North Island Sports Tour

Clean sweeps and quick thinking teachers

On 16 August 34 boys and 4 staff arrived at Christchurch Airport at 7:30am to board an 8:35am flight to Wellington. All the boys were buzzing with excitement and wondering who they would be sitting next to on the plane. The plane ride to Wellington went like a blur. We grabbed our bags then hopped on the bus for a talk from Mr Johnson about the slightly odd rules that would apply for the whole trip due to COVID-19. After a three hour bus trip through a scenic part of the North Island we arrived at the Palmerston North Hockey Turf to watch a fabulous game of hockey against Huntley School, which we won 2-1. Tate Aikawa won Player of the Match.

Then we jumped back on the bus for a quick twenty minute drive to Huntley School in Marton. Football kicked off at 3.00pm and was another successful game, with Medbury winning 9-2 and Manoj Solai winning man of the match. Basketball tipped off at 4.00pm in the Huntley Gym. Medbury played a great game. We ended up winning 69-8. Huntley played well considering they didn’t have an official basketball team and we appreciated them assembling a team for us to play. Jackson Grace won Player of the Match. Then a very quick change and off to their Hall to meet our billets that we stayed with for the night.

Tuesday was an early start, heading back to Huntley School for an early Chapel service in their quaint old Chapel that sat in the centre of the School. Then off on the bus again to Whanganui for our fixtures against St George’s School. Basketball, hockey and football all kicked off at 10.30am to play in very rainy conditions. Every boy tried his best and again it was a clean sweep with Medbury winning all three games, basketball 73-11, hockey 3-0, football 8-2. After the boy’s dried off and changed, we headed to Wanganui Collegiate Dining Hall for a lovely hot lunch. After lunch we had some speeches and awards were given out for players of the match: hockey, Tate Aikawa; football, Hugo FairweatherLogie; and basketball, Jackson Grace.

Then off on another long bus trip to Havelock North, heading to Hereworth School. We headed to our billet’s homes only to find out an hour later that the whole country was heading into a Level 4 lockdown! After some quick thinking from the teachers, they managed to get us into the Hereworth Boarding House to stay the night. We woke in the morning to find out that we had flights back home. However, some boys had a long five and a half hour drive back to Wellington to catch a flight home, others having a very long wait at Napier Airport, then Auckland Airport.

Thank you to Mr Gilbert, Mr Johnson, Mr Bath, Mr Pilgrim and Miss Seales. Your quick thinking got us all home safely and we had a great couple of days on tour. Also thank you to the billeting families who went out of their way to look after us.

Jackson Grace, 8S Head of Sport