"I started just before the Rugby World Cup and put all my energy into it. I thought that'd be a good way to travel around during the World Cup, I bought it, and here we are."
He draped All Black flags outside the bus when he parked it across the road from his heroes' hotel on a slow business day yesterday.
Mr Townsend has collected 24 of the All Blacks' signatures and was waiting for the squad members he missed to emerge from their hotel. His enthusiastic praise for Cory Jane - "awesome, well done brother" - startled the All Black winger and his wife Amie as they walked past the bus.
Mr Townsend said he would be honoured to take the All Blacks to the final at Eden Park on Sunday, but wouldn't be fussed about missing other jobs on the night.
"I'm hoping to have a job, but you know, there's a World Cup final, and we'll have to weigh it up when the job comes along. But if not, then I'll be having a good night too."
Lock Brad Thorn said yesterday he would miss that kind of support when he retired after the World Cup.
"The New Zealand public have been huge for us. On the way to the game we're on the bus and we've got people outside here waiting for us to leave."
Thorn, who pumped up the crowd during the Wallabies match, said while some interpreted such fandom as pressure, to him "it's a lift".
The mood in the All Black camp yesterday shouldn't be taken as complacency, he said.
"Today you relax, you soak it in a bit. But come tomorrow, it's back to business. And do you think anyone's going to care who won the semifinal in 2011? No one's going to care."
Coach Graham Henry, who looked tired and spoke with a slight rasp, agreed.
"In 2007 after beating the French by 50 points or something previously, we got beaten in the quarter-final.
"That game caused some people a lot of pain ... the most bizarre game that I've ever been involved in. I won't define bizarre, not totally anyway. There is a lot of history here."
