We arrived back in Aucklandin the evening. We went to get something to eat, had one drink in the bar and went to bed.

The next day we hung out on the roof of the roof of the hostel in the morning. It was a nice sunny day. After lunch we went down to the harbour to see the events in the rugby world cup opening ceremony. We walked around and could see the boats getting ready but the quay side was already really crowded and we didnt have a brillient view. We decided to go and stand near a big screen. There we had a front row view just behing the barriers. On the screen we saw the boats arrive into the harbour with all the Maui rowing their canoes. There were 600 of them altogether. They then did a mass Hakka but at this point we couldnt see it on the screen, so it was a bit disappointing. The Maui then did a procession down the street but this meant the crowds infront of the big screens had to move. This was when it got a bit chaotic as there was no where for the people to move to! This is when we decided to leave and go get something to eat. Leaving was a task in itself as you had to squeeze passed people and a lot of the time you couldnt move. We eventually got out of the crowd and went to Burger King. The street was full of people dressed up, people honking car horns and waving flags, it was a really good atmosphere. We went back to the hostel to put warmer clothes on before going back to face the crowds again to watch the proper opening ceremony on the big screens. We watched the show performance on the screen and then it came to the fireworks! Unfortunately where we were stood we didnt have a great view of them as there were too many skyscrapers in the way, but it was still amazing. Everyone was cheering. When the New Zealand National Anthem came on the whole street was singing and cheering. As New Zealand were in the lead the mood in the street was really good. Towards the end of the match it started to get cold so we headed back to the hostel after it had finished. We went to the hostel bar for a few drinks and a boogie. In the morning we left Auckland to start our North Island trip.