Experience REAL New Zealand
Find out what makes us Kiwis so proud of where we come from.
It’s only the beginning
The festival runs from September 9 – October 23 2011. Keep checking back for updates as we build up to the biggest festival New Zealand has ever seen.
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The REAL New Zealand Festival brings your Rugby World Cup 2011 experience alive with a nationwide celebration of New Zealand arts, food and wine, heritage, culture, entertainment, business and lifestyle.
With events all over the country, there’ll be plenty of reasons to take the long way round as you travel from match to match.
An unforgettable experience
Events will showcase all that’s important to New Zealand and New Zealanders. If it’s quintessentially Kiwi, chances are it’ll be there.
The Festival is for visitors and locals alike – whether you’re dropping in to catch some world-class Rugby or simply taking the opportunity to explore your own back yard.
Credit: John Swannell
Arts
Discover New Zealand’s rich and vibrant arts scene in a programme featuring the best of the traditional and contemporary.
See Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and friends accompanied by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, or check out a one-man show from leading New Zealand playwright Hone Kouka about Kiwi rugby hero, and Kouka’s whanaunga or uncle, George Nēpia.
Credit: Wine Marlborough, New Zealand
Wine and food
The REAL New Zealand Festival is foody heaven. You be the judge at the Great West Coast Whitebait Challenge, a hard-fought competition to find the best whitebait. Or relish the world’s best oysters at the Savour Bluff Oyster Festival.
Sample wines from over 50 vineyards, matched with succulent local seafood and wild game, at the Marlborough Wine Festival Village. And if you still have room, head to Wairarapa Vintage Wings and Wine, where vintage aircraft provide a unique backdrop for the region’s top local wine and produce.
Rugby
Rugby’s in our DNA. Simple as that. So hosting Rugby World Cup 2011 is a big deal for us. The REAL New Zealand Festival is a celebration of what it means to be Kiwi, and Rugby-themed events feature large.
Celebrate Nelson as the Birthplace of New Zealand Rugby in a re-enactment of New Zealand’s first-ever Rugby game. And provincial and club rugby sits at the heart of the programme with everything from the national provincial Heartland Championship to a hāngī and club derby at Tolaga Bay - the East Coast rugbyRUCKus.
New Zealand culture
The REAL New Zealand Festival is your ticket to experience the real New Zealand, the way New Zealanders see it.
Discover Taranaki’s proud Māori heritage at the Taranaki International Village. Head to Northland for the Waitangi Welcomes the World festival, the MAORI ART MARKet in Porirua and the Mataatua Iwi Challenge in Bay of Plenty where you’ll meet the REAL people making New Zealand arts and culture what it is today.
