Rugby World Cup

With 85,000 international visitors in the country, Rugby World Cup will showcase New Zealand to a global audience of discerning travellers – and, away from the rugby field, it’s Kiwi food and wine that’s likely to attract the most sustained interest.

Teams arriving in New Zealand for Rugby World Cup 2011 will be embraced by the warmth of the local culture from the moment they arrive in their host regions.

Tourism New Zealand’s giant rugby ball will stand on home ground for the first time – alongside The Cloud in the heart of Auckland’s party central on Queen’s Wharf during Rugby World Cup 2011.

Rugby World Cup 2011 will be a chance to experience and relive New Zealand’s rich rugby heritage with a series of REAL New Zealand Festival nostalgic exhibitions and events surrounding the tournament.

The last of the tickets for Rugby World Cup 2011 have gone on sale and are going quickly as New Zealand continues to ramp up preparations for hosting the major event.

Kiwis across New Zealand are talking up their language and hospitality skills as they join in the annual Māori Language Week (4 – 10 July 2011).

On 14 July 1789 the people of Paris stormed the Bastille and now, 221 years later, the French are coming to do battle in Queenstown.

First there were celebrity dolphins and an accident-prone kiwi. Next a cave-dweller hermit sheep, a rather forward flightless parrot and a sand-eating penguin – and now New Zealand has another animal celebrity.

Sirocco, the rare New Zealand kākāpo parrot whose frisky behaviour with a BBC television crew propelled him to global stardom, will make some cameo appearances during Rugby World Cup.

The best of Kiwi music will sound throughout the country during the Rugby World Cup when 50 top bands play 22 different cities as part of a REAL New Zealand Music Showcase tour.