the day the rugby started

the rugby kicked off today so there was/is a massive party in downtown auckland.

things were being set up as i walked from the bus station for work, and there were already loads of people all along the waterfront when i popped out at lunch time

by the time we all left work at 3.30pm (let home early due to transport issues and people wanting to party) it was completely heaving

but in a good natured kiwi way

but there were so many people that you couldn’t really get anywhere. And with the activities spread all along the water front, people who weren’t standing still waiting for something to happen were moving very slowly in random directions

i decided i wasn’t going to get any great pictures so i headed home on a rather empty bus (unlike the buses still heading in to town which were completely overloaded)

these are the tribal war boats arriving

people took any vantage point to see what was going on

this is ‘the cloud’ (or ‘slug’) which is the location of ‘party central’

lots of south africans

this is where the waka’s parked up.

here are some french people

english fans seemed to be the one drinking the most. there was coverage on the news warmup show before the match from a place down south where lots of english people are staying and whenever they went across live to the presenter there were topless fat english drunk blokes jumping in front of the camera.

at one stage an england fan completely removed his trousers whilst singing sing low sweet chariot (luckily his immodesty was covered by a fellow supporter).