TRAVELLING WITH ALL BLACKS TOURS
You could say the Issott family from Queenstown are the ultimate Rugby World Cup fans. They’ve attended the previous three in a row and still haven’t done their dash. Not even close, in fact. We caught up with Martin and Anne to find out what keeps them coming (or going) back.
Tell us a bit about your family and why you love rugby. After meeting and marrying in the uk, we shared a passion for travel and living overseas. since then, we’ve lived in Taiwan, the Philippines, south Korea and Japan and have now settled in new Zealand.
Our two sons and their families still live in the uk, so we frequently travel back to visit. The whole family is rugby-mad. I (Martin) played it throughout school and university, before realising my 74kg frame wasn’t going to cut it! Then ever since settling in Queenstown, we’ve become passionate Highlanders and All blacks fans! Our boys back in the uk love it too… although they still support the team in white… so you can imagine the stick we got for switching allegiance to the All blacks! Luckily, though, our eldest grandson is an All blacks supporter. so there’s hope!
How many RWCS have you been to with
All Blacks Tours? Is there a highlight? we’ve been to the last three rugby world Cups.
The nz one in 2011 we organised ourselves, then the most recent two we left to the incredible team at All black Tours. If we had to pick a highlight, the Japan rugby world Cup comes to mind. The trip was made very enjoyable by all of the superb Japanese volunteers who attended every game to shepherd the foreigners in the right direction.
It’s also a great experience travelling around in the black shirt and having
strangers starting up a conversation. normally the Japanese are more reserved, but we found people would start conversations on trains, buses and planes, just because of their interest in rugby and the All blacks.
What do you love about travelling with
All Black Tours? For me, I just love having everything taken care of (Anne).
whereas I (back to Martin) love all the amazing extras you get with them. For domestic tours, we always use All blacks Tours as they make the hotel bookings and match tickets super easy. but they also often have pre-game talks from members of the All blacks management and support staff, which are amazing. you’d never get that inside knowledge and insight otherwise.
There might also be events on match day to local places of interest, the most recent being a tour of the speight’s brewery in Dunedin, which was fascinating. Then, at game time, the wonderful staff accompany everyone on the coach, guide them in and out of the stadium and really look after you. so if you’re in an unfamiliar city, there’s nothing left to chance.
we love being able to look at all the options they have available, then plan our own trip. This includes a range of different hotels and tickets, but also heaps of great activities in between games. but we can take or leave these based on what suits us. sometimes we’ve done them, other times we’ve done our own thing by visiting family and friends in the uk, or revisiting our favourite Japanese Hot spring resorts. The flexibility All Blacks Tours give you is awesome and works really well for us.
What excites you most about RWC 2023 being in France? The wine! And the rugby, of course. It’s always about the rugby first but, like we said, All Blacks Tours offer side trips in between game days. And we can imagine France will have some amazing ones. There’s no doubt we’ll take time to explore… we’re already eyeing up the trips to Lyon and bordeaux country. we’re both very fond of good French red wine… so those trips are a big bonus!
Two years to go – what are your predictions? How are the All Blacks shaping up? It’s going to be super exciting, isn’t it? being at home, the French ought to do well. but you never really know which French team is going to turn up – sometimes they can be outstanding, other times they can completely collapse. As for us, we’ve just secured the bledisloe for the 19th consecutive year, so we’re building well. I think the biggest threat to us will be the springboks, then the French and the english. but hey, whether we win or not, there’s no doubt we’ll be right up there. we can’t wait!