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The day is finally here! 24 year wait, 1987 was the last time the All Blacks won the world cup and today they are going to do it again!! An excessive amount of planning has gone into this trip, and it has all been worth it.
Dad stepped in and took Emily's place as my world cup side kick (haha I'm sure Dad agrees with me hahaha). Early this year when Dad was offered the ticket he said he wanted to go to the most important game of the tournament and in the best seats! Well he was right on the money.
So Dad and I arrived in Auckland City at about 3:30pm. Quick bite to eat and then it was time to head to the main street. And what a sight we were greeted with. All Blacks jumpers everywhere, with the occasional blue, white and red for France to break it up. Even more sporadic was those supporters of South Africa and Australia who had bought tickets in the hope that their team would make it. But there can only be two!!!!!
We headed towards the fanzone situated on Queens Wharf, in the heart of the city. The huge cruise ships had come to town and looked very impressive towering over the neighboring wharves. There were people everywhere and the atmosphere was electric! People were dressed up, faces were painted, flags were out in full force! I can honestly say I've never been a part of anything like this before.
From Queens Wharf we headed to Waka Maori, a controversial plastic waka that was built in time for the last two weeks of the tournment. It was a showcase of all things Maori including carving, weaving, tattooing, art and performances. I have to admit i was pretty impressed.
From the Waka it was time to hit the Fantrail, a 4.5km walk from the waterfront to Eden Park. It was only 5pm at this stage, and with kick off at 9pm we had really allowed enough time. The walk took us 3 hours, literally in a sea of black. Roads were closed and there were people as far as you could see. Along the way we picked up loads of free stuff, enjoyed entertainment, caught up randomly with people we knew, got our faces painted (but not with a fern as they weren't allowed to due to copyright) and stopped for dinner. But the highlight was quite easily seeing the team bus go past on their way to the grounds. It was crazy, people lined the streets, there were police escorts, and the crowd went absolutely nuts when they went past, AWESOME!!!!!
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