The Wallabies are seen as the big threat hanging over the All Blacks at the Rugby World Cup but the New Zealand minister charged with spruiking the event warns: Kiwis want it bad.

"New Zealanders badly want to win, and a win has got to be due some time soon," said Murray McCully, the country's foreign minister-cum Rugby World Cup frontman, just five weeks from tournament kick-off.

A World Cup win has eluded the All Blacks since they hosted the inaugural event in 1987, but with the tournament back on home soil many Kiwis are convinced that the time to repeat the win has come.

McCully told AAP on Wednesday that most New Zealanders saw Australia as the biggest threat to that chance.

"I wouldn't want to write off any of the other teams but there's an overwhelming sense in New Zealand that Australia is a big threat to us in terms of the World Cup this year," he said.

"I think there will be a huge amount of tension through the event and people will have their eyes very much on Australia's performances."

His allegiances lie obviously lie with the men in black, but he added wryly "sadly that hasn't served me too well since 1987."

As for Saturday's Tri Nations and Bledisloe Cup Test in Auckland, the minister would only say it would "provide an interesting yardstick on where two quite different teams are at in their preparations".

"But there's a hell of a lot of water to go under the trans-Tasman bridge yet," he added.

Logistically, World Cup events were on target and ticket sales had been "pretty good" given the upset and match rescheduling caused by the Christchurch earthquake that left 181 people dead and damaged thousands of buildings, including the local stadium.

"I'm comfortable that, particularly in light of the disruptions we had in Christchurch, we've seen a good marketing job done but we've still got a lot of tickets to sell."

"We're hoping that our friends in Australia are going to be buying a large number of them," he said, alluding to the fact Australians have so far been slower to snap up tickets than many other nations.

McCully was optimistic hundreds would book last-minute trans-Tasman trips from next month for both pleasure and business.

"We're putting on huge wine and food events that will provide opportunities for business people to do something useful while they're here.

"Australian spectators are going to see that this is an opportunity they shouldn't miss."

New Zealand has been going all out in preparation for the tournament, with a countrywide clean-up campaign to spruce up all public spaces.

"For us this is a huge event, like your Sydney Olympics," McCully said.

"It's the biggest thing that we'll do in this country for a long time."

The country would be busy promoting itself in fashion, food and wine and film production to ensure the event was not solely focused on sport and tourism, he said.

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