Kapa O Pango!

One of the things I was told to do while I was in New Zealand is see an All Blacks Rugby game. There season was just ending when I first arrived here and so I had to wait for the next season, which is now! But did I ever underestimate how fast tickets sell out. So I missed the boat on the game in Auckland but saw that they had 2 more games in New Zealand before I leave. One of them was in Dunedin which is on the South Island, so that was a no. But the last game of the set against England was in Hamilton, which is only a 2 hour drive from Auckland. So I got online and quickly purchased some tickets! Again they sold out really fast so the only tickets left were in the standing area at the one goal line. But this also made them cheaper so we were all on board with it. 

When we got to the stadium it we were filled with excitement! There is something about live sports, the atmosphere was amazing! 

The stadium was quite small so it was very easy for us to see everything! We watched them warm up a bit and then it was time! We stood and listened to the anthem which was very beautifully sung in Maori and English. Then they performed the famous haka! The haka is a traditional Moari war dance that the All Blacks perform to ‘scare’ their opponents. There 2 version of the haka. The traditional and historical Ke Mate and the All Blacks own Kapa O Pango. I watched he video many times to try and see which one they performed for us but it just sounds like yelling to me. But never the less, it was incredible! 

Warming up

Intimidating the opposition! 

I was already smiling from ear to ear and the game hadn’t even started yet.  I went with 3 other girls Jenny (Swedish), Laura (Spainsh) and Weibke (German) and none of us knew the first thing about rugby. But we cheered and ‘boo’ed accordingly. The All Blacks ended up destroying England 36-13 and equalling the international record of 17 consecutive wins!  

Laura, Jenny, me and Wiebke

Haka face!

Celebration!

Try!

Since we were only about 40 minute drive from Raglan we made the collective decision to make a stop in the notorious surf town. I had visited Raglan back in October and was excited to visit the lively west coast town. We visited Bridal Veil Falls and got our work out of the day with the 300 steps down to the bottom and then 300 back up again. With some good music playing and the sun shining we made our way back along the winding roads to Auckland.

All Blacks Game. Check.