Wellington Westpac
Westpac Stadium or The Cake Tin, as local cricketing fans call it, is one of New Zealand’s newest and swankiest cricket grounds. Built in 1999, it can hold up to 38,000 and is the go-to venue for many of the country’s most important ODI and Twenty20 matches while the city’s older Basin Reserve ground caters for tests. Its drop-in pitches tend to favour the batsmen so expect high scoring, but you can be at the mercy of the rain so also be prepared to avert a soggy bottom!
Quirky Westpac Facts
A different kind of extra
The Hobbit and LOTR director Peter Jackson turned 30,000 fans into extras during England’s match with the Black Caps in 2002. Their scripted chanting became the on-screen war cry of the Uruk-Hai in the Battle of Helm’s Deep in the film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Stoned and smacked down
2006 was the year of the big bang and the smackdown at the Westpac. First The Undertaker and his leotard wearing buddies rocked the stadium in Wrestling’s WWE Smackdown Tour, then Mick Jagger pulled a few of his own moves in The Rolling Stones’ Bigger Bang World Tour.
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