RWC2011 Opening Celebrations

Opening Night at the RWC2011!

It was a mad rush on Friday to get home from work and into town. Teece got the ferry home from work at about 3pm and when she arrived in Devonport, the queue for the city-bound ferry was about a kilometre long. We were sneaky and headed down to Stanley Point, where the commuter ferry runs from, and we got on a boat straight away, without any queuing whatsoever. Score! Arriving at Queen's Wharf was absolutely mental. Roads were closed and huge screens were erected to live stream the opening ceremony and first match of the tourno between the All Blacks and Tonga. Organisers were expecting in the region of 50,000 people but it is now estimated that around 200,000 accepted the invite to Auckland's waterfront for the biggest fireworks display that's ever been staged in New Zealand. 

Boarding the Stanley Point ferry

The Devonport Ferry arriving at Queen's Wharf with "The Cloud" on the left

Crowds descend on Queen's Wharf

Jostling for the best view of the Harbour

It has been said that more Tongans live in Auckland than in Tonga and they were out in full force. Singing, dancing, driving packed cars through the streets and constantly beeping their horns. It was nuts. 

Despite Auckland being NZ's biggest city, it's not normally that busy, but Friday was like Princess Street on Hogmanay. We decided to avoid the train (its pretty dire at the best of times and we reckoned it wouldn't really cope with the numbers - it didn't) and made our way to Eden Park via the Fan Trail: a 4km walk taking you from the City Centre to the ground. It was a great atmosphere with a real buzz of anticipation about the evening. 

Kingsland was also rammed so we headed straight to the ground for a few beers instead then found our seats, up in the Gods of the temporary stands. As you can see from the photos, we were up pretty high but it was an amazing view. The Opening Ceremony lasted about 30mins and had a real Pasifika feel to it. The  Karakia (Maori prayer) which opened the performance was spine tingling - you can see it here (its about 1.24mins). 

With so much going on, it was easy to forget that there was actually a test match being played. Again, watching the Tongans perform their haka which was immediately answered by the All Blacks felt like a special moment. Then it was game on, and the Rugby World Cup 2011 had officially kicked off.

 LM :)