Welcoming the World to New Zealand

Unless you have been on Mars for the last three weeks then you will probably know that New Zealand has been hosting the Rugby World Cup 2011.

We have never really been a family of fans but in the time that we have been here we have watched a few games and tried to learn some of the rules. A few months back we went to the stadium in Wellington to watch the local Wellington team and on 11 September we went back to watch South Africa play Wales in the RWC!

There has been a  huge amount of hype and preparation going on in the build up to the whole event. Even the children's half term holiday was rescheduled to work around the tournament! A few days before the opening ceremony, preparations started on the Wellington waterfront for the official Fan Zone. Big screens and marquees were erected, artwork from the history of rugby were laid along the waterfront, the streets were given a face lift and flags from the twenty countries involved can be seen the length and breadth of the city.

We had a group of people over for the opening ceremony which I have to say was amazing. For our "small"country to pull off something so fabulous it made me very proud to be an NZ resident. Daisy and Kyra joined in (sort of) with the National Anthem of New Zealand.

That same weekend we headed to Wellywood for the big game. We caught the train from home with our Welsh coloured glasses and we arrived at the station with thousands of other people. The atmosphere was electric as soon as we got off the train. There was a sea of red, green, white, and yellow from all of the Welsh and SA fans. At one point the whole crowd started chanting ole, ole, ole, ole! It was buzzing!

We made our way to the stadium and took our seats for the game.

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This was the queue for hot donuts!!

I never thought that I would hear myself say this but I actually think that I am a rugby fan!! It has absolutely nothing to do with this though!

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We are now about half way through the tournament and our little city is still buzzing. Rich is off to watch USA and Australia this weekend and then we will watch England and the ABs back to back at a friends place.

Let the games begin!