2011 French welcome extravaganza: 31st August

On Monday 31 August Room 11 jumped on the bus and got ready to see the French team come in to land at Auckland Airport. In the past few weeks Room 11 children have been studying the French rugby team for when the big day comes and we were prepared. They have been making banners and all different sought of art work to amaze the crowd, which they did!

At 11:00am thirty eager children wriggled and turned on the bus very excited to meet Len Brown, Miss Auckland and, of course, the French Rugby Federation. When we got to the airport at 12.00pm we walked around to the face painters that painted our faces magnificently. After we sat down and ate our lunch, thrilled to know that we were just minutes from meeting our adopted team.

At 1.00pm we sat on the bleaches where we watched amazing traditional Pacific dancers and a passionate Kapa Haka group. But what definitely blew us away was Grierson Fox’s French! Grierson was asked to speak some French and said, “Parlez-vous francais?” which was congratulated with huge applause.

Finally what we had all been waiting for THE FRENCH RUGBY TEAM! Everyone started to chant and shout. After all the loudness died down Len Brown and Room 11 all stood up and started to sing. The mayor was so impressed with us that he shouted “CBS rocks”! This experience was amazing but it all couldn’t have happened without Mr Millward’s support and organisation.
By Eden Greaves (Room 11)