The Kaiwaka Lantern Parade is open to all walkers, young and old.  It's Kaiwaka's annual celebration of the past year and of our hopes for the next: a rite of time, acknowledging change of seasons and all of the good that comes with them.  Make your lantern and bring it along to join your neighbours in lighting the way around our village, enjoying the entertainment along the way.

The parade is 1.7km long in total this year.  The parade gathers at the start of the exercise track on the KSA grounds at 5:15pm on Saturday14th June, and starts at 5:30pm.  We walk along the exercise loop to the end of the bush trail, then back down the bush trail to the KSA carpark.  (If you're a little  unsteady on your feet you might choose to leave the parade at this point and rejoin at Eutopia, since the next bit includes some broken ground).  The parade continues down to Gibbons Road, crossing roughly at the Fire Station to take the track past our soon-to-be-Skatepark, walking under the SH1 underpass, climbing left at the pedestrian bridge to proceed along the west side of SH1.  We'll be walking on the paved surface past Kaiwaka Clothing and Archers Concepts, turning around the back of the Cheeseshop, and reaching the gate into Eutopia by around 5:50pm.

There's a brief stop at Eutopia for hot drinks before the parade continues to walk under the SH1 underpass to the shops on the east side of SH1.  We'll go round the corner past the library and up Mangawhai Road to the crossing where our Volunteer Fire Service is helping us to cross the road.  The parade then walks up the north side of Mangawhai Rd through the school grounds and into the KSA, returning to rejoin the festival by around 6:30pm. 

The braziers and marshmallows will be waiting for us!