Auckland Braces For Next Match

Queens Wharf webcam, Auckland

The city of Auckland is bracing itself for this evening’s All Blacks rugby world cup “sell out” match against the French.

Those in charge will be hoping there’ll be no repeat of the chaos that plagued the opening night celebrations, during which public transport failed, there was mass overcrowding and city hospitals reached saturation point.

One of the areas where fans will be congregating will be Queens Wharf (aka Party Central) you can see a time lapse webcam of the dock by clicking on the image above and moving your mouse from left to right across the screen.

UARS Real Time Tracking, Wise Men On Standby @ Eden Park

A bright star for Jesus the All Black

NASA’s UARS (Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite) is due to burn up or fade away sometime Saturday Australasian time.

Although most of the debris is likely to hit either ocean or uninhabited areas, spectators at tomorrow’s England v. Romania and All Blacks v. France matches may strike lucky and see a fireworks spectacular to rival that of the opening night in Auckland, without the wakas of course.

You can watch the real time tracking of  UARS and draw its orbit at http://www.infosatellites.com/uars-satellite-tracking-norad-21701.html

No confirmation yet of prophecies proclaiming this is the bright star heralding the arrival of Jesus the All Black at Eden Park.

THREE WISE MEN are said to be standing-by, ready  to shoulder barge their way through the crush and play homage.

Jesus Is An All Black

New Zealand is officially a secular state, it’s main religion is rugby and absolution may be found through sport, but this is taking things a little too far even in a  country with a Godzone complex.

St Paul’s Cathedral in Wellington is displaying a painting by local artist, Don Little entitled, “New Zealand Icon”. It shows the figure of an All Black in the style of a Jesus icon.

“Central to Christian belief is the fact that God became a human being, he became a man,” cathedral dean the Very Rev Frank Nelson said.

“We often call New Zealanders God’s own, so it would be completely logical that if Jesus did come back he would be an All Black.

“It’s painted in the very traditional Orthodox Christian style of painting, designed as an aid to prayer, so the idea is that it engages your attention but then takes you beyond the painting to God.”

All well and good but there is zero chance of Richie McCaw offering up his other cheek next time he worships with Quade Cooper, neither are Kiwis likely to forgive their enemies in their quest for the holy grail (Webb Ellis cup)  This whole icon thing has been badly thought out though hasn’t it – we all know what happened to Christ in the final game. Fortunately he came back for a rematch, the All Blacks may not be so blessed.

Artist Don Little told the Dom Post he painted the $3,000 icon after wondering whether rugby had become the new religion in a country that had largely turned away from the faith. Great to see a price being put on that statement.

Coming to a hotel room near you – Godzone

But wait that’s not all,  a chapter of the bible has received the rugby treatment too. Apparently Luke was chosen for a rework because it contains the popular nativity scene (with a baby Jesus in an All Black romper?) and the story of a lost sheep which gives it a New Zealand flavour.

History does not tell us if the sheep was black.

“Godzone is a re-vamped version of the Gospel of Luke, featuring the entire text of the New Testament chapter interspersed with the life stories of 10 international players whose lives have been transformed by their Christian faith.

Past and present players – including All Black Thorn, Fijian captain Deacon Manu, Black Fern Doris Taufateau, Scottish prop Euan Murray, Wallabies flanker David Pocock and former captain Nick Farr-Jones – describe their paths to faith in the book, of which 25,000 copies have been published…” more here source

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Robert Winston Says NZ Fears Technology & Has Poor Values (Blog December 2009)

“New Zealand is a wonderful country, but it is also a country which I think has some very poor values as well…The fact is that you still rate things like the America’s Cup, the All Blacks and the cricket (as) being far too important when actually they don’t fundamentally improve human wellbeing…You do some fantastically good science and it’s really sad that at the moment your Kiwis are in my laboratory. You are exporting the wrong things, you’re exporting your talent, the very talent which might prop up your economy. But there’s no future for them in this country“… more

Kiwis Hatred For The English, Australians, French …Tout le Monde?

