A sea of pirates crowd town
Beware ye landlubbers – sword-slinging pirates have taken to the streets of New Plymouth.
But don’t worry, the group of salty sea dogs were just out to ‘‘fill the fine people of Taranaki with confusion and merriment’’.
The international Talk Like a Pirate Day is held on September 19 every year – but a growing group of pirate enthusiasts have decided to jump the gun and celebrate it earlier with a pub crawl in New Plymouth on the closest Saturday to the day.
‘‘It’s a talk like, move like, dress like a pirate day,’’ event coordinator Morris West said.
‘‘From what I know we’re the only ones in the world that do it like this.’’
‘‘It’s a talk like, move like, dress like a pirate day.’’ Morris West event coordinator
Lads and lassies with eye patches, cavalier hats and slops (baggy trousers) yelled ‘‘aaaargh’’ as they played pirate-themed board and card games, such as ‘‘walk the plank’’ and ‘‘pirate snap’’, and shot toy pirates with a Nerf gun.
‘‘If you don’t shoot one, you got to skull your drink,’’ West, who went by the name Captain Jack Kiwi, said.
A pirate flag pinata hung from Irish pub Peggy Gordon’s and pirates swung their cutlasses (swords) to release lollies.
‘‘We have lollies that we hand out to the kids,’’ West said.
As the crew of more than 100 walked between the 10 destinations in New Plymouth’s centre city, perplexed passersby would laugh and take pictures.
People travelled from Otorohanga, Wellington, Auckland and even Australia to take part.
West said each pirate put in a varying level of effort when it came to costumes, with some going ‘‘absolutely overboard’’.
‘‘We’ve got one guy who seems like he wants to see how many guns he can carry – he has 12.’’
As for West, he ditched the parrot on his shoulder for a kiwi in an All Black’s jersey.
‘‘I call it ‘my Barrett’,’’ he said. The celebration of pirate speak began in 1995 between two friends in the United States, who approached a columnist in 2002 for better publicity.
It has since become an international event – but New Plymouth’s was certainly the best, West said.
‘‘I think they [the creators] would be very proud of us,’’ he said.
‘‘Maybe we can get them to come join us some time.’’