St Patrick's Day's is an excellent excuse to celebrate it in Ireland, and around the world – it is always celebrated it here in New Zealand. But when Emirates Team NZ also wins the Prada America's Cup 2021 on exactly the same day, in Auckland, well the party just gets going earlier, with a lot more fanfare.

Auckland, having emerged from a recent COVID lockdown level 3 and 2, partied like there was no tomorrow.

See: Emirates TeamNZ 36th America's Cup win, 2021.

St Patrick's Day on the 17th March, in the Viaduct Harbour, Auckland, was a happening place. Restaurants full to overflowing, Irish music had our feet tapping, the joie de vivre was arresting and invigorating.

Queues of people waiting to get in – just joyful to be alive, in festive mood, dressed in St Patricks Day colours of green; live music everywhere as well as boom-box DJ's, blasting out cool music, the celebrations were awesome.

The St Patrick's Parade & Festival 2021, advertised for 13 March 2021 was postponed due to the COVID lockdown to be rescheduled for the following Saturday 20th. “The parade will begin at 12pm at top of Queen Street, ...'' - great, we'll be there.

There would also be festivities on Fort Street, close to the waterfront, where a stage, foot-tapping Irish music and Irish-Celtic dancers in attendance …: way cool.

I'd actually heard about the St. Patrick's Day parade through the grapevine barely a hour before it started. Oooo, did we have time to get there? The streets on either side of Queen Street were of varying degrees of steepness, so we had to find the optimal way of getting to Queen Street, on time, and not taxing my (AVM brain haemorrhage)-stroke-affected leg unduly, as quite a few of streets around the CBD Auckland were cordoned off on the day hence would have to walk. (See: Relearn to Walk.)

St Patrick's Day celebrations - fantastic procession of floats, marching bands, colourful characters on lofty unicycles, a fire-breathing dragon (really?), the amply-endowed Molly Malone of folklore and songs, where she was a fishmonger known to sell cockles and mussels through the streets of Dublin ... on Queen Street Auckland. Even a Skytower-costumed guy, who made a beeline for 'moi' – I was all-in-green (yay!), except for my top – next time, I'll be properly dressed!

Comments from passers-by, whilst we were waiting for the festivities and parade to start off: ''... Aucklanders are so fortunate to be where people are allowed to freely wander through the streets, and enjoy have internationally flavoured events that are closed elsewhere in the world...'. We're very fortunate and keep doing the things that allows it. Not all other countries have quite the same freedoms.

It reminded me of the fun we used to have going to places far and wide in our travels – foremost when we did a trip to Orlando, Florida (USA) back in 1993. St Patrick's Day was in full swing - the place: Cheyenne Bar & Saloon. Not the Red Garter Saloon (Disney) , but the old Church Street Station, downtown Orlando. The Cheyenne Saloon & Opera House to be precise.

Church Street Station was hopping – an iconic establishment, 3-storeys of charming western saloon and more. I remember decadent chandeliers further added to the mix, stained glass everywhere, even upside-down tiffany-style lamps. The name Rosie O'Grady: Good Time Jazz Emporium brings back memories. The Cheyenne Saloon live band played each and every night, the line dancing thigh-slapping stomping dance floor was an experience.

Eager to explore the entertainment venue on our holiday there, we ordered a few beers, and watched as the line-dancing was underway. Now beers to me, to this point had to be a golden-amber type of liquid. For instance, the Weiss beer was created by the Bavarian Germanic yeast strains used to ferment them, or Witbiers brewed as early as the 14th century in Belgium, were a pale golden colour.

Budweiser Budvar, Pilsen in the Czech Republic, a pale ale all the way to a smooth dark, roasted caramel flavour, there are so many minute differences that give it flavourful taste.

Trappist or Abbey - I believe 13 Trappist monasteries of Trappist monks still brew them today in Europe and USA. The Guinness, Murphy, Beamish, and others are stouts – strong beer. The history was such the term stout has become firmly rooted with dark beer, almost black beers, plus being strong and very smooth.

All beer, made using the same four ingredients: water, yeast, hops and malt, is an ale or lager, brown & black lagers, golden & pale– your imagination and taste is your limit. Many tens of thousands brewers, including micro-brewers, all around the world each have their secret twist to each recipe…(ssshhh). The way to combine, the length of time you brew them for, and whether or not you add anything else ...is the magic and secret of beer-brewing.

So,..'green beer'? Food colouring was the obvious choice, the normally associated product to colour food. Some more adventurous brewers have tried spirulina which imparts the green colour; oohh, what about pandan-juice, hmmm..? At Cheyenne Saloon, green beer was what they served a beer on St Patricks day, plus side order of monster fries and chili con carne, and the green beers kept coming.

Back to the present, we found ourselves wandering over to the next event – Irish music with fiddlers at the far end of Queen Street, were on stage, Irish lilt and drumming to the proceedings. Then came the Irish step dancers – brilliant; Michael Flatley (Riverdance) would be justly proud, methinks. A little sprite entered the scene and played a tin whistle in a joyous celebration. Spirited renditions by the dance troupe, intricate steps of the routines as the whole dance assemble before an appreciative crowd.

Note: ..taking photographs with only my left (usable) hand, as is shown – it takes a lot of practice. Checking to see that the flash is on the correct side on the camera is probably the first consideration. Distance of the subject/landscape: not backing-away or forwards until I had checked the terrain, every time, in case I mis-stepped & fell. Then...selfies/we-fies? A minutiae of detail that is transparent to those that are able-bodied.

We continued down the street...

I just had to do a bit of retail shopping, before ending up in Viaduct Harbour, the America's Cup Village.

Quirky names such as Dr Rudi's, Saint Alice, Holey-Moley, Danny Doolans,...where do you start? We chose Coops, a bar on the crossroads for everyone walking in/out of the Viaduct Harbour precinct, and started with green Margaritas (well, they do have the colour of the moment!) were the way to go to suit the occasion, moving to the original lime flavoured or strawberry-infused ones later on.

A toast or two to the 'Indian' summer that is already quite surreal, during these interesting, refreshing times that we live in, and obviously to St Patrick's Day.

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