KEY POINTS:
Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli seemed genuinely thrilled to be standing on a rain-soaked runway at Auckland Airport yesterday.
Despite the blustery wind and rain, the multi-platinum selling artist smiled broadly and tapped his foot as he received a traditional Maori welcome from chilly members of Te Pou o Mangatawhiri.
He described his first experience of Maori song as "beautiful".
"It's the biggest surprise I've found arriving in a place," he said. "It's a wonderful surprise ... [and] beautiful music." With fiancee Veronica Berti and sons Amos and Matteo, Bocelli arrived by private jet ahead of his concert at Vector Arena tonight.
It marks the start of a five-date tour and his second New Zealand performance. The first was in Christchurch in 2004.
At that performance he shared a stage with Hayley Westenra, whom he described yesterday as "very sweet" and having the voice "of an angel".
Kiwi opera singer Anna Leese will accompany Bocelli this time. The Napier-born, London-based 27-year-old is currently on a one-month tour of New Zealand. She said she was excited about the performance but admitted she didn't know a lot about Bocelli but that "it will be fantastic to to be on stage with him".
Leese will join Spanish tenor Jose Carreras in Seoul in October and in New Zealand early next year.
* Opera lovers who thought they had missed out on Bocelli's New Zealand show have another chance - further tickets are on sale from Ticketmaster.
