The Eight Ball [8Ball]

Common behaviour for a drunk Kiwi

Yes, don’t we all just love Public Holidays.  Here in NZ we certainly need them, we don’t have 25 of them like Brazil do so the few we do have we really like to make the most of and get out there and do what we love doing best, binge drinking that is (for the majority anyway).  Sometimes these inebriated souls take a moment to remember why they’re getting an extra day off to get tanked but let’s me honest, most of them are just stoked they have a free paid day off to get absolutely trolleyed Friday, Saturday AND Sunday night and feel sorry for themselves on Monday while they look forward to a shortened four day working week.

Usually on the NZ calendar we have ten public holidays, ten holy days for us to look forward to shorter weeks and more time to spend with our friends, mammals, families and philanthropods.  This year however, there is a slight change.  As some of our public holidays aren’t fixed on certain days of the week ANZAC Day and Waitangi day land on a weekend and we do not get a day off for them at all!  I for one will NOT be celebrating their causes this year.

In fact, poor old Waitangi day, that sacred day of the year when every NZ’er gets to dress up like what every other country in the world thinks we look like every day, in grass skirts and crazy face paint (like a cat maybe???) along with pointy weapons, will not be celebrated by giving us a day off until 2012!!  So all of you that were hoping to get your freak on this Waitangi day, prancing around the street like some native warrior on the Monday you’ll be very upset to know that you’ll have to do this on your own time during that weekend or just sod it all like I probably will. 

Most NZ'ers dress like this daily

So before you yet again go into your, “Well at least it’s not so bad at the start of the year cos you get a few four day weeks to ease you back in…” speech, be suitably depressed and think again.  From our last official Public Holiday on 4 January we have 63 continuous business days with weekends before we get our next national day off!