Ball kicks off tourism drive | Northland News | Local News in Northland

Whangarei's 25m-long, 13m-high rugby ball is being kicked for touch in a location to die for from tomorrow  - Sydney's Circular Quay with stunning views of the Sydney Opera House.

The ball is a mini-conference venue seating up to 220, commissioned as novel way of promoting New Zealand as an outstanding holiday venue in the run-up to the 2011 Rugby World Cup. This is done through a  10-minute spectacular audio-visual presentation that screens over the entire interior wall surface.

Commissioned by Tourism New Zealand, the ball was designed and built by the award-winning Whangarei firm Fabric Structure Systems, global specialists in inflatable and temporary structures.

 The Sydney appearance is the fourth and final international fixture for the ball, timed to coincide with the Bledisloe Cup match on September 11 in Sydney.

This follows appearances in Paris in front of the Eiffel Tower in 2007 during the Rugby World Cup; beside Tower Bridge in London in 2008; and the Tokyo Tower in Japan last year.

An opening ceremony attended by the Maori King, Kiinga Tuheitia Paki, and Australian and New Zealand dignitaries begins at 9am tomorrow. The ceremony will involve Aboriginal and Maori elders in what will be the first official meeting of the two cultures on this scale. The ball will be open to the public from Friday through to September 12.

The ball takes five days to construct and is supported by an air system which works by two air pumps expelling 8000 litres per second. A revolving door allows movement  in and out of the ball while maintaining air pressure.