When the Blossom Festival parade made its way down Alexandra’s Centennial Avenue last month, psychology student Andrea Javier rode at the centre of it all, waving at onlookers from her pumpkin carriage.  

Andrea Javier was crowned Blossom Festival Queen 2025, representing the Filipino community of Central Otago. 

She said that while dressing up like Cinderella was a girlhood dream come true, being able to represent her community was “a privilege”. 

It was a special moment for someone who, ten years earlier, had arrived in Alexandra as an 11-year-old from the Philippines - nervous, half a world away from everything familiar, and with English as a second language. 

“I was definitely scared at first, which I think is a normal reaction to coming from a different country,” she said. 

“But when I went to school, I started year seven, I kind of came to the realisation that there really wasn’t anything to be scared about. 

“The people were just so welcoming, and I made friends really quick.” 

She noticed that right away about Alexandra, “the sense of community and being there for everyone”, she said. 

Andrea moved straight to Central Otago from the Philippines with her parents and a younger sibling. One set of cousins were also in town with their family. 

“When we first came here, there were barely any Filipino people,” she said.  

Now, the community has grown, and the annual Blossom Festival has a place in their calendar, but this was the first year they decided to have a run for the queen’s title. 

For Andrea, the week of the Blossom Festival included visits to aged care homes and community events – possible thanks to a brief, welcome lull in her university workload. 

She said she made “really good friends” with the other princesses and princes, and the parade day itself (despite the touch-and-go weather) had a “once-in-a-lifetime" vibe. 

Blossom Festival Queen Andrea Javier. Image: Facebook/Alexandra Blossom Festival 

Back in Dunedin, where she’s in the final year of a psychology degree at the University of Otago, Andrea often thinks of home. 

“I actually go home quite a lot,” she said. 

She describes Alexandra as "peaceful” and time spent with family as a chance to “destress” from Dunedin’s city energy.  

Psychology wasn’t always her plan. After high school, Andrea took a gap year working as a dental assistant and initially studied health sciences with dentistry in mind. 

“I had a change of heart halfway through,” she said.  

“I've always also had a knack for listening to people, and my friends always say that I’m very good at advising people. 

“So, I thought, why not do something that has to do with that?” 

She’s now planning postgraduate study and hopes to become a therapist. 

Andrea still speaks Tagalog and another Filipino dialect at home, although her younger siblings (one born in New Zealand) are less fluent.  

“It’s really important to keep that part of our heritage,” she said. 

Back in the Philippines, her grandparents and extended family had a wee taste of spring, following every update of Andrea's Blossom Festival debut. 

“We don’t have spring in the Philippines – it's very tropical,” she said.  

“They searched up all the news; they searched up all the photos. They were very excited.” 

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