Auckland made it and survived the first Rugby World Cup weekend. I have to say it was not a bad one so far and especially the opening on Friday attracted may people. As far as I know more than 100.000 people have roamed the waterfront and queen street.
After all the opening was a well planned spectacle and even the fireworks have been quite spectacular although it didn’t last too long.
I’ve been watching the whole spectacle from my balcony. Here is a little impression what that looked like:
Today is the day New Zealand was waiting for such a long time. The Rugby World Cup 2011 will finally begin. Since Rugby is the national sport of NZ, the whole country was striving long for this event and how the “All Blacks” will perform.
Apparently it is the third biggest sports event in the world after the Olympics and the FIFA Football world cup, but to be honest that sounds a little bit like “the biggest something in the Southern Hemisphere” to me. Anyway, it is going to be a big event for sure and the country seems quite well prepared for it.
The Auckland Cloud - Rugby World Cup Party Central
One of the new installations is the Auckland Cloud that will function as some kind of Party Central. The temporary tent-like building can host around 7800 people and cost around 10 Million New Zealand Dollars, not bad for a tent.
Today Auckland will see an opening ceremony at the wharf with the reception of traditional Maori Boats called Wakas and then there will be a huge Haka (Maori War Dance) performed by over 600 people. Sounds like something worthwhile watching. Apparently they expect around 60.000 People for that, I am going to be one of them although I usually hate such big assemblies of people.
Before the opening game between the All Blacks and Tonga kicks off at 8pm Auckland will see the biggest firework since the Millennium, which I am already excited about in hope to snatch a few good shots.
So then, the next 6 weeks will be under the sign of the Rugby World Cup. Let’s see what face of New Zealand we are going to see. I remember the FIFA World Cup 2006 that put a cheering face on Germany we haven’t seen before. Let’s see how the Kiwis will deal with their self inflicted 6 weeks of sportive anarchy. At least they got their slogan right: “The world’s here to play”, and they certainly will.
The Wynyard Quarter is part of a formerly buzzing industrial zone in the heart of Auckland. It lies right next to the prestigious Viaduct Harbour with its expensive luxury yachts and stylish apartments and appears rather dull in comparison. For a long time the Wynyard Quarter was home for a big concrete factory with its huge storage silos. But those times are over and Auckland has to move on. Empty space in the central district of any city, directly at the water in particular, is hugely precious – nothing that is unknown to the city developers of Auckland and after years and years of planning the first part of this revived area has been opened to the public a few weeks ago.
Maybe it was just a coincidence that the opening was just before the upcoming opening of the Rugby World Cup this Friday, but although the Wynyard Quarter will become a business and housing oriented area, the actual finished projects revolve all around leisure activities, hospitality and a few other bits that might actually be useful for the world cup and attractive to visitors.
So let’s have a look at what New Zealand City developers think, a modern city needs.
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Winter is coming. Yes I can feel it. Since the last weekend the unavoidable can’t be denied anymore: It will be cold. It will be dark. It will be wet and Rugby season is coming up. Strong signs for another winter in Auckland, New Zealand.
Compared to a freezing German winter, the NZ winter is fairly mild. Yet, it sucks. In fact, it sucks much harder than the European one, especially here in Auckland.
Why? Well you get all the bad things of winter without any of its merits. Since last Sunday and so the ending of daylight saving time, you live in constant darkness since you wake up when it is dark, and you leave work when it is dark. Bugger. I guess, I don’t have to mention the temperature drop that comes with that.
But Auckland is worse than than. Since the temperatures never drop below 5 degrees celsius, you won’t ever see any snow at all. Instead, you will get the odd shower. And with odd I mean it will always start raining when you leave the house and stop whenever you reach your destination. Combined with the never ending maritime windy stream, a winter in NZ feels more like a never ending late autumn, the season that really sucks most.
On the northern hemisphere we can use that time of the year to start looking forward to a prospective x-mas, but I am sorry, there won’t be any x-mas in July when Winter comes to its peak down south.
That’s probably another reason why the people in NZ are happy about the upcoming Rugby World Cup this August. Honestly, I couldn’t care less about this hillbilly version of a mega event like the soccer world cup. But maybe I am utterly wrong and I will have a great time cruising the packed pubs around Viaduct Harbour, celebrating with any team that wants to celebrate and having a big cheers about such a rare occasion of international understanding. (Don’t ask me why I am ranting about Rugby. Usually I don’t give a fuck, but sometimes it bothers me)
I don’t know. I am not very positive about the winter down here, and I know that this article sounds like a constant lament about how the weather sucks, but living in a leaky house without any insulation and a room temperature about 18 degrees Celsius doesn’t necessarily make you look forward to the upcoming months.
But there is a way out of this misery. I realized that a change in your living conditions is the best way to cope with something that is pathetic as winter. So the major change for spring 2011 will be moving into a new flat. In fact, I’ll move in next Saturday. It seems like a much nicer place than my current flat, but more details about this when the time is right.
So long, I am wearing a hat inside my bedroom, because Winter is approaching – meh.
Rugby gehört zu Neuseeland wie Bier zum Feschdzeit. Und gerade jetzt, vor dem Rugby World Cup 2011 in Neuseeland spinnen die hier eh alle ein wenig, wenns um diesen Sport geht. Insbesondere dann wenns um ihre Nationalmannschaft die “All Blacks” geht.
Trotz meiner nicht sonderlich vorhandenen Begeisterung Sport zu schauen, komme ich ab und an in die Gelgenheit ein Rugby Match zu schauen, was meistens aber eher daran liegt, dass ich mal wieder in nem Pub war, der zufällig immer dann “Maßkrug 5 Euro Happy Hour” hat, wenn nach 2 Maß, das Spiel angepfiffen wird.
Und ja es macht sogar richtig Spass Rugby zu schauen. Die Spieler sehen alle aus wie Wandschränke, rennen mit ihren 120kg trotzdem schneller als du und dabei dreschen die noch so auf sich ein, dass es wirklich ein Wunder ist wie die das alle nur machen.
Immer wieder eine Besonderheit ist der “Haka” – ein traditioneller Maori Kriegstanz, welcher von den All Blacks brav vor jedem Spiel aufgeführt wird, um dem Gegner ein wenig Respekt einzuflößen. Und wenn man sich diese beiden Videos anschaut, bekommt man den Eindruck, dass es wirklich gut funktioniert. Sollte man beim Handball auch mal einführen :-)
(Sound anmachen nicht vergessen.)
In diesem zweiten Video dauerts ein paar Sekunden bis es los geht. Da muss man den Franzosen halt mal noch kurz ausreden lassen. Naja.
