David Beckham arrives NZ
David Beckham arrived in Wellington New Zealand at 1.30PM local time. He received a very warm welcome! The airport was packed with well-wishers. The LA Galaxy were officially welcomed by Wellington's mayor and a traditional Maori Powhiri was performed. The welcome lasted about an hour (a couple of the speeches were a little long!) and the LA Galaxy sang a chorus of "Ole Ole Ole" in response to the welcome which was a really nice touch!
Becks was warm and gracious signing lots of autographs for fans. There are a few photos in the gallery and a clip below
David Beckham gave a press conference shortly after arriving. There are some highlights from it in the youtube clip above. You can listen to the full audio clip (12 mins) of Becks comments here or you can watch the entire press conference (30 mins) here
David Beckham's itinerary in Wellington, where he is staying at the Copthorne Hotel on Oriental Parade, is as follows
Friday
11am – Two-hour open training session at Westpac Stadium, more than 15,000 schoolchildren are expected to attend.
7.30pm – Galaxy team introduced to the public at halftime of the Wellington Phoenix v Adelaide United A-League game at Westpac Stadium. Team will be presented with pounamu necklaces.
Saturday
7.05pm – Royal New Zealand Air Force low-level flyover of Westpac Stadium.
7.15pm – The exhibition match kicks off amidst a giant fireworks display.
11.30pm – Exclusive VIP after-match party starts at the World Trade Center in Ghuznee St.
Sunday
Not yet confirmed but likely to include a walk around Wellington's streets by Beckham and his Galaxy teammates.
Monday
4.30pm – Team leaves Wellington airport to return to the United States.
Becks blog update
Hello from Australia,
I’m really happy to have finally made it over - the people have been amazing and I’ve been made to feel really welcome. I’ve always wanted to visit Australia as well as New Zealand, which I’m off to on Thursday, so it’s a great feeling to be here.
I’m writing this to you the day after our game against Sydney FC. It was disappointing to lose the match even though it was a friendly, as I always want to win, but I was pleased to play the full game and of course, score a goal. I practice free kicks enough, so it’s always a great feeling when they go in.
The atmosphere in the Telstra Stadium was amazing and it was a really entertaining match for the 80,000 fans. We really enjoyed playing, despite the result, and now look forward to the game against Wellington Phoenix on Saturday.
I was a bit worried when I went over on my ankle. I thought it might be the same injury I’d had for Real Madrid on the last day of the season, but I managed to play on and finish the game ok, so thankfully it wasn’t that bad.
This Thursday is also the 2nd anniversary of The David Beckham Academy in the UK. I went along to the Academy last week, and you’ll be able to see my video footage of the day on davidbeckham.com later this week. But as I’m in Australia at the moment I can’t be there on Thursday, so I would just like to say thanks to all the coaches and staff for their hard work over the past two years and also a big thank you to all the children that have visited and enjoyed the Academy.
That’s all for now. I’ll let you know how New Zealand goes.
David
David Beckham Channel 10 Interview 2
Here is part 2 of the Channel 10 interview I posted yesterday. There are still some sound issues. If you would like to download and watch the full show, the torrent is online here.
posted by rpm at 6:12 PM
14 Comments:
Anna, Becks had just updated his blog....
6:28 PM
Anna, the photos just keep getting cuter and cuter as they get closer to your home -- the little ballerinas in China, the Robbie Middleby cuddle at the Sydney match (which either disappeared from the gallery or I saw someplace else that I will never remember), then I thought the sheep on the NZ masthead were moving into first place, but I think the two sweet faces above may take the cake for good! Unless we see one of Becks sitting in your garden chatting with the fam of course.
8:52 PM
The Becks/Middleby photo was right in your daily (in the view photos section on this page):
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/feature/story.cfm?c_id=1501682&objectid=10479096
9:39 PM
Thanks sagnad :)
Diane, there have been so many great photos I'm quite behind sry. I have a lot still to load and will make sure I have plenty of the cuddle :)
9:43 PM
No worries, I'll hold out for the back garden snaps ;-) . You just have a great time this weekend, you've been more than generous with the updates as is!!!
10:09 PM
Thanks for all the wonderful updates Anna dear, you make me feel like I am there! So did you go to the airport? I hope you were one of the fans who got an autograph :-)
2:07 AM
The banner is great! Hope you and the family had a good trip home.
2:40 AM
Thanks for the videos! I wish I was maori I want to rub noses with David!!
6:11 AM
Thanks for the pics Anna. I hope seeing people with facial tattoos will not give David ideas! Are you going to the training session?
6:29 AM
Ciao to everybody.Nice the welkome, Samuel and Gabriel have smiled (my husband explained to them the importance that this greeting to the people of New Zealand) when David is super busy but this is part of his being ambassador for soccer . Hopefully him find the time to observe the wonders of Wellington (undertaking difficult). Thanks always. Loredana, Samuele, Gabriel
12:41 PM
thankx 4 pix!! :0)
1:45 PM
This New Zealand culture is very nice, eh? That´s a good way to feel his smell and get very close of him. :)
And the homepage picture...LOL. So funny.
Thanks for the torrent with the full interview.
4:45 PM
Channel 10 interviews are no longer available on youtube. :(
7:25 PM
what makes you think that Sagnad - they are both still working fine :)
7:31 PM
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