Turf's up for the Rugby World Cup

The top-quality grass is harvested and rolled into strips with an artificial backing of nylon fibres. Photo / Christine Cornege

Waikato is getting its own little piece of Auckland - 1500 tonnes of Eden Park turf which will cover the field at Waikato Stadium in preparation for next year's Rugby World Cup.

Since Monday, 50 trucks have been moving 3000sq m of turf to Hamilton each day.

The last truckloads went from the Eden Park turf farm at Karaka to Hamilton yesterday.

Eden Park turf manager Mark Perham was supervising the contracting team from HG Turf in Melbourne brought in to complete the job.

Mr Perham started growing the 1.3ha crop of top-quality grass in April.

This is the first time he has exported turf to Waikato.

"You can't keep a good thing north of the Bombays," he said.

The grass was grown in sand which helps with drainage and means it never gets muddy. It is put on to an artificial backing of nylon fibres.

Each 10m-by-1m section of turf is cut and rolled by a team of four - one driving the machine, another operating the controls and two rolling - and weighs around one tonne.