At the HikoiWell, the Hikoi went off. Estimates of numbers go from around 5000 up to 20000. I reckon it's always impossible to tell with this sort of thing, especially when people are milling about, but, well, it was a lot, and far and away, as many have pointed out, the biggest protest in NZ since the anti-apartheid Springbok marches back in 1981.

I wandered down for a looksee a bit after lunch, having been stirred from my usual political apathy by the ongoing Scoop reports that were hitting my inbox every few minutes. It was great walking down the hill - there was a strong swirling wind, and every few seconds I got a snatch of indecipherable megaphone action from parliament grounds, and the occasional burst of massed voices as a new chant got under way. As I got closer, I could start to hear the megaphone speaker....

"...has lost their little tamähine, could they please come to the caravan to pick her up. Her name is Ngaio. She has a little Tino Rangatiratanga flag wrapped around her blue jacket, and has red trackpants on. And a reminder to all the parents out there, please hold onto your wee one's hands - we've had several lost children here today, and don't want any more."

Not quite the firebrand exhortations to overthrow the government that I was expecting, but it was a good indication of the relatively good nature of the crowd. There were a few chants that came and went as I wandered the grounds taking some photos, but none of them were too inflammatory (ONE TWO THREE FOUR, DON'T YOU STEAL OUR FORESHORE! kinda thing), a few personal attacks on Helen Clark (I always wonder if the protestors who go on about her being punished at the polls have considered that the most likely replacement is Don Brash - oh well).

Anyway, here's my snaps for the day, click any of them for a bigger version...

In the throng.	Looking up towards Parliament steps.
Looking south across the main body of the protestors. The flags looked great in the howling Wellington wind.	More flag action. And you can get a good idea of the heavy police presence down at the bottom right there.

More photos @ David Farrar, Darkness Network, Scoop, and Rodney Hide (ACT MP).

(Speaking of Rodney, PNN point out that the increasingly blog-addicted right wing MP made one of his recent posts live from the Beehive debating chamber, making it, perhaps, the first blog by any politician, almost certainly in NZ, and potentially the world, who was sitting in a senate/parliamentary situation at the time. Correct me if I'm wrong.)

(And for any non-NZers who want a quick overview of what the Hikoi was, and what it was protesting against, try here, here, here, and here.)
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