Seven-year-old Jamie Lymburn was exactly where wanted to be on Saturday - out the front of a pipe band with drums and bagpipes roaring behind him.
The Waipu pupil, thought to be one of the youngest apprentice pipe band drum majors in the country, was unfazed by the fact he was at least six decades younger than the oldest member of the band.
Nor was he fazed by crowd that gathered to watch the parade, which wrapped the town's celebration of Tartan Week, to mark the repeal of "The Act of Proscription" which in the 1700s banned Highlanders from wearing tartan or playing the pipes.
Jamie's father, Stephen Lymburn, said his son's fascination with pipe bands, and the role of drum major, began in Beauly, Scotland, where they lived before moving to Waipu, his mother's hometown, a year ago.
"My wife, being a New Zealander, used to go down and watch the pipe band each week and he used to go along, but if the drum major wasn't there and he wasn't flourishing [with the mace] then he wasn't interested - he would want to go home."
A drum major with the Beauly Firth Glens Pipe Band took Jamie under his wing and began teaching him the ropes, and he had started helping lead out the band before he moved to New Zealand, Mr Lymburn said.
"It was a real crowd-pleaser and people used to come and see him [Jamie] with the band."
Jamie said the Waipu Band had welcomed him. "They haven't had a little drum major before," he said.
Pipe Major Fraser Sim said the band's youngest member was shaping up well and should be able to lead a band out by himself in a few years.
Hoots mon! Jamie helps leads pipe band
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