Rugby World Cup Fever - Opening Ceremony - Photos hot off the press!

Well... finally! its World Cup Fever here in Auckland, NZ and I have just this minute got home from watching part of the opening ceremony down on the Viaduct. Unfortunately I couldn't even get to the cloud unless I wanted to battle my way through hundreds of thousands of people including a large number of inebriated teenagers. Regardless a great atmosphere, an incredible number of people, literally hundreds of thousands, and well worth the experience.

It was the most beautiful sunny Spring day, every single restaurant, cafe and bar down town, was and still is, brimming with people enjoying the weather and this milestone event. I did manage a brief stop off at the new Art Gallery and took some photos of paintings I thought would suit the "All black" theme of this post.  Oops! got into trouble for taking a photo of the most exquisite painting of roses by Fatin Latour that had me mesmerised by his application of paint and the incredible light he achieved. This seemingly small painting truly had a "Wow" factor to it. I am sorry I cannot share it with you as unfortunately I had to delete my photograph  while the security man stood over me :(.

I then wandered down the Viaduct and waited for what seemed like "hours" for the wakas to move off, unfortunately the poor warriors had been sitting there even longer, shirtless and in the cold shadows of the Wharf. However, when they finally moved off, they gave a spectacular display and it was well worth the wait. I decided then it was time for me to head home, If I had been with friends I would have stayed longer, it was the sort of atmosphere you needed to share with others but Hugo was waiting at home for his dinner and I was getting hungry myself.

Hope you enjoy snippets of this event.

The fabulous Waka's (for those of you that do not live in NZ a Waka is a Maori Canoe.

unfortunately I couldn't get the complete canoe in my photo as there were too many heads in front of me, this is the best I could do.

These young girls were truly in the spirit and happy to pose for me.

As was this lady....

and these people, although I am still working out what the T shirts depict? 

Of course I have to include some art, so here is some black and white Art from two very well known New Zealand artists, I snapped (this time with permission) at the New Art Gallery today.

Colin McCahon - Are there not Twelve hours of daylight - 1970

Acrylic on canvas

Gordon Walters - Painting No1 - 1965, PVA on hardboard

Have a great weekend

Lee x