Monday provided us with the opportunity for some activities with a visit to the treetops adventure park with boys on zip lines and obstacles up to 30 metres in the air. A huge congratulations to Mr Halaifonua who conquered his fear of heights and was encouraged to go on the hardest and highest level. We then headed for some lunch on the way to the afternoon activity at Velocity Karts. These can only be described as sailing boat go-karts, with boys broken up into groups of 12 and racing each other around a course. The boys were flying around the track, particularly Hamish Minehan, who proved just as good on the sail karts as a normal go-kart. Unfortunately, the weather played havoc with Groups 2 and 3 who missed out on the sailing karts but did get to do drift karts and play human foosball.

After some exploring in the city on Tuesday morning, we headed off to our first game against the Papanui Tigers, a team celebrating their 100th year of playing Rugby League, with numerous Kiwi Internationals. The trip started with Mr Morrison singing a song on the team bus microphone (choosing Let it Go, from the movie Frozen) a regular occurrence from all tour members throughout the week. The game was fast and hard fought, with the opposition putting out an Under 18 team against us, the majority of which could still play U/16 and U/17. With some fine attacking League, we came away victors 50 (Mangan 3 tries, Walsh 2 tries, Scott, O’Toole, Wighton, Stimson tries, and Quinn 7/9 conversions) to 26.

Wednesday morning saw the boys visit the Canterbury Crusaders Academy for a tour and coaching session with the Head of their International Academy. It was only a light session due to a fixture in the afternoon, but it was a wonderful experience for the boys who learned a significant amount in a short space of time. The afternoon provided some more free time in the city after breakfast with the boys picking up souvenirs, playing putt putt, and checking out the local stores. This also provided one of the highlights of the trip with our coaches heading up the gondola for a coffee at the top of Christchurch. Unfortunately for the first time in 40 years (reliably informed by the taxi driver) the Gondola broke down with the coaching staff stuck at the top.

With Mr Morrison winning his first game Mr Halaifonua was keen to get to the game and ensure he evened the ledger, so he put in place a plan for us to get back down the hill. This resulted in us running in flat shoes and jeans directly downhill for 6 km on a loose gravel road. Luckily for us, Mr Brennan was on the tour and met the boys at the bus and got them to the game to warm up. After a long run and taxi trip the coaching staff arrived 5 minutes before kick-off red-faced and with quadriceps that would take a number of days to repair! The game against Belfast Rugby Club, the original home of Sonny Bill Williams, was played under lights (on one side of the field) and with some strong running rugby St Greg’s were again winners 41 (Rafferty 3 tries, Moran Briggs 2 tries, Stimson, Reardon tries, Quinn 3 conversions) to 12. 

After two days of hard fought matches the group headed to the Hot Pools in Brighton Beach for some well-earned recovery before our 3rd game in three days. With thermal pools, saunas, steam room, and cold water plunge pool the boys had a few hours of stretching and relaxing (with some pool wrestling thrown in) to get ready for the afternoon action. We headed to the home of Rugby League in Canterbury to play against Linwood Rugby League Club who had numerous representative players, a number of whom had contracts with Queensland clubs. This was a brutal encounter with lots of play verging on illegal by the opposition. Five boys were hospitalised (non-serious injuries) due to the brutality of the game. The boys however showed tremendous resilience in the face of adversity winning the game 26 (Scott 2 tries, Cannon 2 tries, Mangan, Quinn 3/5 conversions) to 20. After some hospital and Doctor visits, the boys had a fantastic team dinner and spent the night packing before we headed to Queenstown the following morning. 

Our bus driver Carlos, arrived early Friday morning for the 6 hour trip to Queenstown. It was on this trip we learned what a beautiful country New Zealand was, with amazing views the entire length of the journey. The bus ride was quiet with the boys recovering from 3 days of hard football but livened up outside of Queenstown as we arrived at the AJ Hackett Bungy Jump Centre. 19 brave souls (including 4 staff) took the plunge and jumped off the 47-metre bridge, providing some fantastic experiences for all involved. Harrison Quinn constantly yelling out “The rope’s not attached properly” seemed to provide much amusement to the majority of the boys, particularly when I jumped off as the last person of the day. We checked into our accommodation in central Queenstown before heading for dinner at a local Pizza restaurant where every boy consumed his body weight in Pizza and Garlic Bread.

Saturday provided another opportunity for relaxation and sightseeing. In the morning we headed to the Shotover River where everyone got to ride the Shotover Jet flying along at speeds of 80km an hour through canyons and mountains. An amazing experience. After lunch, the boys headed to the Queenstown Gondola, where a ride to the top got them to the Luge Ride where they were seen racing each other down the luge track. Mr Malaesilia was easily the most competitive in this arena, causing many crashes and taking drafting to the next level. Some free time in Queenstown for the afternoon before another team dinner. 

Sunday saw us travel to the beautiful Cromwell to play the Cromwell School in our final fixture of the tour. The opposition school performed a Haka for the boys prior to the game, the majority of the boys identified this as a highlight at the end of the tour. Unfortunately, the game was a bit lopside with some fantastic running rugby seeing St Greg’s completing the clean sweep on tour with a 81 (Polsen 2 tries, Trevitt 2 tries, Nori 2 tries, Wighton, Sefo, Mangan, Reardon, Walsh, Bird, Moran-Briggs ties, O’Toole 4 conversions, Minehan 2 Conversions, Reardon and Moran-Briggs 1 conversion) to 5 victory. A final team dinner was held on Sunday night before heading home on Monday to enjoy what remained of the school holidays. At our final team meeting we held a review with the boys outlining their tour highlights before some final awards were given. The coaches voted for various awards for the tour which were as follows:

• Tour MVP – Liam Walsh
• Rugby League MVP – Gene Wighton
• Rugby Union MVP – Peter Reardon
• Most Tries – Cooper Mangan
• Spirit of the Tour Award (person who most embodied the Marist Charisms on tour) – Luke Cannon
• Ironman Award (most minutes on tour) – Darcy O’Toole

This was the first time the College had undertaken a tour of this kind and it was a resounding success. The experience will stay with me for a long time and I am confident is something the boys will remember fondly from their time at the College. Thankyou to the Reardon, Stimson, Bird, Mangan, Liddle, Mullen, Sefo, Morrissey, and Brennan families that joined us on the trip, making it a more memorable experience.

Finally to Mr Malaesilia, Mr Halaifonua, and Mr Morrison I say a huge thank you for accompanying the boys on the trip and the professionalism and care they showed to the boys throughout\. It is a huge sacrifice to give up 8 days of your holiday, and with all men having young families, that sacrifice is more profound. I am sure this will be appreciated by the boys for a long time.

Luke Morrissey

Tour Manager and Future Resident of New Zealand