KEY POINTS:
When you're a rugby minnow about to play the All Blacks on their home turf, even a short coach journey to the test match venue can feel like a lifetime.
So spare a thought for the Canadian rugby side tomorrow.
The team will leave for the biggest test match of the players' careers from halls-of-residence style accommodation between Ngaruawahia and Taupiri - more than 20km from Hamilton's Waikato Stadium.
This week's Mystery Creek Fieldays has created an unprecedented shortage of accommodation in and around Hamilton, and the Canadians had to stay in Auckland until yesterday.
Tainui has offered its Endowed College in Hopuhopu as a place for the team to stay.
The tribe's function manager, Mereana Cooper, said the facilities were "premium accommodation", which came with training paddocks and a gymnasium.
Yesterday afternoon, the Canadian team were welcomed to the Tainui property with a whakatau (informal powhiri), which the players described as warm.
"I can imagine the welcome at the ground will be a bit more tense," said first-five eighth Ryan Smith, referring to the All Blacks' internationally famous haka. "But we'll look to draw some positive energy from it."
Teammate James Pritchard said he was happy to get away from the bustle of Auckland.
"It's a nice environment here, it will be relaxing."
Smith rejected feelings of test-match jitters, saying the long bus trip into Hamilton would give him time to get focused.
Even the All Blacks have been unable to find accommodation in the week before tomorrow night's test match.
Fieldays visitors have taken up every last bed in town during the week.
The team has trained in Wellington this week, and fly to Hamilton today.
They will stay at the Novotel Tainui for one night.
Manager Darren Shand said ideally the team would have trained and stayed in the host city, but because of Fieldays, this had not been a typical week.
A half-hour autograph-signing session in Civic Plaza at 5pm today is the only public appearance the All Blacks will be making for local fans in the build-up to tomorrow's test.
After the game, the team will go to a hotel at Auckland International Airport before flying to South Africa early on Sunday.
Rugby players were not the only ones to be squeezed out of the city by the Fieldays.
Netball Waikato manager Roseanne Murray said last weekend's National Bank Cup semifinal between the Waikato Magic and Auckland Diamonds had to be played at Rotorua instead of Mystery Creek because of preparations for Fieldays.
Rotorua's venue accommodated 3000 fans as opposed to the 5000 that could fit into the pavilion at Mystery Creek.
Many people book accommodation for Fieldays a year in advance.
A record 27,122 visitors passed through the gates on the opening day of the Fieldays on Wednesday, an 11 per cent increase on last year. Yesterday, 28,550 people attended, down 7 per cent on the same day last year.
But overall attendance figures are still above last year, and a record seems likely by the time Fieldays close tomorrow at 5pm.
The Hamilton test match is expected to be sold out by kick-off tomorrow.
Only 3000 standing-room tickets were available yesterday.
No room at the inn
* The Canadian rugby team could not get hotel rooms in Hamilton because of the Mystery Creek Fieldays.
* The All Blacks could not find beds either, and trained in Wellington.
* A record 27,122 visitors passed through the Mystery Creek gates on Wednesday, an 11 per cent increase on last year.
* Yesterday, 28,550 people attended, down 7 per cent.
* The attendance record looks likely to be broken by tomorrow's close.
