Sevens

Yes it's that time of year again...the Wellington stop of the IRB Rugby Sevens. An international rugby tournament where games are played with seven-on-seven teams, and halves lasting only 7 minutes, hence the name 'Sevens'. Wellington is the smallest city on the 8 country tour. Originating in Hong Kong by expats wanting to play quicker games during lunch time, Sevens has a party atmosphere no matter which country they're playing in. Part of that party atmosphere comes from the Sevens' tradition of dressing up in costume to watch the games.

Wellingtonians seem to love dressing up in costumes for some reason. On random days throughout the year you may see people heading out on the town in costume. Oddly enough, the one day of the year you'd expect it, Halloween, nobody really gets into it. I'm told Kiwis think Halloween is an 'evil' day, so it's actually not that popular here. So if you wanna see Kiwis in costume, don't throw candy at them, throw them a rugby tournament!

Seen above, "Eagle vs. Shark". The costumes from the popular Kiwi movie of the same name.

Some costumes were a little more difficult to see...ok, not really...maybe if we were in the forest though.

While others were hard to NOT see.

...like I said, some were hard not to see...Obelix from the comic books "Asterix and Obelix". Asterix is behind him...trust me, those are his red pants :)

Oh, in case you're wondering, New Zealand beat Samoa (last year's champions) in the final this year to make three straight Sevens Cups this year. Yes I actually watched it, on tv at least. The championship game is 20 minutes long instead of 14, and since the format produces fast paced games, it's pretty entertaining to watch.