October 27

Today is Labour Day! There is a big market in Piha today at the North area. I decided to walk up that way. Lots and lots of traffic, more so then I've seen even on weekends with great weather attracting crowds to the beach. I couldnt tell if the majority of people were visitors or locals but there were certainly enough of each of them. Before I even got to the actual market I realized that there was a bit of a lack of parking. People were parked on the sides of the road on one side and there were traffic cones blocking them from parking on the other. I assume the parking cone side was designated pedestrian walking area but the shoulder of the road was too small and people were walking in the street instead. The market itself was tents set up in a little semi circle, different vendors with things ranging from junk to homemade jewelery. It was all very flea market type stuff which I was a bit turned off by. I was hoping for more of a local arts and crafts thing rather then people hawking 30 year old readers digests and rusty spoons. There were some homemade jewelery items but I'm pretty sure I saw the same guy in Auckland City selling the same bone pendants for $5 a necklace. Regardless it was really neat to see the community all together like this, very active and bustling day.