London's first snowfall paints the town black and white

It was very un-Australian. Not only did we fail to celebrate our national day on January 26th (I even had a glass of Kiwi sav blanc), we then decided to help our cuzzie bros celebrate the expat version of their national booze fest, otherwise known as Waitangi Day.

We weren't too fussed with the expat version of Australia Day - lining up for hours behind drunk Aussie teenagers for a place in the mosh pit of the Shepherd's Bush Walkabout. Over here, Kiwis celebrate in much more style. Following the route of the Circle underground line, they amass in their thousands, stopping in at pubs alongside each station all the way around.

Drinkin in the street

The Circle Line pub crawl begins at Paddington, goes around to Westminster, where there is a brief hiatus for a mass Haka performance at 4pm, then continues back along to Paddington. Some of our cuzzy bros must have spent weeks preparing their outfits. Pretty much eveyone (except us - we wanted to blend in but not give the game away) was in fancy dress - many of them in matching group outfits.

There were the usual bros dressed as kiwis, sheep, half-naked lifeguards and some clad in All-Blacks jerseys or draped in the flag. But there were some incredibly inventive outfits in the melée, which by the time it reached Westminster numbered over 4,000. There was a guy with a big robe on made entirely of sewn-together beer towels, boasting brews such as Tui, Lion Red, Canterbury Draft and Speights.

Another group took a nod from the hilarious Kiwi drink driving ad that went viral on You Tube. The one where the guy is telling his friend not to drink drive, otherwise he might die, and then he won't be able to have one of his chips because they would be "ghost chups." Well one group was dressed as....you guessed it...matching billowy white sheets emblazoned with packet of chip logos bearing the slogan ghost chips.

But the funniest was a guy who may not have been in costume at all. A Maori guy in a blue singlet, black shorts and big gumboots. Oh, and there was another guy with an 80's style boom box who had shoved his iPod in the cassette deck It was belting out Crowded House, Matchbox 20 and other old-time Kiwi favourites.

Tiny English pubs near Circle Line stations had no hope of accommodating most of the heaving masses of strangely-dressed Antipodeans. People spilled out onto the streets, re-fuelling at Tescos instead of trying to try and battle for a pint. The result was entire streets full of meandering, drinking (and later, urinating) people, staggering towards Westminster.

Unfortunately by the time we arrived to watch the Haka, there were so many people we couldn't actually see anything, but we heard the sound effects of the "HEEEE...." and other war-like noises loud and clear. Considering everyone was pretty drunk and obnoxious, the police were being pretty gentle. There was no pushing and shoving, no ordering people around and miraculously, no arrests. This is in spite of people trying to scale a lamp post so they could get a bird's eye view of the crowd and take pictures.

Choice bro...

Most onlookers were pretty confused - I don't think they'd heard of Waitangi day, and unless they knew about sheep jokes they may not have been able to figure out what was happening just by looking at people's outfits. The event did upset some though, with one ill-humoured expat ranting to the NZ Herald that the revellers had urinated all over New Zealand's reputation.

He should probably relax. New Zealand's black and white colours aren't all that obvious to those not in the know, and besides, most probably confused them for a bunch of drunk, urinating Australians and thought "no surprises there."

Even though the weather had been milder than a Wellington winter, it was pretty damn cold that day - a shame for those determined to flaunt their short -sleeved rugby jerseys and jandals. Later on, after we had managed to actually get inside a pub and nab a table, we noticed the season's first few flakes of snow swirling through the air.

Of course, everyone went bananas and ran outside to throw snowballs at strangers. Within an hour, the whole world was covered in a thick coating of fluffy white powder. Against the stark black night, it really looked like the town had been painted black and white.

Soho blanketed in snow

Earlier that day in front of frozen Trafalgar Square fountain