Sept 27 - Oct 4
It's the anniversary of when Christmas Island officially became an Australian territory, and the island spends a week celebrating. There's musical performances by high school students, the Malay drummers, the Chinese dragon and traditional dances, and a special sitar performance.
Later on in the week the Christmas Island Cricket and Sports Club hosts a games day, including a tug-of-war, an egg toss, and lots of races. Arthur took home the coveted "fasted man on the island" with his 100m dash win, and he and some friends also took home gold in the 4X400m relay.
And to cap off the celebration is the Raft Race, where folks put together homemade rafts and race them around the cove. We find 8 discarded mini-fridges and an old trampoline, and put together a make-shift catamaran. Weaponry is also allowed (perhaps even encouraged), and we mix up a batch of flour-bombs, laced with red dye. After a parade of all the rafts, we take the water. We're a bit heavy for the race around the buoys, but we do manage to hit a few targets with our red flour bombs. The "Nemesis" is pretty solidly built, so we take her on a few sunset cruises around the cove.
