The horse and coach rides must be the most popular because the biggest queue was here. The boys loved riding on the carriage.
The double decker bus was the second favourite and after we had waited patiently, it was our turn but they wanted to ride "on the top" so we waited for the next one. Everyone wants to ride on the top!
The Tongan dancers were wonderful and we sat entranced listening to Tongan music and watched various traditional dances. The ladies were a little cold in the strapless Tapa.
A display of vintage cars saw many people having a good look. Here we see Master Five and Master Four sitting in one of them. There were many more things to see and do, but alas we ran out of time. You can read more about them here.
These lovely girls willingly posed for me - aren't they pretty in their wattle clothes?
Here we see Miss Wattle 2010 graciously posing before hitching a ride with the horses. She was dressed in a lovely ballgown of green and yellow and sprigged with wattle. She said ballgowns and horses don't go well together and gave us a demonstration of how to fix this problem by tucking her gown into her purple satin bloomers!
And of course - the wattle. Did you know there are over 600 different species throughout Australia? One species of wattle, Acacia pycnantha, is the floral emblem of Australia and is featured on our coat-of-arms.
Today's Quote: You are invited to the festival of this world and your life is blessed ~ Rabindranath Tagore
9 comments:
Lovely wattle girls.
I would want to be on top of the bus too! You get a much better view up there. I was lucky and was invited on the press launch of the Leeds open top double decker tourist bus, nibbles and a drink too! Thats one of the great things about my Leeds daily photo
Beautiful photos - what a lovely outing.
I'm glad to explained what wattle was!
What great fun you must have had. I would have enjoyed this immensely...so much color and energy...and it looks like good energy.
I thought the Tongan girls dancing in front of what I assume was a church (with the cross) seemed rich with irony ... there was a time, I'll bet, when such dancing was deemed pagan and of the devil by the religious folks...
By the way, if I come to the next festival, I want to ride on top!
Re the alligator...funny. I'll bet someone brought in a baby at one time and let it go when it got big enough to be dangerous.
This is a great post!
BlossomFlowerGirl, this looks like a fun carnival. There are so many people, and the event is colourful. Best of all I'm so glad you post the wattle tree. This reminds me of The Lake Isle of Innisfree, the poem by William Butler Yates. Now I can imagine what a house that is build of clay and wattles looks like ;-)
Wow, you had a lot of fun!
Guess they chose the slimmest Tongans they could find, as they usually are a bit... wider
A great day out! Thanks for taking us along.
this festival sure's fun, fun, fun.
oh i wish, we have something like this too!
These photos are glorious! Love the colours and the costumes and the carriage and the big red bus! What a fun day!
My dad was given some saplings and told they were christmas trees. They grew without pine leaves and we wonder why they were called Christmas trees.
I came to see the wattles in full bloom. The are so beautiful. I told my Aussie sis, no wonder they were called Christmas tree by the person who gave it to Dad.
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