Grand pageant enthralls big crowd

SETTLERS: Outdoor staging set the scene for the Waipu story.  - PHOTO/PETER DAVIES

Last weekend saw the second re-enactment of the Scottish migration and settlement of Waipu, the Grand Pageant, engineered by noted local entrepreneur Lachie McLean and assisted by a myriad of volunteers.

McLean directed the first pageant a decade ago.

Unlike Dunedin, there is nothing Scots in the name ‘Waipu’ but there is no doubting the strength of the heritage, brought here from Scotland via Nova Scotia and settled under the rule of Rev Norman MacLeod. 

The cast of hundreds, amazing special effects and lighting, well-trained and obedient animals, and a story narrated by Dame Fiona Kidman, George Mutch and Ella Stolwerk depicted as near as able the trials and tribulations of the sea voyages and the ravages of illness, weather and fire which beset these pioneers. 

While sobering, the pageant also had it’s moments of levity and parody.

The audience for the two performances numbered over 4,000 and included several South Island visitors whose roots stemmed from the original arrivals on the ‘Margaret’ and later ‘Breadalbane’ and who still take a keen interest in activities in Waipu, the Scotland of the North.