What an amazing and successful time we had at NZ Area Schools Nationals. The students all worked super hard in their selected sports and represented our school with absolute pride.


We were very lucky to have accommodation at the Hamilton Girls High School Hostel along with the rest of the South Of the South team. 

I love the random things that happen while you are travelling with students, one of these was when we happened to get talking with Tyler who manages the boarding house and we got talking about Basketball and she offered to coach our girls team and help coach the boys team with Craig.   Tyler has experience as the Tall ferns assistant coach. How lucky were we.   


Day one:  Central North Island 

Our South of the South Squad lifted the roof with their amazing waiata and Haka in the opening ceremony.  We set the bar high according to some of our North of the North colleagues. 

The Central North Island team are always strong with some of these Area Schools having 800+ students to select their teams from. The students did incredibly well against very strong teams on the first day and we came away with a win in the Boys basketball and a win in the Boys Volleyball.  We lost the Netball by 1 goal in the last 2 seconds and the Girls lost their Basketball in exactly the same way with a 3 pointer in the last second. 


Day Two: Top Of the North Island 

On day two we were feeling pretty good after a night out at the Magic vs Pulse game the night before watching the professionals. The Netball girls took all of this learning and went out and won their game.  Some of those same girls then went out and won the girls Basketball.  After the boys having the winning streak the day before today was all about the girls.  The football boys had a draw.  Day Two was the day we actually saw the sun. So watching Football, Rugby and Kī O Rahi was such a treat from the cold Twizel fog.


Day Three: Top of the South Island 

On Day three we got the joy of playing our closest rivals, the Top of the South Island. The students knew these were the games that determined the selections for the South Island Teams, so they went out and played hard. We won the Netball, Basketball Girls, Basketball Boys and Volleyball boys.  On this evening we had the announcements of the South Island squads. The students selected from Twizel were Cam Smith (Basketball), Jackson Parata (Basketball), Ralph Henderson (Basketball and Rugby), Jack McLellan (Basketball and Kī O Rahi)

Dave White (Basketball and Rugby)  Kiara Thyne (Basketball) Sadie Mason (Basketball, Netball and Volleyball) and Hazel Mason (Basketball and Netball) 


Day Four:  South Island Vs North Island 

It was an incredibly exciting day. As the sports happened we kept tally South Island won the Rugby, Basketball girls, Netball, Volleyball Girls. North Island won the Football girls and Football Boys, Basketball boys and Kī O Rahi.  It came down to the Volleyball boys game.  The stadium was full. It was the last sport before the NZ team announcements and closing ceremony.  1 set to North, 1 Set to the south.   Last set went point for point to 12.   Then the North got a run to 15 to win the game and the South Island vs North Island Trophy. 

The announcements began.  NZ team selections for Cam Smith (Basketball) Jackson Parata (Basketball) Sadie Mason (Basketball, Volleyball and Netball) Hazel Mason (Basketball and Netball) and Kiara Thyne (Basketball).

What a result. Five NZ selections from a school of 235 students is amazing. To give everyone some perspective - Mercury Bay Area school with 955 Students had 6 NZ Selections. 

And in a stroke of luck - The netball came back to a points differential decision as the games were so tight. South of the South won the Netball.   

We finished with an amazing Haka to accept the Mauri to host the 2025 Nationals in the South of the South. No plane rides next year. 


And to finish off an awesome week we had another one of those random travelling experiences where we arrived at our accomodation in Auckland for the night to find the Chinese Choir games team were staying there too. We had a bit of a sing off in the foyer of the hotel..... Some photos and a very uplifting experience to finish a top week.  

Karatī and I were incredibly proud of the way these students supported each other, helped everyone around them and gave it their all.  


Melissa McLellan


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