It all comes to an end

Saturday 21st July

Can't believe it's the final day already! Time really has flown by 

We started it morning.. Or rather ended up last night at 2am at the cast bar so we were nice and fresh for a big day ahead (same cannot be said for our boots though!). A 10am wake up call for our final  waiata practice was successful and then it was fully dressed for 12 for the street parade. 

The citizens of Basel, and probably everywhere else in Switzerland lined the streets of the city to watch the famous parade which included all the  acts from the tattoo and also other bands and groups - 41 in total. We were number 23 in the queue which made for a long (long) wait. We marched behind the NZ Army band and the parade went well with an estimated 130,000 people attending. There was lots of waving to the crowd, a sprinkling of rain, a lot of dodging of the horse 'droppings' which were unfortunately ahead of us, some very sore arms from rubbing jackets and an impromptu Haka with the NZ Army Band finished off with free drinks - non alcoholic of course!

Back to the hotel to pack our things ready for the big night ahead of us an walking back to the arena the streets and packed with a definite buzz in the air! 

Before we can think about our performances though we have gifts to give accompanied by our Waiata (credits are due here Shaana and Nani for organsising these and getting us to a presentable state, for those interested this is now posted on utube) first for Carol, the executive producer of the tattoo we presented a West Coast Pounamu and sang Tiaho Mai Ra. Next for Eric Juliard, the producer of the tattoo we presented a Mere greenstone and sang Kotiro Maori with actions. Finally for Angelo, our lovely liaison officer we also presented him with a Pounamu which he loved and put on straight away and we sang Puti Puti to him also with actions. Everyone seemed to love their gifts, and our singing - Eric even invited us to join the tattoo choir for next year!! 

Presentations and parades always signal the end of the tattoo but before we can start to get emotional we've got two big performances to do so for now there's individual practice,  team run through and dressing to be done, with the finishing touch of Colleen checking skirts and plaids of course! 

First performance felt good but as there a couple of "smudges" to the picture Colleen marked us a 9.9!! Definitely amping for the final performance tonight but have few hours to kill first. Our final dinner at the food hall took care of a little time but for now it'll have to be charades! Top marks to Char for her actin out of chitty chitty bang bang and to Colleen for guessing it!

Time now for the last time we'll go through the routine.. Hair checked, individual practice, team run through, all dressed and checked then for the nerves to build up for the last of 17 performances! As nerves filled the air standing begin the drawbridge we all gathered together for our final traditional hands in the middle and some inspirational words from Danny on the production staff who always bought smiles to our faces just before the drawbridge opens!!!

We pulled off a 10 for our final performance, everyone felt great that the display went well and a job well done!! However sad at the same time that the tattoo is over!!!!

Final night celebrations are always memories that girls will hold on to!! The NZ Army Band were the entertainment and again did a fantastic job!! Really got the crowd going, of course with another haka and Hayley even got happy birthday sung for her (even though it wasn't even her birthday) !

With most of the groups leaving early Sunday morning I'm sure there were a few sad goodbyes to new and old friends!!!! Sunday will be a very slow day for most!!

By Rach and Hayley