and jewelry. Tons of people were out walking to streets. There were performances and concerts all day. We happened to catch a really awesome Latin hip-hop group. We also saw a comedy performance by the guy who holds the world’s record for the most rubber bands on his face. While he did not do that trick for us he did put a few on his face & looked quite ridiculous.

Greg & I went to a performance by the Wellington International Ukulele Group. We went because Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords is in this group. We were certain that we knew which one was him & were taking pictures of him the whole time. Then they announced that the man we’d been photographing was named Nigel Collins, and at the end they said something about how Bret couldn’t be here today. We were shocked, but I’m still sure that the guy we were looking at was Bret and that Nigel Collins is his stage name or something. I’m going to research into this & see if I can find out the truth. It was fun no matter what though.

Went out later that night for the Parade. We got there too late to get any decent spots so I spent the entire parade peering between people’s shoulders, jumping, and even getting picked up by Greg or Todd so I could see. There were some cool floats & parade dancers such as storm troopers, cross-dressing hula people, a colossal squid float, a dancing dragon, pole dancers, and giant bride and groom skeletons. Loads of fun that made for an exhausting day.

Heading to Christchurch tonight with Toph and Ashley to see Emily, a friend from Marietta. Time to say goodbye to Andy, Rachel, and Greg. Its great that when traveling you meet so many awesome people, but at the same time you’re constantly saying goodbye to them and that stinks.