Governors Bay Community Carols – Friday 20th December

For many years a feature of the run up to Christmas in the village of Governors Bay has been a picnic at Waitahuna, hosted by the owner Gavin Bain.  Sadly Gavin passed away earlier in the year which meant his property was unavailable for the gathering this year. 

 The local residents’ association decided to organise a similar event in his memory, however, to be held on the Governors Bay school grounds.

The First Nowell - a beautiful location but unfortunately not such beautiful weather…

 Unfortunately a couple of days prior to the event we went through a sustained period of heavy rain which made the school grounds unsuitable.  The organisers had anticipated this possibility, though, and had a PlanB:  They liaised with the owner of the local pub, the Ōtoromiro Hotel, who kindly allowed the event to go ahead at the pub.

So, with the band installed under the veranda, and with the rain holding off for most of the evening, the local community got together to sing Christmas carols and festive songs and generally have a good time.

At one stage the compere for the evening announced that an ad hoc choir of young people would sing ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’. Only the kids were told that fathers had to accompany their children…

Children (and their fathers) sing We Wish You a Merry Christmas