To relaunch their official partnership with the mighty ‘Landers, OUSA introduced the Inflaty 180 at the Highlanders vs Moana Pasifika game last Saturday, February 24. The half-time fun run saw first-year students from each hall (because who else can you count on for free labour in times of inflation lol) donning inflatable costumes, racing the length of the field and back to take a trophy home. It’s 250 metres, but that didn’t rhyme.
True journalists that we are, Critic Te Ārohi lent a hand in testing the costumes prior to the event, managing to bag ourselves the horse. We could make a sex joke about horses and being inside one, or how a Highlander mounting Critic’s steed was the closest thing to intimacy we’ve experienced in months, but we’ll rein it in.
Critic Te Ārohi also spoke to the architects behind the partnership, Amanda Gould, marketing manager for the Highlanders, and Jason Schroeder, OUSA’s events manager, about the importance of the Zoo to scarfie culture.
Amanda and Jason told Critic Te Ārohi that they “grew up on the Terrace,” which was to the old Carisbrook stadium what the Zoo is to Forsyth Barr: a playground for scarfies to get on the piss whilst backing the blue and gold. Amanda said that “with both of us being university alumni, it’s really important to pass those experiences down.”
Jason laughed as he recalled how loose it used to be, describing how attendees would bring hoses to the Terrace, roll it down to land in the drain, and piss through it “because it was so hard to get to the toilet.” The Zoo shitter of 2021 wasn’t nearly as inventive.
The Inflaty 180 was inspired by a Christmas party gag when Jess from Planet Media pulled up in a “huge fuck off blow up dinosaur.” Amanda told Critic Te Ārohi that the ‘Landers used to run similar gags to entertain the Zoo crowd at half-time, like Miss Zoo.
Miss Zoo was pretty “fast and loose,” said Amanda. “We just picked people out [of the Zoo], drove them round the field on the back of a ranger, and then got them to perform like a special trick.” The winner was based on “very scientific crowd noise”. An equally hilarious campaign involved literally throwing KFC chicken into the crowd before it was discontinued after a family of cats began to live under the stands (fondly dubbed ‘the panthers’).
When speaking about the role of the Zoo in the scarfie community, Amanda argued that, “You don’t have to know rugby. You don’t have to know what’s going on on the field. Half of the fun stuff happens in the stands and it’s about that social experience and being there to experience it with your mates. We lost that over Covid, and I think for the groups that went through uni during Covid it’s a bit gutting that they didn’t have that experience.”
In partnering with OUSA, the Highlanders said they’re recognising how “students are a massive part of our culture in Dunedin and the legacy of rugby games in Dunedin, and they’re part of what makes our games so unique compared to everybody else in New Zealand and in the Super Rugby competition.” Amanda added that “O-Week is legendary, so for us to be able to work in with that and provide an additional element of entertainment as part of the O-Week experience is awesome.