With a beautiful day forecast for the Annual Downtown Tauranga Christmas Parade, our NZ Police, Blue Light, and Te Aranui Youth Trust teams met with the other Parade floats to get ready for the walk through the town centre.
Families, children, Kids on their Dads’ shoulders lined the street as we slowly moved down Devonport Road. Our Police staff were warmly welcomed and were happy to high five as many young and old people as they could as they walked down the road.
Some of our Police team donned the POP gear! Dressed in face shield, body armour, battons, knee pads – but a friendly sight for our little ones with warm smiles behind the gear.
Always a crowd favourite were our Police dogs. The excitement as our Police puppies and their handlers made their way past the kids was great. Big smiles on all the faces as little arms stretching beyond the barrier to pat our furry friends.
A new addition to the Blue Light family is Harry the Hedgehog. Harry made an appearance with the Blue Light team and hugged those in the crowd when he was close enough to reach out and wrap his arms around them. High fives were given out left, right, and centre though.
An awesome day was had by all. A huge thank you to all of our Police staff. It is always great to have you join us when you can get away from your busy days.
You can check out photos of the day at Down Town Tauranga’s page in their gallery.