Irish fans travelling to New Zealand this summer receive a huge boost

We would love to be in New Zealand in June.

It's on many rugby fans' bucket lists. If you were to ask Irish rugby fans what type of holiday they would love to go on, often the answer would be to follow around the British & Irish Lions for a month. It doesn't get much better than getting a group of friends together, driving around a different country, watching rugby and having the craic. However, it is a holiday which can be quite difficult to organise, especially when you take the considerable costs involved. A return flight to New Zealand would cost you around €1,000. Then you have to take in internal travel costs, match tickets, food and most importantly, accommodation. Hotels, B&Bs and hostels around New Zealand will all be jacking up their prices in the months of June and July as demand looks set to far exceed supply. Between June 1st and July 14th, 90% of rooms are booked in cities across New Zealand. For the second Test against the All Blacks on July 1st in Wellington, accommodation is sold-out. According to the Irish Times, around 20,000 fans are expected to travel to New Zealand and many are finding it extremely difficult to secure accommodation for the trip. This has led to rugby fan, Adam Gilshnan to set up a Facebook page, Adopt a Lions Fan 2017. It encourages New Zealanders to open up their homes, gardens, caravans etc and display kiwi hospitality. Over 100 New Zealanders have currently offered accommodation for free with many also providing means of transport for no cost.

“I really hope friendships will develop out of this, because rugby is a great vehicle for it,” said Gilshnan, “We don’t want money to change hands at all, we want visitors to experience the famed Kiwi hospitality, and give Kiwi rugby fans to opportunity to look after their Lions guests.”

Sounds like a great idea and it will only provide a much more rich and authentic experience for fans planning to travel to the Land of the Long White Cloud.