They were piping hot to place 10th in the world in a city where bagpipes are woven into the cultural identity as firmly as tartan.
Members of Celtic Pipe Band’s Grade 2 are back in Nelson catching their breath after skirling among thousands of the globe’s top pipers and drummers at the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow last month.
Twelve of the 38-strong travel party were Nelson-based, with the remaining members coming together from elsewhere in New Zealand, South Africa, Hong Kong and Australia.
The instruments almost outnumbered the humans.
After more than 30 hours of travel and three stopovers, the Nelson contingent had a mandatory rest period to ensure jetlag did not affect their performance.
The downtime also allowed for some sightseeing around Scotland, which pipe major Callum Gilchrist says helped everyone "refresh".
Maybe, for some, it involved a cheeky single malt.
The band placed in the top six of one of two qualifying heats to reach the Grade 2 final.
Competitors performed a March, Strathspey and Reel, along with a medley, assessed by critical ears.
Callum says the experience was braw (Scottish slang for excellent), and its result didn’t warrant a blasting.
“For me as a leader, seeing over half the band who performed at the world champs for the first time, and seeing people grow as people over the two weeks was pretty cool,” he says.
“[The world champs are] pretty surreal, there’s so many people everywhere, and what's great is being able to watch the grade one perform and prepare, you learn a lot from that to take back to New Zealand.”
The band will be back to full capacity and full noise at the Nelson Centre of Musical Arts on 19 September for its biggest fundraiser for ongoing costs, including equipment, uniforms, tuition and national competitions.
It hopes to bag $10,000 from the community.
A showcase as part of An Adventure In Art at Pūtangitangi Greenmeadows Centre on 17 September from 5:30pm to 9pm is also in the pipeline.
Visit the Celtic Pipe Band Facebook page for more details.