Results of a Sydney Morning Herald Poll

It’s taken a world cup rugby tournament to expose Kiwis’ feelings about foreigners to their country. If you’re thinking about travelling to New Zealand to watch the rugby, or are weighing up whether to emigrate there, you may want to look away now.

By Dave Tuplin on Mon, 19 Sep 2011 in Dunedin based Otago Daily Times:

New Zealand’s hatred of the English

“I have been to two England games for the Rugby World Cup and I have come to the conclusion that Otago residents or Kiwis in general hate the English.
Don’t get me wrong, I support the underdog, it is in the nature of us English, and British in general to admire and applaud tenacity, we like the underdog.
However at the most recent match, England versus Georgia, the sheer vittriol and hatred voiced by the spectator in seat AK143, section 306 (approx) was astonishing.
Ribbing supporters about the team’s performance is one thing, but to then essentially slag off the English supporters is quite another…” read more here

Ironic isn’t it that one of Helen Clarks selling points in her pitch to the International Rugby Board was Tana Umaga’s promise that “In an unsettled world, players, their fans, their families, would be safe and secure here.“

When the decision to award the 2011 rugby world cup was announced the British media questioned the IRB’s decision

“suggesting the board had missed a golden chance to expand the sport globally and calling for change after claims that delegates had fallen for New Zealand’s emotional “last-chance” appeal.

Sounds like the pitch was high on emotion but low on delivery. A bit like the opening night celebrations  when public transport failed and thousands of spectators were crushed and intimidated by drunken revellers. The locals couldn’t even look after their own – the young women from the waka crew were abused and assaulted and Auckland City Hospital was so overloaded that it was sending patients to other hospitals and queues were forming outside.

Someone called “Carys” read the ODT article and wrote this in response, it seems to sum up the unease English people felt in New Zealand, some of whom won’t be coming back to the country because of the people.

“As an English fan, I came over to New Zealand because I love rugby and wanted to see the World Cup, and also to support my team. I have been living in the North Island for two and a-half months and have had a few comments about the fact that I am English, but nothing in comparison to the way I felt down in Dunedin for the first two games.

It definitely isn’t just the odd fan either. The entire attitude of the kiwis down in Dunedin towards the English has been negative from what I’ve seen so far. Only yesterday evening I saw a Kiwi bloke lash out at an English supporter who was just shouting his support of his team. The week before two Kiwi supporters (obviously donning the blue and white of the pumas) shouted insults and threw things at a small group of vocal England supporters until one of the lads turned around to confront them and was swiftly chucked out by the police.

Having seen the adverts all over the television about ‘love of the game’ and how well we treat our fellow fans, I have been most disappointed by the way English fans have been treated in Otago. In fact, after the game last night I was speaking to a couple of friends about their experience of NZ and both said that whilst the country is beautiful they doubted they’d come back purely because of the people.

I’m pretty sure part of the aim of this tournament was to show what a hospitable and welcoming nation New Zealand is. So far, I’ve been rather unconvinced.”

It’s not just the English that suffer from Kiwi hatred, the Australians also get a bashing. You probably recall the embarrassing “New Zealand minister for bad manners” who shouted obscenities and insults at players during Wallabies match, it looks like he set the tone for other Kiwis to follow.

Who can blame the Aussies is they too decide to stay away, this is what they’re saying about the experience of New Zealand:

Aussies irked at Kiwi Rugby World Cup nastiness

“Australian fans say they were spat at and bombarded with vitriol at the weekend – as Rugby World Cup insecurities twisted the friendly transtasman rivalry into hostility.

“The biggest shame for me, my wife and a lot of Australian fans is the atmosphere seemed really great for all the other nations – Kiwis seemed embracing of everyone except someone wearing a gold jersey,” said Wallaby fan Phil Dunne, from Sydney.

Mr Dunne arrived in Auckland on Friday and left on Monday. He had never expected a soft ride from New Zealanders, but the hatred crossed a line, he said.

“Some of the charming exchanges involved sexual comments about my wife, instructions on how we could all f*** off back to Australia and even included one charming bloke attempting to spit on us.”

