Welcome to my second day of the #7dayculturechallenge - for the rundown of why I started this new challenge check the introduction post here

Today i thought I would look at the sports culture in New Zealand and two of our popular sports - Rugby, and cricket.

Rugby

If you know anything about sports culture in New Zealand you will know that we mad about rugby! Growing up, many children in New Zealand dream of being in the national rubgy team, The All Blacks (much like children in Europe dream of being the next Christiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi!). The All Blacks are good - really good! They have won the last two world cups, in 2011, and 2015, and also won the inaugaral championship in 1987. Most records in rugby have either been set by New Zealand or broken by New Zealand!

It seems that there is more and more rugby being played in New Zealand - nearly all year around now. Rugby is traditionally a winter sport, but now there are all sorts of competitions extending out the season. There is something about the atmosphere of going to an All Blacks match that most kiwis have epxerienced in their life time.

When you talk to people abroad one thing that often comes up is The All Blacks - so thanks for putting us on the map!

Cricket

Other than rugby, one of the other sports New Zealand play and compete in is cricket - this is our summer sport. Although not as popular as rugby it is still widely celebrated - and New Zealand compete - making the final of the last world cup, but sadly losing to Australia. It amazed me when I moved to Spain that people here barely even knew what cricket was!

Cricket is a long game - and there is nothing quite like enjoying a day out in the sun watching the cricket - its more about the social aspect than the actual game I think.

Children in New Zealand often play 'backyard cricket' or 'beach cricket' where the rules are modified to account for the lack of space. I can tell you I spent many hours as a child playing backyard cricket over summer!

If you come to New Zealand and get a chance to go to a rugby or cricket match I would highly reccomend it!

The rules:

• Write a post about an aspect of your culture - e.g. food, arts, dance, economy, money, governement etc
• Do this for 7 days in a row if you get nominated
• Mention three people who should do this on each day.
• Tag it with #7dayculturechallenge and include these rules at the bottom of your post
• Include a picture of something from your culutre related to yoru story if possible
• Post these rules at the bottom of your post
• Note - if you like the idea of this and would like to participate but werent nominated, feel free to join in and just mention that I nominated you :)
• If you are still doing a different challenge and are nominated feel free to start this one once you have finished the last one!

Today I nominate:
@rentmoney
@snowpea
@brittandjosie

Thanks for reading and I look forward to reading about everyones culture :)