It won't be pretty but it will be funHere at Wel­ling­ton­ist Towers there are two camps regard­ing the Brit­ish & Lions rugby tour that’s hap­pen­ing as we write. One school of thought is that it’s a waste of money, time and energy that would be far bet­ter spent on Kiwi music; the oth­er is that this is what life is all about.

Even if you’ve exper­i­enced a Lions tour before (last one was 1993) you might be in for a bit of a shock when the hordes des­cend upon our fair city – any­thing from 10,000 to 25,000 depend­ing upon which com­ment­at­or you want to believe.

Do not fear, MiramarMike has out­lined your very own “Barmy Army enthu­si­asts – a sur­viv­al guide” cov­er­ing everything from how to recog­nise a Barmy Army enthu­si­ast to safe inter­ac­tion in com­mon sup­port­er-type situ­ations.

Enjoy it and don’t be afraid to pass it on.

Wel­ling­ton Lions dates to remem­ber:

  • Wed­nes­day 15th: Wel­ling­ton v Lions
  • Sat­urday 2nd June: All Blacks v Lions

We sug­gest you’re either in total party mode OR for­get about com­ing into the city cen­ter.

Bars to be par­tic­u­larly wary of are The Loaded Hog (down by the Days Bay Ferry wharf) and pos­sibly The Bris­tol & Black Harp. These have been nom­in­ated by the Barmy Army as their offi­cial headquar­ters and ‘over­flow bars’.

If you’ve not got tick­ets for the test then watch this space for news of a fant­ast­ic big screen ven­ue in the centre of town.