Tomorrow Mr Browne plans a catch-up with family before joining the "Landers Army" of 600 to 700 people from the south before Mr Browne returns to reality with a bump - he's back to work on Monday after a long return flight and drive.
He and Miss Hanley travelled to Sydney for last week's semifinal against the Waratahs too.
"It was awesome. Everyone has under-rated us for the whole season."
Stuart Anderson of Dunedin was shouted a ticket by his brother Warren, who's jetting in from Sydney.
Mr Anderson said he made the trip north "to see the Highlanders take the title". He expects an even encounter and was picking a Highlanders win, with star back southern Ben Smith to score the first try.
Bookies are taking a different stance, however. The TAB is offering $1.42 for a Hurricanes win and $2.70 for the Highlanders.
Positively Wellington Tourism chief executive David Perks said the city's accommodation was "pretty much full".
"And the thinking is probably somewhere in excess of 20 per cent of the tickets have been brought by people not living in Wellington."
Mr Perks said most of those were by people from Otago and Auckland and he estimated the game could bring $8 million new spending to Wellington - similar to an All Blacks match.
"On the streets today there's the kind of excitement that we'd see before a test match and it's just fantastic seeing everyone wearing a [supporter's] scarf or beanie".
Earlier this week people formed long queues around the city waiting for match tickets, some of which are selling on Trade Me, including two auctioned by mid-30s friends Suzie Carrig and Felicity Mortimer.
They said they were looking for nice single guys who were Hurricanes supporters to go on what could have been the "perfect blind date".
However, a married 52-year-old man entered the winning $460 bid and was bringing along his 20-year-old son, whose relationship status hadn't crossed Ms Carrig's mind.
"I'm 35. He's 20. There's just no way... The ad was a bit tongue in cheek and it would have been great if we'd had a couple of single guys we could have partied with," she said.
"In an ideal world we could have had two hot men to take us to the rugby. It's not necessarily an ideal world really."
Another auction gaining plenty of attention through 59,346 page views with Lower Hutt man Kent Barnes' offer of $1000 silver or platinum tickets to watch the match delayed on Prime TV from his lounge.
He didn't get any bids but Mr Barnes said he was happy other people thought it was funny.
Officials are urging people to catch public transport to the game and say extra busses to the airport have been added to accommodate additional flights.
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Fancy a flutter?
The TAB is offering $2.90 for the first try scorer tomorrow to be wearing a jersey between numbers one and eight.
At $7.50, Hurricanes winger Julian Savea is the clear favourite for first try scorer, while odds of $5.50 are offered for a tryless second half.
