Where to watch the All Blacks

If you did­n’t fly down to Christchurch for the first test, don’t have tick­ets to the Welling­ton game (Sat­ur­day 2nd July) or can’t be doing with all those Auck­lan­ders for the final test (Sat­ur­day 9th July) then how about these options.

Courte­nay Place, “Par­ty Zone”
Courte­nay Place will be closed to traf­fic and trans­formed into an enter­tain­ment zone through­out the test match week­end, 1st — 3rd July. There will be live music and free per­for­mances.

Fri­day: 8pm-mid­night

• Deva Mahal
• Ghost­plane
• Whop­per Chop­per Sound Sys­tem

Sat­ur­day: noon-mid­night

• Game live on big screen!
• Buskers all day
• RNZAF Jazz Band
• Welling­ton Pipe Band
• Whop­per Chop­per Sound Sys­tem
• Batu­ca­da Band
• plus OdESSA
• The Reveals
• Avi­a­tor … and more!

Road Clo­sures
To accom­mo­date the large crowds expect­ed in the city and to ensure pedes­tri­an safe­ty, there will be sev­er­al oth­er streets closed as well — from 7.00pm Fri­day 1st July to 8.00am Sun­day 3rd July — leave the car at home, use pub­lic trans­port instead.

• Courte­nay Place (Tarana­ki Street to Cam­bridge Ter­race)
• Tory Street (Wake­field Street to Ten­nyson Street)
• Blair Street (all)
• Allen Street (par­tial clo­sure)

All busi­ness­es with­in the clo­sure zone will be open for busi­ness as usu­al.

Michael Fowler Cen­tre — FREE
Missed out on tick­ets to the Lions Welling­ton test? Don’t despair — get your­self tick­ets to the Big Screen Black­out — a free fam­i­ly event organ­ised by Welling­ton City Coun­cil — and enjoy the test match live on the big screen.

Doors open at 5pm and the fun kicks off at 5.30pm at the Michael Fowler Cen­tre on Sat­ur­day 2 July. Every­one through the doors between 5–6pm can enter to win four test match tick­ets. The win­ners will be announced at around 6.15pm and then chauf­feured to West­pac Sta­di­um in time for kick-off.

Enter­tain­ment includes Frankie Stevens as MC, and the Rol­licks — a Rolling Stones trib­ute band to amuse the adults, and free face-paint­ing and per­form­ers to amuse the kids. To help get peo­ple into test match fever the Michael Fowler Cen­tre will be decked out in All Blacks colours and fun sta­di­um foods, such as hot dogs, chips and pop­corn will be avail­able for pur­chase.

“We want to cre­ate a real sense of atmos­phere as close to the Sta­di­um expe­ri­ence as pos­si­ble,” says City Coun­cil Event Co-ordi­na­tor Melody Scales. “We’re encour­ag­ing peo­ple to dress in black and be ready to cheer on our boys.”

Because the Big Screen Black­out is a fam­i­ly func­tion no alco­hol will be sold or allowed into the venue.

Free tick­ets are avail­able at Tick­etek (Michael Fowler Cen­tre out­let only) from Mon­day 20th June. There is a lim­it of four tick­ets per per­son. Phone book­ings will not be accept­ed. Around 2000 tick­ets are avail­able.

“We’re expect­ing tick­ets to go fast,” says Ms Scales. “So peo­ple need to get a wrig­gle on if they don’t want to miss out.”

Bars in town
We at Welling­ton­ist Tow­ers have been vis­it­ing a dif­fer­ent bar for each of the provin­cial games — all in the ser­vice of our loy­al read­ers you under­stand. Stand­out bars so far have been:

• The Malt­house
• The Black Harp
• Shed 22 (Brew­ery Bar)
• Bar Edward’s, New­town

We urge you all to pass on your rec­om­men­da­tions by leav­ing a com­ment to this post­ing.

Be aware that some bars have entry restric­tions and the Barmy Army have nom­i­nat­ed Loaded Hog, Black Harp and Hotel Bris­tol as their “HQs”.

Read­ing cin­e­ma
The fol­low­ing is tak­en from their ‘fly­er’ at the front desk (Courte­nay Cen­tral, Welling­ton) — min­i­mum 10 tick­ets per group.

Option One — $8 per tick­et
Deluxe main­stream seat / Foods and bar facil­i­ties by arrange­ment

Option Two — $20 per tick­et
Regency Laz-Z-Boy Seat / Access to soft drink and pop­corn self-ser­vice area / Food and bar facil­i­ties avail­able

Avail­able for the three tests with the Tri-Nations home games to be con­firmed. More test dates pos­si­ble — please enquire about screen­ing oth­er sim­i­lar events. Con­tacts: John or Moana on 04–801 4602

At your own place — FREE
If you find the prospect of being sur­round­ed by thou­sands of rug­by fans all try­ing to get a view of the game there’s always your own place. Sky will have the game live with TV3 show­ing the excel­lent delayed cov­er­age free-to-air.

Invite ya mates (maybe a few Poms for added spice), get the piz­zas in the oven, pop open the beer/wine/OJ and set­tle back into the most com­fort­able chair in town — your own.