The experience was mirrored by many other Aussie fans he had spoken to on the night, Mr Dunne said…”

And now the French are experiencing Kiwi hostility for having the ‘cheek’ to not select their best players for the coming match against the All Blacks. At least the French aren’t pretending their star players were injured and unfit to play llike the AB’s did, there was so much disappointment at the Japan match among AB fans who paid big bucks for their tickets.

A week is a long time in sport and Kiwi memories can be ephemeral:

Rugby World Cup’s $460 French farce

“The French rugby team have been accused of making a farce of their Rugby World Cup clash with the All Blacks on Saturday night by naming a side without many of their stars.

The Eden Park match – considered by many as the best of the pool play – was the first pool game to sell out, with 60,000 fans paying up to $460 for a ticket.

The fact that France has been responsible for the All Blacks’ early exit from two previous World Cups has fuelled interest in the match.

But French coach Marc Lievremont’s naming of a drastically altered side – including halfback Morgan Parra making his first start as an international first-five – has disappointed ticket-holders and prompted others to suggest a fix…” more here

No doubt the NZ supporters will make their feelings known in a big way when the French take to the pitch on Saturday, we predict it may start with the Kapa O Pango haka setting the tone for the conflict, sorry match.

DO you have any experiences of being a visiting supporter in New Zealand you’d like to tell us about? Leave a message here on the blog or tweet us.

You may also be interested in: Our Migrants Tales series and our What Kiwis say about NZ pages

Rugby World Cup, Bagpipes Lament – Updated

(scroll down for update)

A few days ago we wrote about the draconian set of rules governing items that are not permitted into world cup stadia during matches.

Prohibited items included some rather ridiculous items such as furniture, car parts, animals (yes this is New Zealand) and most importantly musical instruments. That means no drums, trumpets, french horns … or bagpipes. Fortunately singing and having a good time are still permitted, just.

No bagpipes, how ridiculous. Enough is enough said the Scottish Minister for Sports, Shona Robison, who has written to the rugby world cup officials hoping they will see sense.

Her plea, and that of a lone piper and rugby fan, Dr. Matthew Strachan was picked up by The Scotsman newspaper:

Officials have reportedly outlawed bagpipes from stadiums amid fears they could distract Scotland’s opponents.

Now sports minister Shona Robison has written to the organisers asking them to overturn the decision.

The move follows a complaint from Scotland fan and piper Matthew Strachan, 32, who has also written to John Key, the prime minister of New Zealand.

Mr Strachan, a GP from Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, said: “After spending considerable money getting to New Zealand to support my country, I was shocked to hear bagpipes were not allowed in the stadiums.

“I’ve played the pipes in most of the UK stadiums and also in France during the last World Cup and they have always been gratefully received. Why then after many sporting years have the World Cup organisers decided against having them in stadiums?”

He added: “At least pipers should be allowed to play up to the start of the game and afterwards. What is a touring piper supposed to do with his pipes when refused entry to a stadium? I would not have bought as many tickets to other games had I known, because as a piper, rugby games to me have always included my pipes.” … read the full report here

For “Fears they could distract Scotland’s opponents”? one can only imagine the firestorm that would ensue if the same reasoning should ever be applied to the All Blacks’ haka.

A Facebook page has been set up to support the:

 Campaign to allow responsible bagpiping in all RWC stadiums in New Zealand.

Join it, help to bring some sense back to the world cup. Before it’s too late.

Update 21/09/2011

Matt Strachan has had a reply from the Prime Minister of New Zealand, John Key – who has passed the buck/ball:

Dear Mr Strachan
On behalf of the Prime Minister, Rt Hon John Key, I acknowledge your email of 14 September 2011 concerning the use of bagpipes at the Rugby World Cup games.
Please be assured your comments have been noted.
As the issue you have raised falls within the portfolio responsibility of the Minister for the Rugby World Cup, Hon Murray McCully, your email has been forwarded to his office for consideration and you can expect a response in due course.
Thank you for writing.
Regards
Megan Walls
Correspondence Assistant