Seemorerocks

Hundreds of people are on the parliament lawn, though some have been driven away by the heavy rain and winds lashing the capital.

A cheer erupts from the crowd each time a sudden and forceful gust of wind and downpour of rain blasts the demonstration.

The playlist booming through parliament’s loudspeakers changed about 11, and now includes a out of tune recorder rendition of ‘My Heart Will Go On’, the Titanic theme song by Celine Dion.

UK musician James Blunt earlier posted on Twitter telling the New Zealand police to contact him if the Barry Manilow music, which was playing, did not deter protestors.

His suggestion has been enacted, with his song ‘You’re Beautiful’ now on rotation.

Both songs and the government’s spoken message advising the crowd to leave the grounds are being met with loud booing and chants of ‘Freedom’.

Molesworth Street remains blocked by cars, campervans and trucks and Metlink has stopped all buses using its Lambton Interchange until further notice because of the protest.

Retailers say disruption to surrounding streets has also affected their trade.

Superintendent Scott Fraser said police would continue to have a significant presence at Parliament grounds and are exploring options to resolve the disruption.

Meanwhile the North Island is getting hammered by heavy rain and strong winds from Cyclone Dovi, with one gust near the entrance to Wellington Harbour reaching 156 km/h.

Curious if he is intentionally this dense or genuinely blinded by his own confirmation bias. To everyone that has woken up to the ‘crazy frog’ song playing just understand that your own Government is so scared to have to listen to you that they are using psychological warfare to hide your voices. Their main intention is to cause stress and anxiety to make the crowd more susceptible to reacting to the police.

Every step of this is not designed by them for peaceful resolution so you must be extremely intentional in your peacefulness to ensure the optics for you stay positive. If new people are arriving today then perhaps think about what you could bring to support and relieve others who are here.

I am not an organiser, just independent media but definitely feel protective towards all of you after seeing how sad people are about the way they are being treated.

Sending aroha to all of you.