Santa Claus dropped a bombshell at the weekend, picking Oamaru as his favourite town in Otago.
Despite the "quite damp" conditions, he said the children of the North Otago town were lovely and he also admired "all the old buildings" in its heritage quarter.
Speaking to the Otago Daily Times after a rain-soaked parade in his honour down Thames St, Mr Claus admitted his wife, Mrs Claus, was dealing with health issues in the lead-up to Christmas this year. The jolly old elf said he had a "very busy month coming up" and as children were asking for "mostly BMX bikes" this year, he would need his big sleigh, which he parked up at Weston for the weekend.
Mr Claus brought four reindeer to the Waitaki District Santa Parade, including his lead reindeer Rudolph. He rested the remaining three, leaving them to eat the grass at Weston, growing well after recent rain. Event organiser Anton Roswell, in his sixth year of running the town’s first major Christmas event of the year, said he was very impressed by the size of the crowd as several thousand people again lined the street, despite the forecast bad weather.
Mr Roswell declined to name his favourite entry in the parade.
"It’s hard to pick one out, because they are all so different."
"Things like the Knight Rider car is something different, and the guys from Star Wars in their costumes is something different," he said.
The parade featured a good representation from the district’s growing Filipino and Pacific Island communities.
Emergency services were well represented as were a number of area businesses, having floats in the parade.
Mr Roswell said this year’s parade, at 55 minutes, was the longest he had overseen.
