"Crouch-Touch-Pause-Engage" - Words that Kiwis Live & Die By

Update...Pictures Added!!!
"The All Blacks" Win
 the Rugby World Cup 8 to 7 over France

A parade in honor of the "All Blacks" was held in Auckland, Christ Church and Wellington.  On the steps of Wellingtons city hall the "All Blacks" did the Hakka .  Over 100,000 showed up for the 45 minute parade through downtown Wellington!

From the stairwell outside our "Digi-Lab" you could see the parade route.  We wanted to go down and see first hand, but....

I think we've talked about how serious rugby is to the average Kiwi and winning the "World Cup" was huge.  This looks like a pretty good turnout...but just wait!

The throng is starting to get larger.  Would you say 5 to 10 deep?

Would you guess that they are 15 to 20 deep now?

Although you can't see the "All Blacks" very well from this distance, you can see that the street is a total mass of people maybe 30+ deep.  And this was in the middle of a constant drizzle!  Do they love their rugby or what!

Sorry for the poor photo, but rain was flowing down the window at this time and I did as good as I could!  You can see the throng filling in behind the cars and bag pipes on there way to New Zealand Parliament just 2 blocks away at this time of the parade.  They were greeted at Parliament by the Prime Minister and Members of Parliament.

The picture below is not mine, copied off the Wellington Diplomat website.  It shows Parliament behind (the round building called "The Beehive") and the throngs of people awaiting the "All Blacks".

The original post is below this note.  All above is the aftermath of the championship!
Six weeks ago, September 9th, the life of the average Kiwi was put on hold for the Rugby World Cup.

This event is held every four years and is hosted by one of the 20 Federation countries.  This year it's being hosted by New Zealand and the entire country is fixed to their TV'S watching the games.

20 countries are invited and play in four "Pools".  The winners and runner-ups of each pool move on to compete for the World Rugby Title.  It's all boiled down to the Championship game tonight with the New Zealand "All Blacks" facing the team from France.  You wouldn't normally think of France when you think of Rugby (if you think of it at all) but in 2007 they knocked out the "All Blacks" in the quarter finals.  Something the "All Blacks" have already avenged by beating the French earlier in the event since France was in their pool.

Anyway, any blog from New Zealand wouldn't be complete without something on Rugby.  Rugby to a Kiwi is like NFL football to someone in Philly!  Even more so.  We haven't caught the full spirit of the event because we didn't attend any games at the direction of the church Area Presidency.  It's so serious here in New Zealand that the mission president had to send out special instructions during game nights.  Those instructions included - no lesson teaching, no knocking on doors, no participation in the events, etc.

Anyway, here's a very feeble attempt to show you what it's like around here during World Cup Season...

Hollywood has nothing on Wellington.  This sign could be seen from miles (kilometers) away!  Others in town were seen as depicted below:

We kept this score sheet up in the apartment during the entire event...it's awaiting to notch the winner

One of the exciting things is to watch the country fans.  It's great the team loyalty.  It's not "beat you up" loyalty, but friendly jabbing and really fun to watch and listen to.  Here's something from Tonga, France and the US.

 

Fan "Craze" was also visible everywhere you looked.  Here fans waited outside the hotel when the "All Blacks" played here in Wellington.