If you don't have time to write, put up photos!

29 September 2011

We still haven't worked out where they sleep in this one.

First time we've seen one of these all black campers - but it was
a bunch of Aussie guys.

Van swap - replacement for the one that came in on a
transporter yesterday after the gearbox blew.

French horns!

Contributions from our campers.

Invasion of the Irish

19 September 2011

We had a complete nationality change for this weekend; last week was all about the French, this week we've had Irish and Australians - mainly Irish.

Most of them arrived on Friday and promptly headed for the downtown bars. There were still people getting home at dawn, which gave them a few hours sleep before they were up and ready for the big game.

No doubt where their allegiance lies.

 And then the great upset - Ireland beat Australia. The partying went to a whole new level, although fortunately they partied elsewhere and only came back here when they ran out of steam.

I went for a run early on Sunday and saw one of these lads walking home.
I don't think gorgeous is how I would describe him.

On Sunday we had plenty of the Irish pay for an extra night so they could recover from Saturday. Then they went out and got drunk all over again on Sunday.

In my office on Monday morning. He'd lost his mates and they had
the keys to the camper.

A bit of a breeze

13 September 2011

The last few days of strong winds in Auckland have caused all sorts of chaos - they couldn't even fly the flags on the bridge. Our fences have been getting pushed around, despite us taking some of the banners off.

And then today one long stretch of fence gave up resisting and toppled over. Luckily we have very few vans in, so no campers were affected, but one car in the public parking space was damaged.

Our fencing suppliers were great, so by tonight everything was back in place (with extra bracing in case we have any more Wellington-like winds).

Opening weekend

12 September 2011


Tucked in for the night. Just the way we like them - quiet.



Opening the park on Wednesday gave us the luxury of a couple of warm-up days before the first large group of campers arrived on Friday. Or so we thought. 31 bookings on Thursday quickly swelled to 52 actually checking in; many of them also then decided to book for later dates.

Friday and Saturday nights we were at full capacity of 98 vans, and had to send a lot more to the alternative location at Alexandra Park.

As expected the biggest challenge was the language barrier, with about 70% of our guests this weekend being French. It's hard to keep talking slowly when you have six vans waiting to check in. But most of them do a better job of speaking our language here than we do of speaking their language over there. Favourite phrase of the weekend: We want to stay this day, tomorrow and next tomorrow.

Musketeers waiting for the shuttle.

Everyone is certainly here to have a great time and the atmosphere is very relaxed and friendly. One of our security guards even organised a France vs the Rest of the World touch rugby game.

And now it is Monday, the place is almost empty and we get a few days of reprieve before the next onslaught - Ireland is playing Australia here this weekend, so we'll have a completely different mix of nationalities. And no doubt there will some serious partying to be done. Again.

One of our more unusual visitors - using the boat ramp at Z Pier.

The mobile i-SITE, ready for business.

Installation

4 September 2011

We've had a busy few days, getting the Westhaven Campervan Park ready for action. We're so wrapped up in what we're doing, sometimes it's hard to remember this is really all about the rugby.

The park now has fencing, extra toilet and shower facilities, and office and some signs and hoardings. The office is completely empty and the ablutions aren't hooked up yet, but we've got two whole days to get all that sorted.

Once again we've been impressed by how enthusiastic everyone is and how the whole focus is to get everything working and provide the best experience we can for all our visitors.



650m of temporary fencing. Bet these guys were sore at the end of the day.

Have to keep the public path at Westhaven open.

Some delicate placement of the temporary facilities - and you better not
scratch the flash new toilet block a Z Pier.

Got enough signs there, Craig?

Hope they come and play with us.