RWC

Opening night

It's that time here in NZ again. November is my favourite month here. It's starting to warm up but it's not yet sunburn season. The nights are cool so sleeping isn't difficult. The mosquito's and other such bugs are not around yet but the days are stretching out so we have fired up the barbecue a few times already. Everyone seems to be in a happier frame of mind at this time of year, even more so this year as the All Blacks did manage to win the Rugby World Cup. 

The whole RWC thing went off with out too many hitches it seems. Opening night was something special with huge fireworks on the water front and at Eden park. We saw it all go down from Shane's Yacht, floating just off Westhaven along with everyone else who owns a boat in this town. The harbour was packed with everything from dinghy's to cruiseships but that was nothing compared to the crowd on the waterfront. Half the city turned out to see the opener and as a result of the Auckland Mayor, Lefty Len, and his transport people urging them to use public transport, most of them did. The woeful train and bus system had a meltdown while the few that did use their cars found lots of available parking and a smooth run into and out of the city. Once again, it has been proven beyond doubt...Public transport does not and will never work in Auckland. The people here live in detached houses mostly on plots of land larger than 600sq Metres. People here can't believe that in Japan people can have houses on 100sqM. Just walking around the city shows anybody with eyes and a brain in their head that Auckland is not Tokyo or London or anywhere else that has a working train system. The city is big, spread out and is built around 2 harbours and a mountain range. The population is just not dense enough whatever manipulated statistics our socialist mayor and his left wing cronies have put about. These people want us to believe they are competent enough to run the city when it's glaringly obvious to everyone that they couldn't even organise a fireworks show properly. Faced with a potential international PR disaster, the national government stepped in and booted Lefty Len and the Auckland council into touch,(to use a rugby term) and took over all the arrangements for the rest of the tournament. The IRB who own the competition did not earn much admiration or respect either with their propensity for dispensing fines for small infringements of their rules. One player copped a fine for wearing a non approved mouth guard. Their over zealous policing of the sponsorship arrangements didn't earn them many friends here.

 Now I'm not a rugby fan and I only watched the final but I believe the event was good for the country and all the talking heads on TV agree it was the best RWC yet. International Jet setters flew in for it, Mega yachts tied up for it. Everybody got into the spirit and there were national flags flying everywhere. Even the most obscure rugby playing countries like Namibia and Romania were well supported by the locals. The Japan team was particularly welcomed as it is full of Kiwis anyway. Even though they did not win any games they are a popular team here and everyone is sure that with a bit more time and money they will progress. 

Even though Rugby is a fairly violent sport it seems the fans are not. There were very few arrests and no incidents of any note. Completely different story from soccer where hooligans in Europe regularly cause riots and rivalry between clubs is anything but friendly. It's enough to safely conclude that Rugby people are of a higher class than soccer types!