Taste of New Zealand

This year the Taste food festival incorporated restaurants from around NZ rather than just Auckland, so we got the opportunity to try some yummy food from places we wouldn't normally eat.  This is a Southland rabbit terrine with Riesling jelly.

That dish, along with this, the West Coast whitebait Thai infused fritter, came from True South, a Queenstown restaurant.

Whilst our favourite dish of the day came from new Auckland restaurant Cocoro, chargrilled Angus eye fillet served with teriyaki sauce and carrot puree.

This year there were a couple of international celebrity chefs, including Rick Stein who was attracting big crowds at his Malaysian kitchen tent.

Queens Wharf RWC Fan Zone

Today we headed into town to finally get onto Queens Wharf to see the Cloud and RWC Fan Zone.  The giant rugby ball has toured the world over the past few years as a tourism promotion for NZ.  We chose not to queue to go in here as very busy.

The Cloud was built especially for the World Cup and is quite an impressive structure.  Not sure if this is going to stay after the tournament.

Inside the Cloud are signed shirts from the small rugby clubs all around the country and also innovations from NZ.

Also on the Wharf is a stage for local bands to entertain the crowds - no-one playing when we were there.

Whilst the old shed that used to hold imported bananas has been converted to a huge bar area.

Just down from Queens Wharf is the temporary Maori village and the controversial $2m plastic waka.

England v Scotland, RWC 2011

Due to some scumbag breaking in and stealing our stuff, we didn't have a camera for this game so found a photo on the web.  Cracking atmosphere at Eden Park for this one, though we were surrounded by a load of Scots so not so much fun!  A very tight game, with England winning in the final minutes.

Australia v Italy, RWC 2011

Another day, another rugby game!  Today was Australia against Italy again at North Harbour Stadium.  Again, in the cheap seats but at the other end of the ground to yesterday, and another bumper crowd.

The first half was even with the sides going in 6-6 at the break, the Kiwis were loving seeing the Aussies struggle.  And the Australian fans in front of us were pretty quiet.

But the second half was a different story with Australia attacking our end we saw a lot of tries after the break and the Aussies around us were a lot livelier.  Genia at half back had a cracking game.

And James O'Connor (otherwise known as Justin Bieber...) made a massive difference when he came on and converted all the tries.  Final score was 32-6.

France v Japan, RWC 2011

Our weekend of rugby continued with France against Japan at our local stadium.  Our friend Roz was singing the anthems in the choir.

The stadium was nearly full, never seen so many people here before - the crowd was about 28,000 with the Kiwis supporting the Japanese.  We had the cheap seats so in the temporary stand behind the goal.

The Japanese gave the French a run for their money in the first half and most of the second, with the crowd getting very excited and cheering every Japanese pass.

But the quality of the French meant that they pulled away in the last 10 minutes of the game scoring three tries and finally winning 47-21.

The French kicking a penalty - not sure who the random can of Heineken belonged to!

Opening Night of the Rugby World Cup

To celebrate the opening of the RWC a group of us headed into the city to watch all the pre-match festivities.  There was a buzz on Quay Street as the big screens were set up in preparation for the game.

We joined the queue for Queens Wharf and waited for several hours, soaking up the sun.  Unfortunately the complete ineptitude of the planners and lack of crowd control meant that the queue was redundant as many thousands of people pushed their way onto the wharf meaning those that had queued missed out.

So instead, we headed back to the Shore to watch the game elsewhere.  The ferry to Devonport passed the Cloud (where we wanted to get to) and the thousands of people against the barriers - actually quite glad in the end that we didn't get on there.

The queues to get the ferry to the city were bad (not helped when they closed the ferries as the city was full of people), but the traffic down to Devonport to watch the fireworks was just mental.  We eventually got back to a friend's house and watched the amazing firework display from near there.  Then back to watch the ABs notch up their first win of the tournament against Tonga.

Computershare RWC Fever

To celebrate the 2011 Rugby World Cup, my office got into the fever of the tournament and decorated the office.  We are split into teams, each representing a different country.  My team got South Africa so we did a variety of displays, Kruger Park being the favourite.

And lots of other ornaments, including a decorated ostrich egg.

The Scottish team built the Loch Ness monster...

And a castle!

The Australian team built Australia Zoo.

And invited in a didgeridoo player for the judging competition.

The French team built their version of the Arc de Triomphe...

Whilst the English built Coronation Street, complete with the Rovers Return and Geoff in drag as the barmaid!  James, an Aussie, pained to be wearing an England top...

Not surprisingly, alcohol was also heavily themed in the Irish section.

The Kiwis created the locker room feel, with all things black.  The NZ team won the judging for best decorated, just part of the overall RWC competition we are doing at work.  Lots of fun and the office is looking very colourful.