The mag­ni­fi­cent Petone Winter Car­ni­val has been post­poned until tomor­row night, which is lucky, since I for­got to men­tion it is on until today. It really is worth a vis­it, and great for kids. Unlike the Guy Fawkes dis­play, the fire­works kick off at a very civ­il­ised hour, 7.30pm. Pri­or to that there are heaps of activ­it­ies along the Esplanade to keep every­one in the fam­ily enter­tained. For those with a per­verse desire to feel extremely uncom­fort­able, there is a polar plunge at 2.30pm, it is for a good cause (Wes­ley Com­munity Action), so if this floats your boat, get nekkid! Actu­ally, nekkid isn’t really part of the pro­gramme, but I’m all for ini­ti­at­ing fun.

And while you’re out here, grab a bite to eat. There are masses of excel­lent estab­lish­ments, my favour­ite at the moment is the mag­ni­fi­cent Gusto, and if you go, I recom­mend the steak. Mmmm steak.