Toeing the party line
The 10 friends, dressed as big cats with their faces painted and signs on their backs reading Tite like a Tiger, lined up at a cash machine on Lambton Quay yesterday morning before joining about 35,000 others at Westpac Stadium.
The warm weather did not dissuade those eager to dress up in sweltering outfits. Paul Tietjens, 19-year-old son of New Zealand sevens coach Gordon Tietjens, squeezed into a Banana in Pyjamas outfit.
Paul Sinclair, Dave Brock and Anton Cummings sacrificed their beloved flat couch. With no costumes on Thursday, the trio stayed up into the early hours of yesterday ripping apart - then sewing back together - their sofa.
It was more like panic mode - we had nothing else to wear, Mr Cummings said. Were in the market for a new couch now.
About midday, two Barbies stood at the sushi counter in New World Metro at Wellington railway station. Fairies with tattoos waved the New Zealand flag.
At the edge of the concourse, Nizzys Nibblers from Christchurch - a troop of 21 people dressed in SAS combat gear - were stripped of their plastic guns under strict new rules banning fake weapons. Other rules have banned lewd costumes and there was not a Borat-style mankini in sight.
