Sunday was the Rugby World Cup Final so it was a HUGE DAY in Auckland. Laura and I decided that we would go into down town to experience the World Cup since we were here. We caught the bus from Storm’s House at 9am and arrived down town at about 10am. We decided that we would go to the Warf first before it got too packed. We walked around the Fan Zone and took in everything that we could, I learned a bit about rugby, and already by 10:30am the area was packed and kickoff wasn’t until 9pm.
Once we experienced the Fan Zone we thought we would walk the Fan Walk. It took us from the Fan Zone to Eden Park where the Rugby Match was being held later that evening. Along the way we stopped in shops and met quite a few friendly people. We ate dinner at about 4pm along the way at a Sausage Stand. When we got to Eden Park we walked around but couldn’t see much so we looked at the map and noticed how close we were to Mt. Eden (you would think we wouldn’t have needed a map to tell us but we really couldn’t see it from where we were standing). Mt. Eden is Auckland’s highest cone (196m).
Mt. Eden has a symmetrical crater, 50m deep. It is known as Te Ipu Kai a Mataaho or the food bowl of Mataaho, the god of all things hidden in the ground. This is a highly sacred area and there were signs everywhere telling you not to go into the crater, however some people were down in it until Security came. We hiked up Mt. Eden and took lots of pictures. There were great views of the Harbor Bridge, the Sky Tower, and you could see the stadium!
We hiked back down and were wandering our way back to town when we heard lots of yelling. Not that this was unusual for the day, most of Auckland was cheering all day, but when we looked up we saw several squad cars and two coach busses and realized that the All Blacks (the New Zealand Rugby Team) were on there way to the game. Laura and I couldn’t believe how lucky we were to have seen them.
When we got back down town it was even crazier as I am sure you can imagine. People were everywhere, the streets were so packed you couldn’t move, everyone was yelling, dressed up, many people had their faces and bodies painted. The Fan Zone on the Warf was so packed that no one else was permitted on and they were worried it would sink from the weight. There were 5 or more huge cruse ships in the harbor that were full of people screaming and shouting as well.
We decided if we were going to see any of the game at all we should go home. We caught the bus and went back to Storm’s house, made it just in time for kick off and watched the game. I am happy to report that the All Blacks beat France 8 to 7 to win the Rugby World Cup!
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