Flotilla

The drive to the East Cape to meet the flotilla was marked by magnificent scenery and a profusion of anti-drilling, anti-Petrobras, Anti-National and Gerry Brownlee signs.Some more strongly worded than others.It seemed that everyone up there was holding a sign against the oil prospecting.
I wonder if any Petrobras officials have driven out this way? No community relations budget will prove big enough to counter this sort of flax roots antipathy. It is a beautiful and largely unmolested coastline and the thought of it being destroyed by an oil spill has sparked a justified outrage.

Then just before the last maunga on the Bay of Plenty, the beach and Marae where the flotilla was due to land.

I was expecting several dozen to make it way out here, but was surprised to find the numbers in the several hundred, perhaps a thousand. The weather was like summer and the atmosphere warm.

So many people here...
More pics later.