The Great Grey Lynn Park Festival

This weekend we took a break from the resettlement process and had some fun with the locals. On Saturday, we joined 100,000 other JAFAs* at the Grey Lynn Park Festival, now in its 19th year. It was a great neighborhood bash, featuring music on three stages. (Best part was the South Pacific, hip hop version of Santa Clause is Coming to Town - you had to be there.) Lots of booths featuring arts/crafts/interesting junk, as well as social & community groups. (Ali got a prize for being the first person of the day - out of about a hundred people - to correctly answer all 10 questions about Palestinian issues. The prize? A jar of manuka-smoked sea salt!?!?!?) There was also food booths for all persuasions, although we were particularly intrigued by the BBQ mussels: over a flaming grill, you get a couple iron woks deadly hot, add a couple dozen HUGE green lipped mussels, shake them a few times, then squeeze in some oil. Once the flames die down, toss in garlic & chilies, toss a few more times, then flip the whole thing onto a plate. Big Maori guys were flipping two flaming woks at a time, very impressive. There was also tons of stuff for kids: farm animals - including alpacas, which are so cute, and pony rides, those crazy inflatable jumping thingis, face-painting, carnival rides, etc. A beautiful day seemed to bring out the most diverse mix of folks imaginable, and a good time was had by all.

*JAFA - Kiwi nickname for Aucklander. I've heard two versions of what it stands for. Locally, it's Just Another Friendly Aucklander. (The other is what the rest of the country means by it.)

Cheers,
Sandie