Sports in New Zealand
New Zealand is often connected with its beautiful nature and landscapes as far as the eye can see. Another field is often associated with the country at the bottom of the world: adventure sports!
New Zealand is not for nothing advertising with slogans like: “For anyone looking for thrills, the home of adventure tourism — New Zealand, is the perfect place”.
New Zealand offers numerous options for those who love adrenalin flashes. The list of activities is long. It seems as if nearly everything is possible in New Zealand: Sky diving, skiing, bungee jumping, water rafting, scuba-diving and so on.
But although New Zealand has only 4.4 million inhabitants there are a lot of sports practiced in New Zealand. The most popular sport is… Who would have thought? Rugby. Rugby is the national sport and the sport that crosses all sections of New Zealand society. If there is a match of the All Blacks the streets are empty.
In the summer it becomes obvious that New Zealand belongs to the Commonwealth, when New Zealanders are watching or playing Cricket. In Cricket everything is about the duel between the Bowler (pitcher) and the Batsman (hitter). The Bowler tries to force the Batsman to mistakes, so that the Batsman has to leave. The Batsman on the other side tries to hit the Ball to get Runs (points). If the ball is hit, the bowler and his field players have to bring the ball back as soon as possible.
Another game played in New Zealand between two teams of eleven players is also very familiar for every German. Yes we are talking about Soccer (Football). The national soccer team is called “All Whites”.
Yet another national Team sounds similar to this nickname: The “Tall Blacks” what defines the national basketball team.
A sport that is very popular among women in New Zealand is Netball. The national team is called “Silver Fern” and is one of the best Netball teams in the world.
New Zealanders are also successful in sailing or golf which is no wonder if one is thinking about the geography of this country.
To sum it up it can be said that New Zealanders love sport. The dedication to sports becomes more important with a view to statistics which rank New Zealand to the countries with the highest amount of overweight people the world.
