This weekend I partook in Waitangi Day, a New Zealand tradition having to do with the English signing a treaty with the Mauri (Maori?). I was told that this day doesn?t usually involve massive amounts of drinking. However, in London, all the visiting Kiwi?s have started the tradition of participating on the Circle Line Pub Crawl .

I was a bit nervous about having to drink 27 pints in one day and manage the travel between the pubs through London?s tube network. Luckily none of the Kiwis bother trying to finish the whole crawl. From what I could tell, on Waitangi day the tradition is only from Paddington to Westminster. Thank GOD! Impressively, the pub crawl was popular enough to trump Chinese New Year. In fact the circle line got so crowded, that they evacuated the stations and shut down the line temporarily. Luckily this line is down for maintenance most weekends, so no one noticed the inconvenience.

Started pretty civilized.

Then, gradually got more joyous: Movie

Then a bit rowdy. Silly drunken sumo wrestlers.

Then the crowds formed.

Here’s a movie of how many people it takes to shut down a tube line.

And finished appropriately with a haka.