Day 98 - Hanmer Springs Christmas parade

You wait your whole life for a sunshine-y Christmas parade and then two come along at once.  The long-awaited Hanmer Springs extravaganza kicked off at 6pm, after a 30 degree-plus day (famine or feast on the sunshine front)

The anticipation mounted...

 ...the crowds were expectant (and the crowd was pretty much all of HS!) ...

...pipers, cyclists, llamas, majorettes...

...the mighty Hanmer Springs Rugby Club (who should clearly have won float of the day)...

...and lastly the great man himself

We congregated under the monkey puzzle tree and the warm-up uni-cyclist turned out to be a man of many talents

All of which leads to the next line

"On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me :
Eight sausies sizzling,

Seven sheep a-singing,
Six seagulls squawking, 
Five keas cackling, 
Four possums playing, 
Three cows a-cuddling, 
Two pavs a-cooking, and 
A kiwi in a palm tree."