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Friday, November 11, 2005

Guy Fawkes Day

There is a tradition here in New Zealand much like Forth of July but it is called Guy Fawkes day and takes place on the 5th of November. The story goes that Guy Fawkes was a guy that was caught in the cellar of the House of Lords with 36 barrels of gunpowder on November 5th, 1605. Guy was only one of the many conspirators that tried to blow up the English House of Parliament and just happened to be the first caught. This day is celebrated or commemorated by bonfires and setting off fireworks. We went into Napier to watch the fireworks display and were able to avoid the heavy traffic by taking back roads. Mind you there is not really heavy traffic around even on special days like these the line of cars might go a city block. So we found a parking place off Marine Parade and walked down to the beach. The beach was filled with groups of people and beach wood fires spotted the landscape. We made our way through along the beach and toward a stage. From the stage we heard a DJ announce, "Lets hear it for Tina Turner." Here in New Zealand star impersonating is very popular. Queen and Abba have both performed at the local Municipal Theatre in downtown Napier. When we saw a lady (or was it a man?) strut onto stage in a Tina hair wig and a tight thigh length fringed black dress we had to get a closer look. So we made our way closer to stage to watch the show. I thought of my cousin Ken Bailey—he loves Tina. It was a good show. After her last song we shifted our eyes to the sky over the ocean. There was a nice display of fireworks that were even choreographed to music and lasted probably 5min. But the show really did not end because all along the beach people set off fireworks—and they were not bottle rockets. It seemed everyone had bought his or her own firework show worth. We found a friend sitting on her porch watching the fireworks and drinking wine so we asked to join her. Once the crowd had died down we decided it was time to head home.