Saturday 5 February 2011

Sevens in the city

On route to our first city for a while we hit Martinborough. They were holding their annual rotary fair which looked a big community event. So it was handbrake on. It had only just gone 8.30am when we pulled up
but already the town square was packed with the sounds of shuffling feet. There must were hundreds of stalls and the whole town square and surrounding roads were jam packed with stalls. There were your usual suspects, everything on sale from artwork,  gum (welly) boots, local honey, crafts etc etc. We could have spent a few hours, and not to mention many dollars, here but alas Wellington was calling.

The main road to Wellie takes you on a road that Top Gear would have been proud off. Hugging the forest cliffs through the Rimutaka ranges high above the Hutt River passing through patches of low cloud. Not much room for error here. This all being part of getting 'over the hill', as it's known, to Wellington. Parliament capital of New Zealand.

On arriving the whole town was in party mood. The Wellington leg of the Rugby Sevens had rolled into town and as the stadium is within range of the city and harbour side the place was pretty busy. The Sevens leg in Wellington of this worldwide competition is renowned for everyone dressing-up in a free-for-all theme for a 2 day marathon drinking, sorry, sporting event. Having been to a few sporting events in my time I may have been accustom to the odd drunken daze but this was a whole new league. Scale topping amounts were being shifted. As for the dressing up attire, top marks, the effort put in was truly a great sight to witness. This city certainly knows how to p-a-r-t-y.  Back to the sport though! The 7 minute games are played almost back- to-back although the crowd really don't know whose doing what and where and for whom. What was great though was whenever the mighty All Blacks entered the whole stadium erupted. England made the cup final but playing against a side who were in their own back yard it wasn't going to be straight forward. The game of the day for me was Fuji Vs Samoa. The way these two teams moved themselves and the ball around was a real treat to watch. As for the final, England came second going down 29-14. Hmm

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