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World video travel guide
News • New Zealand • 2011-05-12
New Zealand warms up for RWC 2011
Auckland's on 'Cloud' nine, Wellington’s launching a waka, Nelson’s taking a long Italian lunch, Bluff’s reserving the juiciest oysters, Westland’s celebrating whitebait, and wineries all over New Zealand are dusting off their vintage best.
As time ticks away and the much anticipated 9 September Rugby World Cup 2011 opening date approaches, New Zealand is warming up to welcome 85,000 international visitors to the greatest event and biggest celebration the country has ever staged.
New Zealand plans to turn the revered rugby tournament into a national event with games scheduled for 12 locations, and rugby teams hosted in 23 towns and cities.
The logistically challenging match schedule will ensure that all of New Zealand gets a taste of the rugby action, and that visitors find plenty of opportunities to see more of New Zealand.
Fan zones
In the cities, game venues are readying for big crowds and new fan zones are emerging.
Auckland is raising the ‘Cloud’ on Queen’s Wharf to showcase New Zealand to the world and, at the other end of the Viaduct Harbour precinct, a new Events Centre is preparing to host festival events.
Wellington’s popular waterfront area now boasts the Wharewaka - a distinctive new structure designed to house a traditional Māori waka / canoe that will provide a central rugby village for fans.
And, while it won’t be a permanent fixture, Nelson is planning to turn an aircraft hangar into an Italian city for a 48-hour Italian festival to celebrate hosting the Italy rugby team and the South Island city’s strong Italian connections.
Accommodation high
With accommodation demand likely to stretch to an all-time high during the tournament, there’s a flurry of activity in the hospitality sector.
New luxury and budget hotels are about to open in Auckland and Queenstown, and new short term motor-home parks are springing up - including one that’s in walking distance of Wellington’s inner-city and stadium.
Kiwi ingenuity is behind other accommodation options including websites advertising home, farm and traditional Māori marae stays where visitors can experience grassroots New Zealand hospitality.
New Zealand flavour
Kiwis - national figures, local identities and thousands of keen volunteers all over the country - are lining up to play their part in giving the 2011 Rugby World Cup a distinct New Zealand flavour.
They’ll play a host of roles from welcoming and hosting visitors, to staffing information centres, facilitating logistics at games, and organising a string of quintessential Kiwi events.
REAL NZ Festival
Running alongside the tournament, the REAL New Zealand Festival will encompass around a thousand regional events in urban and rural locations all over New Zealand.
Festival events will showcase New Zealand’s arts, food and wine, heritage, cultures, entertainment, enterprise, experiences and lifestyle.
Thousands of New Zealanders are involved in staging the varied festival programme which includes everything from the internationally-recognised World of WearableArt in Wellington, to quirky regional wine and food festivals like the West Coast’s Hokitika Wildfoods, and Central Otago’s Pinot Noir Experience.
Rugby tournament
Some iconic festival events are a long-standing feature on the New Zealand calendar; others are new, and have been inspired by the rugby tournament. Some will have special appeal to rugby followers.
Rotorua’s Tribal Rugby Festival will include three days of entertainment, food and wine, friendly competitions, and unforgettable rugby. International rugby fans can sign up online to participate in waka warrior canoe races on Lake Rotorua, fan tug-o-war, haka and team anthem song quest.
Queenstown has scheduled some real rugby action with an invitational match fielding some of the world’s big rugby names when a Classic All Blacks team takes on French Classics.
The Waitaki Golden Oldies Rugby Festival will see 40 teams - made up of former internationals and local players from New Zealand and abroad - do battle on the rugby field.
Rugby inspires art
Rugby has inspired everything from art exhibitions to innovative museum collections.
Waikato Museum will deliver an energetic, dynamic exhibition focusing on ‘the national religion’. Rugby. Red, Yellow, (All) Black is an interactive local take on the national game that will have wide appeal.
At Te Papa - in Wellington - visitors will learn how to haka as part of a new exhibition at the national museum that explores the haka’s meaning, origins and association with rugby and the All Blacks.
The Oranges at Halftime is a travelling exhibition that celebrates the grassroots origins of Rugby in New Zealand - white shorts, muddy paddocks, Dad on the sidelines, and Mum serving oranges and pies - with an engaging and humorous look at what makes Kiwis tick.
Heroes - a world première drama - celebrates rugby and the everyday heroes who get dirty playing the game they love, while Auckland’s Rugby Comedy Festival will feature some of the world’s funniest rugby raconteurs.
Long way round
The schedule of an expected 1000-plus REAL NZ Festival events is designed to give rugby visitors a host of reasons ‘to take the long way round’ - making time to visit the country as well as the towns and stadia that will stage the rugby games - while giving the locals a chance to share the best.
Visitors who venture away from the cities will find some of the most authentic ‘Kiwi’ events in the countryside.
Kawerau Woodfest is a true Kiwi experience - an annual showcase of the artistic side of working with wood along with activities associated with the timber industry. This national event attracts exhibitors and competitors from throughout New Zealand.
In Central Hawke’s Bay, there’s the annual Lamb Festival with events like ‘Paddock to the Plate’, ‘Mutton Dressed as Lamb' ball, ‘Running with the Lambs’, and an art extravaganza. And the little Manawatu town of Bulls has billed its ‘Running of the Bulls’ festival as "unforget-a-bull".
Māori culture experiences
On the historic Waitangi Treaty Grounds - birthplace of the nation - ‘Waitangi Welcomes the World’ will be a three-day celebration of Māori cultural events, rugby-inspired happenings and Kiwi events.
At Tolaga Bay - on the North Island’s East Coast - 'Rugby RUCKus' will showcase regional rugby, kapa haka / Māori performance, kai / food and ki o rahi / Māori rugby and the community’s bicultural heritage.
Prehistoric Māori rock art has inspired the Art Rocks Festival which celebrates southern heritage, culture and creativity at Timaru. The majority of New Zealand's 300 rock art sites lie within a 70km radius of the South Canterbury town.
Food and wine
Kiwis love good wine and food, and visitors looking to taste New Zealand’s best will find a vast choice of regional events from the Great Whitebait Challenge on the West Coast to an amazing Central Otago Pinot Noir wine experience in the Gibbston wine region.
During the rugby tournament, farmers markets all over New Zealand will be presenting ‘Out Standing in Their Field’ - cooking demonstrations by growers and chefs using local fresh produce.
Rugby fans in Auckland will be able to experience Taste of New Zealand - a three-day celebration of top restaurants and fine produce that springs up on Victoria Park, close to Auckland’s Viaduct Harbour.
Marlborough - New Zealand’s biggest wine producing region - is inviting visitors to the ‘Dinner of a Lifetime’. This exclusive wine and food experience will include a four-course gourmet meal by top local chefs and matched with vintage Marlborough wines.
The amazing Central Otago Pinot Noir wine experience is a one-day wine and food extravaganza with opportunities to meet winemakers, take part in a grand pinot noir tasting, and lunch in the Gibbston Valley’s picturesque wineries.
