I think I was almost recruited by a cult today. As I was wandering around downtown Auckland I came across a group of people at a street corner. Thinking they were just an enthusiastic group of buskers, I stopped to listen to their original song and dance routine. After a few seconds of observation, however, it became clear that they either belonged to a cult or some sort of hippie commune. A woman then tried to present me with a booklet entitled The King of Knowledge, which confirmed it as the former. I declined, then walked across the street, wondering why the chanting wasn’t fading away. Chancing a glance back, I realized the whole group had crossed the street as well and were now dancing up the sidewalk towards me. I escaped them by ducking into a nearby gear store.
Hours later, I saw the cult again, still chanting, and occupying a different street corner. I had just settled in to observe them from a distance, when I suddenly heard bagpipes play only feet away from where I was sitting. A group of five or six kilted people had just marched out of a pub, and struck up a tune, apparently at the request of some pub patrons. They stopped after a few bars though, and starting marching towards the cult people. Naturally, I followed them, hoping for a cult vs. bagpipe standoff of some kind. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen, and the bagpipers just marched to another pub where they played a brief song and then left out the back exit. I tried to follow them, but failed which was a little disheartening. How hard can it be to find a group of brightly coloured people playing bagpipes? I won’t mention this incident should I ever become a detective.
