Tour

Day Six in Auckland - Sightseeing Sunday 21st July

Our last day in Auckland was a well earned day off, sightseeing. We caught the ferry over to Rangitoto Island - a dormant volcano - and then our singers raced each other to get to the top. We also enjoyed exploring the caves and several geographers among us were fascinated by the black volcanic rock.

Everyone was hungry when we arrived back in Auckland and the singers enjoyed finding their own lunch and doing some shopping, while the tour adults enjoyed an excellent lunch in an Italian bakery.

We met up at 4pm to go up the Sky Tower from where we enjoyed amazing views over Auckland and also seeing our competition venues & hotel from the sky.

Day Five in Auckland - Awards Ceremony! Saturday 20th July

FYC WON 2 GOLD MEDALS!!! What an exciting day!

The day started with an early coach transfer to the Spark Arena, for the awards ceremony! All of the choir’s hard work paid off, and we couldn’t be happier with our achievement. Patrick and senior leader Freya went up to the stage to collect our gold medals, while the choir celebrated from where they were sat. Once everyone had calmed down a little from the excitement, we headed off to Howick (30 minutes on the coach from the city centre) for the final friendship concert of the World Choir Games. Finally, we ended the day at the Spark Arena once again for the closing ceremony.

Day Four in Auckland: Second competition Friday 19th July

This morning we managed to scramble together a last-minute rehearsal space and piano so the choir could add some finishing touches to their repertoire for the Secondary Schools competition. The space was a dance studio with mirrors along a wall - very useful for seeing everyone’s performance faces! We’re very grateful to KBB Music for the piano & Dynasty Studios for their space.

We went on stage for the competition performance at about 5pm, after dodging the showers in some very stylish ponchos. There are some pictures here from the warm up room and then from the performance itself. Melanie was photographing from the wings, so couldn’t get good angles on every singer, but we hope there will be more pictures from Interkultur. The choir performed brilliantly, including all of the last minute performance details that had been worked out in the studio in the morning. The audience response was huge with lots of congratulations as they walked off stage.

There was a well deserved group hug as Patrick and Matthew congratulated the choir on their performance, before dinner and soiree (an FYC tradition where the singers entertain each other and the tour adults with fun cabaret acts). Details of what happened in the soiree performances will, according to tradition, remain within the choir, but there were tears of laughter and tears of joy. A very memorable evening!

Day Three in Auckland Thursday 18th July

Today was busy with a friendship concert and rehearsals. We also managed to sneak in a little time for swimming and shopping. Not loads of pictures today - although it was a beautiful day in Auckland. We also got the chance to watch some of the performances in the second part of our category - our senior singers were watching intently, making copious notes & trying to predict the winners. A couple of these photos were from yesterday’s competition performance - thanks to the Interkultur Facebook page.

First full day! Tuesday 16th July

Today we had our stage rehearsal for the Secondary Schools competition in the town hall. This just involves working out where we will stand, walking on and off and having a quick sing to hear what the acoustic sounds like. After that we had the huge privilege of singing in a flashmob for the World Choir Council. We sang alongside two other choirs, one from New Zealand and another from China. It was great to meet these other singers and to learn a Maori song alongside them.

After lunch, we headed down to Quay Street for the parade of nations. Again the singers mingled with singers from choirs all over the world - China, the USA, and India - to name a few. The atmosphere was fantastic. There were also a few impromptu rehearsals, including in the local park, before a well-earned early night.