Come one, come all

In a robust democracy like the Cook Islands, it would be hard to ignore the popular opinion when it comes to naming tonights fan zone.

Of the dozens of suggestions received at Cook Islands News, two took in received the large majority of the votes for our readers.

One of the names made comment on the connection between the Cook Islands and this years Rugby World Cup hosts New Zealand. The other shows just where the large majority of Cook Islanders are giving their support in tonights grand final between France and New Zealand.

Weve decided to combine the two popular votes and put up Te Aorangi Black Out as the tonights temporary name for the National Auditorium when it is transformed into Rarotongas own fan zone.

It seemed that everyone had a suggestion for what the name should be.

Minister for Sport Mark Brown proposed Heaven as the fan zones name, saying heaven was above the clouds in a poke at Aucklands fan zone The Cloud.

New Zealand High Commissioner John Carter said he particularly liked the looks of Viva le Black or Raro black fever or Blacks InFERNo. Its not as if he would go for Bleu Alert or something along those lines, after all.

The majority of the suggestions sent in to Cook Islands News featured the All Blacks in there somewhere, showing that the connection between the two countries has hardly diminished in the hundreds of years since the first vaka set sail from Avana.

Suggestions such as Black Vision, Black Hole and All Black Magic showed that the All Blacks are like, well, the new black.

Aotea was another popular recommendation for the fan zone, but not as popular as suggestions around Aorangi.

There were also a number of cheeky suggestions combining French and Kiwi flavours with a playful twist.

Those included French Fried ABs, The Frenchinators and Vive le Black. One person even recommended the European side be served up in a Kuki favourite, proposing ABs Cooks French moa tarenga. Hmm, no thanks.

Call it what ever you want, the National Auditorium will become the Cook Islands living room for the night, giving everyone the chance to see the game on the biggest screen in town for free from 5.30pm tonight.