lantern festival

After a busy day at the beach celebrating Ben's 2nd birthday and trying not to look at Dan Carter, we decided to cap it off by visiting the lantern festival. Jonty had been in bed all day with a cold and chest thing and Nic was asleep early but we hauled him out of bed to go. He slept in the car and just as we woke him the festival was officially opened and cacophany of loud fire crackers were let off. It took Nic about an hour to get over that so he was a bit scared the whole time. However, he was won over by the lovely lanterns and all the activity. There were thousands of people there and it was great to see so many families out on a warm balmy night...a rare event this summer. We loved it. We ran in to some library people I knew and also Alex, Pete and the boys and saw Steph and Andy on the restaurant tram as it went by which was a real hoot. It was a lovely interlude out in to the real world on a Saturday night and it was great to feel part of the city and something fun.

Veiw from the Town Hall looking across to Victoria Square with the Victoria towers building in the background

Nicholas a bit pensive...an unusual state for him

One of the many lovely displays