Rugby World Cup 2011

For my last weekend in NZ, Alex and me took a plane to Auckland to go to a Rugby World Cup game. Because after all, when the RWC is held in NZ, and the All Blacks are 'favorites', and you are in NZ, and you have any chance to see the All Blacks live in their home country - why wouldn't you do it?
Of course, we didn't go to just any rugby game, oh no. If you have followed any of this blog, you know by now that we always go for higher, bigger, more. So we bought tickets to the All Blacks vs. France, which is in rugby terms a big hit.

Our plane was just about filled with rugby fans. The atmosphere in Auckland was definitely much more "All Black" than in Queenstown, where there are almost only tourists so allegiances lie just about everywhere.
We settled in our hotel and went on a little trip through Auckland - the only thing we had to do was kill time before the big game the day after. We decided to go on a little shopping spree and to my great frustration, there was hardly anything that could please me. Luckily, Alex came home with 3 new t-shirts and a pair of shoes. What do they say about girls again? ...
After that we watched Australia vs. USA in the hotel, and were very pleased to learn that Australia has gotten back on their feet again after their defeat against Ireland. This was followed by a dinner in a lovely Mexican restaurant. A fun day :-).

On The Big Day, which had blue skies again (although Metservice predicted rain), we continued our shopping spree (I finally found a t-shirt I liked - yay!) and after a nice warm up in the hotel, we set out for Eden Park. What an amount of people! I do have to say though, everything was organized pretty well, and there were no problems like the ones Eden Park had encountered before (the public transport failing and the likes of it). Our seats were pretty decent, although they were at the back of the goal posts, so it was a bit of a one-sided angle. But hey, do you hear me complain? No!

The match was cool, but I do have to say it is nicer to see a rugby game on TV. It is hard to follow from only the one side. The atmosphere in the stadium was amazing though, and if you're in NZ for this long and witness the Rugby World Cup, it counts for a lot if you have seen the All Blacks perform the haka live :-). We saw only their backs, but still I got shivers down my spine.
What struck me as most peculiar, is that supporters of both teams are mixed together. I don't really remember how it works with soccer games, but I could imagine that in some games, mixing up the supporters could lead to a tiny civil war. But I could be wrong, of course :-).

Well, anyway, in the end the All Blacks won, of course, and it was time to go back to the hotel. Transport was again without any problems and the day after it was back to Queenstown again. Different atmosphere, different temperatures (it felt like going from summer to winter!), but home.
It was a cool experience and a nice getaway!