Grant Robertson and Alf Kaiwai at Eagle Bar Political bigwig Grant Robertson and his partner Alf Kaiwai were amongst the many gay people who saw in the New Year on New Zealand's gayest street, Karangahape Road in Auckland, last night. Gay social venues were quiet earlier in the evening but began to fill up in the hour or two before midnight. Most of the bars and nightclubs provided special shows, with featured performers and drag divas including Buckwheat at Poof bar (on Ponsonby Road), the Southside Sisters and Tess Tickle at Legend and Miss Ribena and Miss K hosting at Family. From around 11.30pm patrons started lining up outside Family. Some of the Urge Bar patrons on the street to watch the fireworks As midnight was counted down most of the patrons of Urge Bar moved out onto the street to watch the annual downtown fireworks display. While plenty of gay men were out and about there were noticeably few lesbians. Despite mounting concerns in recent times about safety in the Karangahape Road area a number of glbti people spoken to by GayNZ.com said they did not feel unsafe amongst what were the majority of straight folk, some of whom were clearly inebriated well before midnight. The police seemed to be maintaining a low profile with few officers or vehicles visible.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 1st January 2014 - 1:51am