The elephants, from Bullens Circus, carried 5 ‘leading personalities’, as they raced for the ‘Carnival Cup’ at Carnival Track (thought to be at the Esplanade). The Carnival of the Lake was centred around Centennial Lake, and was an annual event organised by the Public Relations Office for a few years in the early 1960s. Elephant races seem to have been popular in many New Zealand towns in the 1960s.