Red, sure. But also pink and yellow and purple and white and…

This past weekend was the annual Parnell Rose Festival. Although this is our third year living just up the street, we hadn’t made it to the festival before. One detail I’d never noticed before was how the big container ship unloading cranes loom in the background. It’s kind of cool about Auckland that a lot of things are close like that, but it manages not to feel crowded.

Anyway… back to the festival. The roses are at their peak, which was just lovely. The festival brings out dozens, maybe hundreds of people smelling, photographing, and enjoying the flowers.

And hundreds more bring their kids for games and face painting and so on.

And thousands more who crowded into the food truck area to stand in line for overpriced and dubious quality eats. Go figure.