Dawes Family in New Zealand

Blacked Out

I was lucky enough to score a few tickets to the All Blacks game at the Westpac Stadium last week.  The weather was perfect – rain and a bit of an ice cold southerly breeze to finish it off.

Having crammed myself into the packed train full of the young and old, all wearing the national team colours, I arrived at Wellington station to join the already packed queues, with an estimated 33,000 people expected through the gates.

I met up with a friend for a beer before hand, then headed into the ground to find our seats.  It was only natural that we stock up on beer and chips along the way, a far cry from the days of a pie and cup of Bovril on the football terraces.

This was the first All Blacks match I’ve been to, and I have to say the Haka was awesome.  Something about it lifts the whole stadium (except of course the South African fans still licking their wounds from the crushing All Backs defeat the week before).

Dan Carter missed pretty much every kick he attempted, so it took local boy Piri Weepu to step in and take over – good job too!  The AB’s absolutely caned the SpringBoks 31-17 to make 2 successive wins.

With our camera still out of action, I was left to attempt to take pictures on an iPhone.  Now I guess plenty of people love the iPhone, all it’s shiny-ness and cool applications and stuff.  But when it’s blowing a gale, raining 360 degrees around the stadium and at night, let’s be honest it takes pretty crappy photographs!  The video on the other hand was a bit more impressive.

So, all that aside, here’s a few choice pics & a short video of the event.