Waitangi Day Pub Crawl

In London on the nearest Saturday to Waitangi Day the kiwi's come out in force and do the Circle Line pub crawl. But two things this year hindered this plan:
1 - Transport for London has banned drinking on any public transport; and

2 - Transport for London conveniently closed the circle line for "planned engineering works".

Dumb, but it still didn't deter the hundreds of kiwis coming out and having a good time.

At 10am Tim, Louisa, Richard and myself headed to Paddington Station to start the day off by having some drinks. We were going to dress up but decided that it was too cold, we totally regretted our decision though as heaps of other people did.

Movie at Paddington Station

Stop 1 - Paddington Station

So as the tube was closed we decided to walk to the next station - Bayswater. What we didn't know is that we had an entourage following us because we had a map.

Me leading the pack - doing my mower ->

Stop 2- Bayswater Station

At Bayswater I ran into an old friend and had a quick catch up before taking the tube to the next station.

Stop 3 - Notting Hill Gate

Upon walking out of Notting Hill Gate station we were swarmed in kiwis. They were just everywhere and so were television cameras and coppers trying to keep the flow going. One cop in particular was quite funny telling us that we were behind, we should be at the next pub already and to hurry on up!

Stops 4 & 5 - High Street Kensington and Gloucester Road

We decided to walk to High Street Kensington but in all the commotion, toilet breaks, drink stops and photo op's seemed to have missed it and ended up at Gloucester Road.

<----- Richard, Tim and Louisa doing "the mower" the signal if you get lost, I think it only works for tall people though, don't think you would see my mower over the crowds!

Stop 6 - South Kensington

We decided to take the tube from Gloucester Road to South Kensington. Because the Circle Line was closed we had to take the District Line but the same rules applied - no holding on.

--- > Richard showing us how he does it

Stop 7 - Sloane Square

After our photo-op with the South Kensington sign we jumped back onto the tube to head to Sloane Square. At Sloane Square we met up with some of the girls I met on my ski tour - who wanted to be token kiwis for the day!

Stop 8 - Victoria

The next stop on the map is Victoria. At Victoria we stopped for a quick bite to eat and to say goodbye to Tim (he was a little itsy bit too drunk to continue and went home for a nap! :)

Stop 9 and 10 - St James Park and Westminster

After saying goodbye we headed towards Westminster because at 4pm everyone meets there to see the Haka. Along the way we: - had photos, lost people, got lost, went to toilet in random pubs, left things behind and had to go back, etc, etc so therefore we missed St James Park but made it to Westminster, and the oh so muddy common, to see, well for me, absolutely nothing as the Haka didn't go on for long and I was too short anyway.

After Westminster we headed to the Walkie in She Bu for more drinking and dancing (and getting mud everywhere) and having a good time.

Had such a good day, can't say we actually went into any pubs on the way though!

Louisa and me in our new t-shirts we purchased on the way




Loyal

Sex is on fire

As per usual guys - heaps more pictures in the photo gallery!

Sorry about the formatting, its being spaz and soooo annoying.

Toni xoxo