Urban Bowling
Posted on 08 February 2009 by Natalie
Upon arriving to Wellington, after the 3 hour ferry from the South Island, we discovered that this weekend is the busiest weekend of the year. All of Wellington is currently decked out in some of the strangest costumes I have ever seen in my life and it’s all in the name of Rugby. This weekend NZI SEVENS is taking place. Locals call it “the sevens”, because instead of the typical 13 players on the field, only 7 players from each team compete at any given time. This causes the games to go much quicker and the costumes seem to add to the fun.
Justin and I had an amazing day walking around downtown people watching, or perhaps costume watching. I wish we had known…we would have dressed up too. However, thousands of people walked by us in hundreds of different outfits and this made Wellington a much more colorful place to spend a Saturday. All of the costumes were enhanced because each group of people had a theme.
Highlights from the day:
- The tin man (of Oz) crossing the street almost planted a kiss on me…talk about silver face paint…shiny happy people having fun.
- The dozens of men dressed as big “tickle me Elmo’s”. Don’t worry we didn’t tickle any of the men. It was a hot day and I didn’t want to test the strength of their deodorant.
- The tango dance class in the street, with interrupting penguins. That’s right. They had orange diving fins as feet and everything.
- Justin watching me verify with a cop what time the train would leave the station, only to realize I was not talking to a strange man in costume, but I was in fact addressing a cop.
- William Wallace’s shouting “FREEDOM”. I made William Wallace plural because their were at least 8 or 9 of them.
- Thomas the Train (each person in a straight line) choo-chooing by.
By late afternoon Justin and I became more or less immune to the various costumes and we felt out of place because we were dressed up as tourists. We turned the corner to discover a group of girls, each dressed all in white with two red stripes encircling their waists. Then, I realized they were standing super straight and facing Justin and I. “Want to bowl?”, one of the pins shouted eagerly. “Yeah, knock us down, see if you can get a strike”, another one shouted, while other pins giggled and smiled.
Instinctively, Justin and I thought, that meant we were suppose to roll and make full contact in order to knock them down. Then, one of the pins handed me a tennis ball and said, “If you hit any of the pins with this, they will fall.” So, I gently, bowled the tennis ball and struck the front lead pin. She fell down and caused all the rest of the girls to tumble to the pavement. “STRIKE”!!!! chorused the pin girls.
Justin’s turn came next. This time they let us use the bowling ball. Not an actual ball but Nic, dressed up as a big blue bowling ball. Her exact words to Justin were, “Alright you have to get a finger in each of the three holes. One-two-three!” And she went flying towards the pins. It was a truly spectacular sight. I wish you could have seen it.
Many awesome costumes were seen throughout Wellington , but by far the bowling pins and bowling ball were the absolute best of all. Don’t the pictures make you want to be a pin? Or would you be the bowling ball like Nic was? She was a pretty cute bowling ball. Don’t you agree?
View Image Gallery | Subscribe to RSS Feed |Nomads in Your Email
© nomadbackpackers.com - All rights reserved 2009
Tags | New Zealand
Wow sounds like you are having a lot of fun! So glad you were at Wellington on the sevens weekend, the atmosphere must be great. Well keep enjoying yourself in the ‘big city’
oxox
@Cathryn – Yes indeed Wellington has been extra eventful due to Sevens Weekend. It’s especially neat to spend a few weeks in a city, to further understand the people and culture. In the past I have visited cities like D.C., Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto, Shanghai, etc for quick glimpses (only a few days). So far, our extended time has given me a feeling of slowly absorbing Wellington like a sponge. Also, we are planning to visit the Film Archive on a rainy day and try to check out your 2 favorite Kiwi films (The World’s Fastest Indian and The Piano). Thanks for the recommendations Cath!
The costume dress up sounds like a riot. Were most of the people fairly young like 20′s 30′s?
@Philip – Their were a lot of younger people (20′s & 30′s) but it was a rather inter-generational event. Their was a large percentage (at least 50%) of the people were between 35-70 years old. And very few young kids were around during the day.
It seems that Kiwis of all ages enjoy rugby. Getting tickets to “the Sevens” and actually entering the stadium that weekend was expensive. Maybe the younger “Uni” (University) crowd was deterred by the ticket prices. And it sounds like you needed to by tickets about a year ago.
The closest U.S. comparison: Halloween, the Super Bowl and the Soccer World Cup hosted in Brazil, in a blender. And maybe a hint of Mardi Gras on the side.
Oooo i was working on manners mall that saturday, I was so gutted because I saw two red power rangers (im not talking cheap suits, the real deal skin tight outfits with head masks!)walk out of Mc Donalds, followed by the hamburgler and Ronald himself, and I wanted to go say hi and get a picture with them haha Oh well theres always next year!
Next year indeed. I want to come back and get into custom during the next sevens. It looked like so much fun. I did not get a chance to see the power rangers but I did see a Wookie. That was real flash.
In second grade (grade 2) I dressed up as a Nintendo Game Boy for Halloween. My grandpa (total DIY guy) helped me make a sweet costume. I guess that means I would have been a Wii if I had dressed up for the Sevens.
Oh wow, wish my dad helped me with things like that. Yeah i saw the wookie as well, ws pretty cool, got a pic with him…he smelled
Well maybe ill see ya next year, safe travels
Next year, just look for the Wii. I promise I won’t smell and you can take a picture with me.
Thanks for wishing us safe travels. Feel free to email us with any recommendations.
Bumped this to Bookmax! So I can store my bookmarks and links to one of my new favorite sites, NomadBackpackers.com
There’s so much to do in Wellington, and the Wellington 7′s is a great weekend. I went about 5 years ago, and had one of the best weekends ever. Everyone gets into it, and dresses up. Does everyone still chant when the Cornal is spotted leaving his seat? Very cool photos anyway.
Sounds like a great trip. I can’t wait to go to the Wellington Sevens, but tickets are quite hard to get hold of these days.
By the way, rugby usually has 15 on the field, not 13. Rugby league has 13 though.
Thanks for the correction Rugby Blog. Unfortunately, Justin and I both grew up in America and our knowledge of rugby is extremely limited.
I am glad that we have smart readers to call the plays. Just like a ref. Or is the referee called something else in rugby? Hmmm…
Thanks Sam for the complements on the photos.
Being in Wellington during the weekend of the Sevens lends to loads of fun photo opportunities.
Have fun coaching rugby!
That looks like an amazing party.
Fancy dress is an great laugh, we go to glastonbury festival every year in the UK and it’s full of people in fancy dress.
It’s in June every year, in a county called somerset, lovely place. You’ll have to try it if you’re ever in the UK at that time