The All Blacks!

New Zealand is known for Lord of the Rings, the great outdoors and of course the All Blacks. We've watched the full LOTR trilogy since being here and as you're all aware, enjoyed plenty of the great outdoors. So we decided a visit to Eden Park to watch the All Blacks take on the Wallabies was definitely in order!

As if we weren't excited enough, we decided rather than catching the train to the stadium we would join with the other supporters and walk the 'Fan Trail' from the city centre. We packed some beers, popped on our cheap but effective NZ t shirts and enjoyed plenty of entertainment en route, including flash mobs, traditional dancers, music and lots and lots of silver fern flags.

Here I am holding one en route

We got to the stadium nice and early so were treated to some more entertainment. 'Hugely successful' (in Australasia) band Dragon, and some angry Maori dancers getting us warmed up for the Hakka.

Stadium starting to fill up

Once the players came on the pitch the crowd were well and truly ready (and rowdy) and joined in a hearty national anthem sing-a-long.

The boys in black

The match between NZ and Australia was the second leg of the Bledisloe Cup test - NZ have had the trophy in the cabinet for the last 9 years, and with a win last weekend in Sydney were looking set to dominate. They still did the Haka just to make sure the Wallabies were aware of their superiority!

Spine-tingling stuff!

 And then the game finally started!

It wasn't the greatest... but memorable for the score at least - 22-0 to the All Blacks! One fantastic try, a few penalties and some very close calls on the try line.

Not so many shots of the actual game -
too busy jumping up and down and
shouting with everyone else!

Before catching the train home we were treated to the new video for the Flight of the Conchords charity single for NZ Red Nose Day. For anyone who knows Flight of the Conchords - you have got to watch this - absolutely hilarious!

'Britt' of the famous NZ duo