It has rained all day long, but fortunately stopped right in time in the afternoon. We enjoyed our javanese dinner at our temporary home and then went to the city to see what’s up there. It wasn’t completely dark yet so we decided to walk up the “Center or New Zealand” hill before we moved on to the center where the loud music came from.
To our surprise there were no fireworks to see and no fire crackers to hear at all. NZ seems to be quite strict on prohibiting those kind of things. Not sure if that’s fortunate or unfortunate. Something was definitely missing here.
In front of the cathedral there was a stage with live music and some hundreds of people around. The next weird thing: Total alcohol ban on the streets! Even on a day like that. We saw a man with a paper cup of beer in his hand stepping over the line that marks where the cafe sitting area ends and it didn’t take a minute until some officer appeared out of nowhere to send him back immediately. Poor kiwis. No wonder all the nightlife action is well hidden in bars and pubs.
At 00:00 only one guy (probably a tourist) dared to ignite one small fireworks from a hidden spot. Long live the rebels!
