Final farewell for Hastings Blossom Parade’s float king

Hawke's Bay's float king Kevin Watkins is making this year's Blossom Parade his last. Photo / Paul Taylor

One look at Kevin Watkins’ backyard and you’d think he was preparing for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.

Offcuts of timber, glitter and fake flowers line his Hastings yard, where an impressive in-progress float for this year’s Hastings Blossom Parade sits.

Unbeknownst to many, this is likely the last blossom float you’ll see from the multi-award-winning float fanatic.

“Because we’re celebrating 150 years, I think perhaps it’s a good time to bow out,” Watkins told Hawke’s Bay Today.

“I was involved with my first float in 1958, so that’s not a bad innings.”

Now in his 70s, he recalls building a float with his dad and neighbours at as young as 9 when the Hastings Blossom Parade put the city on the map.

“It was pretty neat because my neighbour had a fairly old packhouse with a dirt floor and this old car chassis that he built his float around.

“I’d wag school in the afternoon and go down to the shed with a few others.”

In those days, the floats were often made with blossoms such as camellias and daffodils.

“People would go out in their cars and borrow camellias off trees and things like that. Right up until midnight people would be coming up to us with trays of camellias.”

Kevin Watkins' float in the 2018 Blossom Parade. Photo / Warren Buckland

It hasn’t always been smooth sailing to get a float in the parade, Watkins said.

A lot of time, money and effort had to be put into the construction of the floats, although there were times when he admitted to a cutting a few cheeky corners.

“One year, we realised at 10pm the night before that we hadn’t got all our purple flowers.”

Asking the person helping him to grab a torch, the two set off on a stealth mission to one of Hastings’ many public parks.

“It just so happened there was a lovely garden bed of purple polyanthas there, just what we wanted.

“Under torchlight, we dug every plant out from the park garden, put them on the float, went through the parade, and on the next night took them off the float and replanted them all again.”

As the years went by, public interest in the parades varied, but Watkins said the heart of them has always been about bringing together family and community.

“That’s the magic and the glue that really makes it special,” he said.

A Hastings district councillor for more than 20 years, Watkins’ final float is a homage to the special relationship with China and New Zealand that he helped establish during his tenure.

“I got quite involved in that relationship and have been ever since.”

Many of his previous floats have featured representatives from China, as well as his son and other family members who were keen to feature.

“I think building these things keeps you young,” he said.

“I’ve got a very supportive wife. She loves helping and getting behind it even though it makes a hell of a mess.”

While Watkins said it would be sad to farewell his float days for the blossom parade, he’ll still keep tinkering in the background with floats that have already been made for other events.

“With the lantern float and the Christmas float they don’t need to be built from scratch, so I will keep taking them out for a couple more years probably.”

One of the biggest wins for Watkins is that for the first proper time in years, he’ll actually get to see the parade as an audience member.

“It’s going to be nice just standing on the side of the road watching everything go by.”

Mitchell Hageman joined Hawke’s Bay Today in late January. From his Napier base, he writes regularly on social issues, arts and culture and the community. He has a particular love for stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.