The Year of the Ox

Auckland is the city with the largest Polynesian population in the world but it also boasts a growing Asian population (ie Chinese and South East Asian), with nearly a quarter of a million Asians reported in the 2006 census, making up a fifth of the city's residents and representing the nation's largest Asian community.

So Chinese New Year has been a relatively big thing, culminating this weekend in the Auckland Lantern Festival. It was the tenth event of its kind and also marked the 20th anniversary of the twinning of Auckland with its Chinese sister city, Guangzhou. We headed over to Albert Park to find Queen Victoria surrounded by farmyard scenes consisting of brightly coloured, ornate lanterns.

She was not amused but we were.



For more photos, click here.