I don't know if you've heard, but down here in (mostly) sunny New Zealand there is an event taking place; The Rugby World Cup®.
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| Go the mighty All Blacks. |
They'd better win this time or else...
It's even having an effect on schools, with our term times altered so that the finals are on during the between-term holidays, and there's references to the various teams scattered over most of our classrooms and corridors.
However, New Zealand is not really used to having this large influx of visitors from beyond our shores. The opening ceremony at Eden Park, in Auckland (our biggest city) was quite impressive, with corresponding firework displays over Auckland Harbour. (See The Curmudgeon's post on the display, with photos and videos.) and many people turned up to see both events. So many people turned up that the infrastructure was almost jammed by the sheer weight of numbers. So many people jammed into the event centre (euphemism for a gigantic beer hall) by the dockside that the Government is now talking about taking the whole area over so as to exert more control.
What exactly they think they can do to improve the situation in the next 4 weeks isn't quite clear, and I really think it's just a
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| Trying to order a beer in Auckland on Friday |
The real problem isn't the hordes of visitors, it's the Kiwis.
We're just not used to having to cope with such large densities of people.
If you go to New York, London, or even Glasgow, then you'll be shoulder to jowl with so many people that it'll make your head spin. For goodness sake, there's more people living in London than live in the entire islands of New Zealand. We're just not used to it.
I can remember going to a popular beach on a glorious summer's day. It was busy by Kiwi standards. I could count at least another 50 people, but as the beach was about 3 km long, it wasn't exactly crowded.
It's one of the things that makes NZ unique and greatly attractive. The feeling of space and freedom.
I just hope we can maintain it as our population grows. I really don't want to live with the population density we saw in Auckland on our TVs.
Oh well.
There's always Tasmania.
Or maybe not.
You are right. Unfortunately put a whole lot of kiwis together in the same spot and they behave badly. Its like they are kids on a school trip - the old school bus trip situation ...."We want a wee wee now..."
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should host an Opera World Cup, a Shakespeare World Cup or a Double Bass Playing World Cup..... ooops, sorry, got a bit carried away there.