KEY POINTS:
Dan's battered campervan dates to 1985, two years before the inaugural Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
But the one-time cream-coloured vehicle, which has more than 240,000km on the clock, has been pressed into service for a rugby odyssey in France as part of a European tour.
Daniel
Hill, a 27-year-old aeronautical technician, hit the road with four friends also based in England, negotiating an unpaid holiday to stay in France throughout the Rugby World Cup, where his beloved All Blacks are firm favourites to emerge as the winners.
The campervan has seen it all, including a breakdown in Poland and an accident in Greece that has left its number plate hanging by a few strands of wire.
Stickers from 30 countries adorn the dented driver's door of a vehicle that reeks of dirty clothes and stale beer.
"Don't kick us, pass us!" reads a sticker on the back window.
"We drove down pretty much directly to Marseille, went to the tourist information centre and they got us this parking place for €2 [$3.80]," Mr Hill said.
"We made the news back home that night. My parents called us. It's great."
The only blip in the rugby-dedicated trip is a brief detour to Munich this weekend ahead of the beer festival, a time when the All Blacks travel to Edinburgh to play Scotland.
With eight bodies in the small van, including three of Mr Hill's friends from Auckland, there are some simple rules. Two sleep in raised hammocks, two on pullout beds, one on the floor, and the others cram themselves into a nearby tent.
And if there's any travelling to be done "the navigator decides where we go, no one else can talk, there is no arguing", according to Mr Hill.
He has lived for 2 1/2 years in London. But one thing never changes wherever the Kiwis are, and that is their love for the oval ball.
Mr Hill was confident the All Blacks had it in them to claim the cup. "Graham Henry is the man. He has brought the team to where he wanted them to be,; they've never been so focused."
Lizara Muir, a 26-year-old from Auckland, said the fans' expectations often surpassed the performances of New Zealand at World Cups.
"I reckon sometimes there's a lot of pressure for them to win. It's our fault," she said.
The campervan will be in Toulouse for the New Zealand v Romania match on September 29.
"That should be a great trip to a place where locals really appreciate the game," Dunedin native Adam Paterson said.
- AFP
