Rugby World Cup - The Cloud

Due to so many of our blog viewers being Americans who may not have known this event was happening, I thought that I would start there. For the past month or so New Zealand has been hosting the Rugby World Cup. The country has changed quite a lot in preparation for this event, and possibly no area more than downtown Auckland. So today we took a train into town to have a walk around and look at everything.

The main section on gameday is called The Cloud. It was somewhat disappointing since we thought that there would be more in it, but we also figured that the atmosphere on gameday would be quite a bit different. Still, we were glad to see it all.

Old MacDonald's Farm was also on the wharf, so the kids, Shell and I went to have a look. They had goats, cows, chickens and rats...yes Grandma, rats! Talor enjoyed having one crawl all over him and Layla seemed quite excited to have her turn. So, we put one on her...then she screamed and cried just like her Grandma would have! I was scared to death that she was going to drop the rat and step on it...thank God she didn't. We got her out of the farm and calmed her down...she had a good laugh when I told her that the rat I was holding at the time crawled down my back and was close to going down my pants when I went to get her. All was fine, but I think we'll just look at the rats from afar from now on.

Another feature was a 3D movie on the creation of New Zealand. This was Talor and Layla's first 3D movie. It was cool, and they enjoyed it a lot.

Here is a replica of what France and New Zealand are fighting for on Sunday night - the Webb Ellis trophy. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, it looks like that trophy will be spending the next four years here in New Zealand. Although the French team can't be overlooked, the All Blacks have looked GREAT this tournament and Sunday night should be a lot of fun!

This has been a very enjoyable break...and we still have six more days!