Waitangi Day: Hundreds of New Zealanders mark national day with huge London pub crawl

Mark Chandler4 February 2017

Hordes of New Zealanders converged on the capital's streets on Saturday for a huge pub crawl marking Waitangi Day.

Hundreds of Kiwis wearing bizarre animal costumes joined the throng, beginning in the Pride of Paddington before marking their way up through Kensington.

Waitangi Day, which is officially marked on February 6, is a national holiday in New Zealand.

It marks the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the nation's founding document, in 1840.

Police were called in to police the crowds as revellers spilled out of pubs and into the roads on Saturday afternoon.

Via Gloucester Road and Victoria, the drinkers eventually landed in Westminster for a raucous drunken haka.

The annual London pub pilgrimage used to take place on the Circle line.

But in recent years it has moved to the streets when the line has been closed.

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