As thousands of tourists and athletes converge for two weeks of action at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, behind the scenes nearly 10,000 workers are doing their bit to make sure everything runs smoothly.
Over 4,000 security guards, a thousand volunteers and over 5,000 workers have been preparing the city for the hoards of people expected to descend upon the Gold Coast over the next fortnight.
Amongst those workers is Ngāti Maniapoto local and road manager Tana Raukawa Schaumkell. He says “We are expecting about one million people to come over the next two weeks. Almost one million tickets have been sold.”
It was a seemingly calm day on the Gold Coast ahead of the competition but come Game Day the streets will be packed with thousands.
Raukawa Schaumkell says “A part of my mahi here is to monitor the road network and monitor incidences happening on the road network. That’s going to be a big component of the Games and just to make sure that everyone gets to the games on time and has a really good experience.”
Tourists have already started filing in ahead of the Opening Ceremony at Carraraa Stadium with 35,000 seats nearly sold out.