Coca-Cola Christmas in the Park

Can anyone back home picture watching a concert outside in a park just two weeks before Christmas? And also being warm while doing so? I am sure not, but this past Saturday, we were able to do just that! It was in the Auckland Domain, which is a HUGE park here in Auckland City, and it is called Coca-Cola Christmas in the Park. It is a free event (which was a big reason we went), and it is a night filled with singers that are popular over here (we didn't recognize one name!), a fun Christmas tree and fireworks at the end! It was a fun, but very interesting experience.

Here below is the stage that everything took place. We had pretty good seats, but we still weren't able to see much once it all started. It was very cool though, because it is such a relaxed event, that people just bring blankets, picnics, and cameras and sit and enjoy this event. We were surrounded by New Zealanders, people from other countries, and Maoris, which are their native settlers over here.

This picture below is the big Christmas tree that they had in the middle of the park, and you can also see the stage here too. The craziest part though is how many people are in this picture, and like I said, we had pretty good seats. What you cant see, is all the people behind us and to the right and left of us. We heard that there was an estimated 1.4 million people at this event, which is huge, considering that is the amount of people just living in Auckland City! And they were all here at this event! It was insane. Ill tell you more about the concert itself, but to give another idea of how many people there were, we were walking home after the event, and they closed off some roads that were right by the Domain, and so many people were walking on this road, that Matt at one point took a video of the road, and I cant put the video up, but there was just a SWARM of people in front of us, and also behind us all walking home! It was so crazy, the entire road was full! It was said to be the biggest event of the year!

Us, hanging out waiting for the concert to start. We are in jackets, but this was starting to get late; all day and up to this point we were in shorts and t-shirts. How crazy is it that we were watching a Christmas event in summer clothes!?!

We had to take a picture of this candy. Like I said, this was a free event, but they make their money by selling things like Santa hats, and candy such as this. I have personally never seen this candy, and neither has Matt. I am not sure if it is sold in the states, so correct me if I am wrong, but we had fun tasting what we think to be a foreign candy and we can't even pronounce the name of the candy! It was quite good though.

So, the concert, like I said had tons of artists that we did not recognize the names of, and tons of bazaar stuff. Some artists sang Christmas carols, some sang the songs that they are known for, and some sang songs that made no sense at all as to why they were in the concert. At one point, the announcer lady was talking about the next song, and she was saying, "This is a song about being in love with your best friend...etc", and the song was Lady Gaga, Bad Romance! What?!?! How is that about being in love with your best friend?!? I don't understand it, but we got a kick out of it. We also are not so sure why that song (and others) were in a Christmas concert, but like I said, it was entertaining to say the least.

It was also really cool, because at one point, they brought a bunch of Maori singers/dancers on the stage, and they sang a Maori song in the native language, and they were in native dress and dancing a native dance, and the people all around us got up and started singing and dancing with them. No matter if they were Maori, Kiwi or not, they all sang and danced. It was so cool to see how united this country is. I just couldnt see Americans watching Native Americans doing a tribal dance and us getting up and dancing and singing with them, so that was really neat to see.

So anyway, it was a really fun and INTERESTING experience, but it was cool that we would never get this opportunity back in the states, so it was fun to go to. And the picture below of course, is the tree lit up at the end, and we also got to see a big fireworks display, which was just as good as 4th of July back home, but we were SO close to the fireworks here. It was awesome!

Coming soon... Muriwai beach! Stay tuned and thanks as always!

Much Love,

Carla and Matty