It was health to all and a toast of the amber at the celebration of Scottish Heritage.
A small crowd of 30 were at the Whanganui Museum yesterday afternoon to listen to Jean and John Hanna play Scottish music followed by Liz Newton's Scottish reels.
Then Palmerston North District highlandpiper Doug Bansall-Allen gave a colourful performance of the haggis ceremony, complete with a sword for cutting the plump delicacy, which he tasted from the long blade, and a warning to the women to not have too much of the amber Scotch whisky.
Mr Bansall-Allen said he was born on the England/Scottish border. "Another 10 yards, I would have been a Pom," he quipped in an accent that is still as strong as the day he came to New Zealand in 1966.
"I lived in Aberdeen for 16 years," he said. Then he came to New Zealand and worked for the Union Steam Ship Company, which he termed the League of Nations because of all the nationalities that worked there.
Liam Ander said his first taste of haggis was like pate, and brother Isaiah said his smelled like luncheon. Shirley Hodge said her haggis was very nice and the texture was smooth.
"The herbs and spices are very nice and you can't really tell that it is offal."
