THE RUGBY DAY 1

Welcome to Day 1, Thursday 7 September. I'm Gary Carbines and I'm one of the lucky ones that actually gets to go the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

The above pic is of the side of a building in downtown Auckland. This place means business.

I arrived in Auckland Wednesday late. Today Thursday I picked up my tickets and also bought 3 more. Not happy about the lack of signage to where in Sky Tower you actually get the tickets and then the 1 hour + wait was annoying but then you get to people in the queue.

As I walked up the main street, Queens Street, I just happen to bump into a few All Blacks doing their promo thing. The van caught my attention firstly.

Plenty of support for Samoa and Tonga. Auckland is home to a large community of Tongan and Samoan families. The rivalry on the streets of Auckland is fierce but respectful.

The living statue. This guy caused a good audience. Lots of different poses.

The atmosphere in downtown Auckland is fantastic.

I met this group of French supporters on Queen's Wharf. This is where the action will be for those who can't get to tomorrows opening ceremony and first game, New Zealand v Tonga. They expect some 50,000 people downtown to watch the game while 60,000 of us cram into Eden Park.

On the wharf itself is the Pacific Showcase. An inside as a whole range of products and entertainment from the Pacific Islands.











Yours truly trying a Rarotongan dish; raw tuna, corrianda, parsley and cucumber. Delicious!

Huge rugby ball at Queen's Wharf.

 

Very tasty no crap beer.

Lots of flags and colour on the streets of Auckland.

I'm not able to use my normal blog editor as I'm using other people's PCs during my stay. So please excuse any jumping pictures and skew-wiff text.

Next I will start previewing the matches. But today I just spent the day soaking up the atmosphere.