New Zealand is really keen on Rugby. Possibly more than outsiders realise, a lot of people identify a large part of our national identity with being good at Rugby and are fiercely proud of the national team - the All Blacks. This has meant that hosting the Rugby World Cup has been a really, really big deal. The build up and hype about it has been extremely and I must admit, as a Kiwi who isn't particularly enamoured with Rubgy, that I will be glad when it is all over and done as the advertising alone for it has been very annoying.
But this also means that a lot of the anciallary stuff around the games has been getting a lot of attention and funding. Including the fireworks display used to mark the end of the opening ceremony and allow time to clear the field before the first game begins. This was a twelve minute display primarily launched from four barges out in the harbour but also from select buildings in the CBD and I think a few from the top of Mt Eden park as well. We simply haven't seen a display this size before in New Zealand.
It does mean that out of the photographs below I was only capturing the
output from one barge. From what I could see each barge was firing
largely identical loads so multiply what you see below by four to get an idea
of how big the display actually was.
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While the rugby itself bores me silly the fireworks display was grand. I am glad I got the chance to see it in person. To get into position for it though I had to leave directly after work and only just got the last good spot while still having a three hour wait for things to start. (Thank goodness for Ebooks and an iPad.) It didn't help that someone managed to wedge their campervan under a tree and emergency services had to spend time freeing it which blocked traffic.