Today was a massive day for everyone in NZ - the opening of the 2011 Rugby World Cup! We started off by saying thank you and goodbye to Great Aunty Mary - she's been a fantastic host over the past few days and we've enjoyed staying with her and meeting all of my distant family - they're a friendly lot and all went out of their way to make us feel welcome.

We drove back to Wellington and to our home for the night at the Waterfront Motorhome Park - the most expensive so far ($75!). We had our showers there (not bad!) and ate the sandwiches we'd bought at our new favourite bakery in Upper Hutt on the way in. Then we set off towards the waterfront at about 2pm...

The fanzone was still pretty quiet at this point - the big screen was on and the beer tent was open, but there weren't many people around, probably because of the cold, windy weather! We had our first drink of the day at a pub called Mac's on the edge of the fanzone.

We spotted a few SA fans in the bar - in town early for their game against Wales in two days time. At Te Papa, they were putting on some special performances for the big day so we headed over there and up to the Marae (Maori meeting house), hoping to see a Haka. When we walked in, the room was filled with SA fans and our old friends the SA team were on stage signing flags, scarves, hats, body parts etc! They eventually went off (30 mins late because of the massive queue of people waiting to meet them!) and then the Maoris came on.

The performance was excellent - much better and more impressive than the one we saw in Rotorua, and they managed to get several bemused Japanese tourists to join in the haka - I heard one of then saying 'I don't want ot dance, I just want a photo!'. We then headed back to Mac's at about 4pm and set up our camp. We decided after a while to watch the game there, rather than outside in the fanzone - we were warm, we had good seats in front of the big screen and the beer was cheaper! The bar gradually packed out a couple of hours before kick-off including lots of visiting fans from all over the world.

We ate some wedges and dips for tea, and by then it was time for the opening ceremony. The show was pretty spectacular, focussing around a young boy who fought his way through a rugby scrum, met Jonah Lomu on the pitch and then took off on a wire, carrying a giant rugby ball. The ceremony finished with the biggest firework display in NZ's history! On to the rugby...NZ had a strong start, they didn't score as many points in the second half but still beat Tonga 41-10 - the atmosphere in the bar was fantastic!

After the game, we headed into town and first went to a student bar called the Big Kumara, but it was a bit of a dive and we were about 10 years older than any of the people in there...maybe that's why they ID'd us on the way in! After quickly finishing our drinks we found an Irish bar called Molly Malone's - more like our sort of place and they had a band on called The Relatives! The place was packed and we had a fantastic night of singing and dancing to the band - eventually left at 2am. We made our way back to the waterfront park (with a quick stop for me to have a go on a giant slide on the way - see photo) after oene of the best nights we've had in NZ!