All Blacks Parade

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I was up early and hopped on a bus back to Auckland. I booked this ticket ahead of time as it was the cheapest but it worked out perfect because the All Blacks will be having a parade through the city not long after this bus gets to Auckland. Perfect!

I took my stuff over to the apartment building I would be staying for my last 3 nights and dropped it off as I couldn't check in yet. I headed back to Queen street and grabbed some lunch and waited with all the other people on the street.

At 2:30pm the parade began. It started with some maori calling out to the all blacks with their horns. Then a dancing marching band which were really good! Then the All blacks started coming through. 2 or 3 of them were in the back of each ute (truck for us Canadians!) waving at the crowd.

I was a mere meters away from some of the players that I now know by name haha. I'm definitely a converted rugby fan. Nonu is one of my fav players and he was great to see and even though he had some trouble kicking in the final game I really like Piri Weepu.

There were all kinds of entertainers in the parade and it was really great to be amongst the action. There were streamers everywhere! Finally, Richie (the captain) and the world cup finished up the parade. The players were all so happy and it was great to see them win it on home turf.

Following behind Richie was the street cleaners. They wasted no time in cleaning up haha. I headed back to my apartment building and was able to check in now. I'm staying in one of the tallest residential buildings in the CBD. I'm in a studio apartment on the 6th floor. I can just see part of the harbour from here.

It's a nice little place and nice to have my own space to relax in for my last few nights in New Zealand. I will be spending my last couple of days just relaxing and getting souvenirs.

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Comments

[The Travel Camel]

An experience to remember
The parade would have been wonderful to watch with All Blacks, over-sized Kiwis, volunteers and even the Royal Family in attendance! The photos give a great sense of what it was like being in the crowd.

[Jo Trouble]

Impressed!
Hi Laurene, Great to hear about another rugby convert - and I'm quite impressed you've learnt the ABs names! (Better get a move on with my own world cup blog entries!) Glad you've had a great time here, safe travels.