After making their way around the marvels of the South Island, the couple moved on to catch Argentina play Scotland in Wellington, where they had their only bad experience, at a B&B.
"But the less said about that, the better."
The couple ended their trip by watching the All Blacks beat Argentina and flew home the next day.
"It was a fantastic trip. We always wanted to come to New Zealand and obviously the added incentive of the World Cup just did it for us and we had an absolute ball."
Mr Briggs, working in Dubai short-term before heading home to Scotland, said he was now an avid All Blacks supporter after his team got knocked out.
He was watching the semifinal live - backing black all the way.
* * *
DEAR NEW ZEALAND
Tena koutou
Despite the IRB's best efforts you have made a terrific job of hosting RWC2011 and from our point of view there are so many things to thank you for that it is difficult to know where to begin.
Apart from being in what is probably the most all-round beautiful country on earth, our trip was a thoroughly enjoyable experience from beginning to end and it was made so by you, the Kiwis.
All right, you stuffed up on the public transport for the opening ceremony but we can forgive you for that.
Let's start with the unsung heroes - the volunteers. To a woman/man the volunteers we met were cheerful, knowledgeable, helpful, funny, patient and charming - although come to that, we didn't meet a Kiwi who wasn't.
Within hours of arriving in the country our B&B hosts had lent us, total strangers from a foreign land, not only their valuable binoculars to satisfy our obsessive bird-watching habit but also their car. That was amazing enough, but that same generosity was repeated so many times during our trip.
You welcomed and tolerated with equanimity the volatile and voluble Argentines, the slightly over-excitable Italians, the sanguine French, the brash and overconfident Aussies and South Africans, the partying Irish, Scots and Welsh, the vast hordes of Pacific Islanders, and the supporters of all the other nations that descended on your shores to support their teams. You even let the boys on Tindall's Stag Do get on with their beer-fuelled dwarf-tossing, blonde-fondling, staff-insulting, ball-tampering, harbour-swimming self-destruction with just a wry smile...and some very funny journalism.
We shared your pain on that dreadful day when the most-reported groin-strain in history happened ... More seriously, we shared your pain in Christchurch and hope that this World Cup has done more than a little to help that fine city back to its best.
Thank you for hokey-pokey icecream, Wither Hills Savvy, crayfish to die for, Speight's Gold Medal ale, Jandals, the All Blacks, the tui, the spoof South Island sheepfarmers managing the crowds at the giant rugby ball on Queens Wharf, Kamo on the telly panel, and the Weet-Bix SBW advert.
It doesn't matter (to us) whether Richie gets to lift the pot on the 23rd or not - in our eyes you are already world champions for what you have done and how you have done it.
