REGIONAL SPORTS STARS
Not everyone comes from the big smoke
FOOTBALL
From: Linkwater (20km from Picton, 53km from Blenheim)
Linkwater School did not have enough players to a form a team, when Kip Colvey first enrolled. So his parents would drive him to Picton twice a week for practice and once a week on game day, just so he could play the sport he loved.
The All Whites defender said it was the toughest part of living in the countryside.
‘‘For me it wasn’t a big deal because I loved it so much. It would have been hard on my parents a little bit, to travel that much. They were really good about it and never put up any fuss,’’ said Colvey, who has now played 15 times for New Zealand.
Things changed the next year. Finally there were enough football players that Linkwater School could form a team. His dad, also named Kip, was the coach.
‘‘Then we started hosting games in Linkwater and every other week we would travel to Picton, Blenheim or Rai Valley to play. There was a lot of travel involved,’’ he said.
‘‘We had a really good team. One year we ended up going the whole year undefeated.’’
Even as a young boy, Colvey dreamed of making it big as a professional football player. He admitted now, at 23, that he was blind to the fact that living in Linkwater, on the doorstep of the Queen Charlotte Sound, significantly decreased his chances.
Colvey was born in Hawaii and has spent the past six years living in California. But for most of his life he has called Linkwater home. And he is proud of where he has come from.
‘‘It didn’t bother me where we were and how small a town I lived in. I was just obsessed with getting there in there end. Looking back, I wouldn’t say it’s impressive but it is a little bit special having come out of the place I have come from.
‘‘I think growing up in a remote area or countryside as kids we were always active and playing outside. Especially at school, we would always be playing footy at lunch or morning tea. More than anything I think it gave me a strong work ethic and internal desires to do well, those were the things that stuck with me growing up on farmlands and out in the sounds here.’’
Colvey has many great memories of his boyhood and in particular attending Linkwater School, where the roll has bounced between 35 and 50 in the past few years. The school has just three classrooms, divided into junior, middle and senior.
‘‘It was tiny. I thought it was big when I was growing up but now when I go back, it’s such a tiny school.’’
Colvey said one of the highlights was pet day, where the students were allowed to bring one of their pets to school for the day. Colvey brought a rabbit one year and a sheep another, while other students opted for cows and chickens.
‘‘Anything is welcome,’’ he said.
JACK BAUER
CYCLING
From: Parapara (20km from Takaka, 124km from Nelson)
If Jack Bauer wanted to see his friends, he would jump on his bike and ride 20km to meet them. If he wanted to play hockey in Takaka on a Saturday, he would jump on his bike and ride just as far. It took him about an hour.
Living on a farm in Parapara, where he and his three siblings were home-schooled by their parents Hans and Carolyn, Bauer said biking was his only way of getting to see his friends.
‘‘It’s not Collingwood, it’s not Takaka, it’s not Motueka. We were a bit removed from those centres,’’ said Bauer, who has competed at the Tour de France four times now.
‘‘What I remember of my childhood was just romping around on the patch of land we had and causing chaos with my brother. That generally involved two wheels, on our BMX and mountainbikes.
‘‘It was always busy. I remember life as a child as being busy. It was based around sport and exploring the property we had and just the whole Golden Bay area with our mates. That was generally before the age we could drive and steal mum and dad’s car so it was done on bikes and I think that’s where my love of bikes and career choice all started.’’
Bauer remembers his first training loop, which was 25km long in the direction of the farming community in Aorere Valley. He would ride it most days after school and often alongside his father and his brother Josh.
‘‘Half the ride would be along this gravel road, through the farms and it would pop me out on to the sealed section and I would wind my way down through the township of Collingwood and back home.
‘‘After a while it became a bit of a lifestyle. After school we would
‘‘I think growing up in a remote area or countryside as kids we were always active and playing outside.’’ All White Kip Colvey
do our loop on the bikes and I guess after a couple of years of doing that I was getting fitter, stronger and just really passionate about being on the bike as much as possible.’’
Bauer was grateful for the education his parents provided but said one downside of being homeschooled was the fact he was unable to compete at Rockquest.
He was an aspiring musician and right up until his early 20s actually dreamt of becoming a rockstar.
He did, however, gain entry into the New Zealand secondary schools mountainbiking championships, making the trip to Levin alongside his father.
Still, he felt like an outsider with no school to represent.
‘‘All these kids came from these well recognised schools and they were in these big groups and the schools were backing them and supporting them. I was the one home-schooler in the whole setup and I knew I would be doing it on my own with my parents help.
‘‘I guess it taught me early on how to stand on my own two feet and how to pursue the sport on my own, which ultimately I had to do in my early 20s in an international sense.’’
ELOISE BLACKWELL
RUGBY
From: Great Barrier Island (74km from Whitianga, 93km from Auckland)
Black Ferns lock Eloise Blackwell says she simply would not be playing rugby had she not grown up on Great Barrier Island, where her family migrated to in 1865.
‘‘I’m six generation to the island,’’ the Women’s Rugby World Cup winner said. ‘‘When people find out they’re like ‘what? you’re from all the way out there?’
‘‘It is a really cool thing and everyone back home is really proud of my achievements and that’s something I can have to make our island a little bit famous.’’
Blackwell lived on the island until she was 13, only moving away to study at Mercury Bay Area School in Whitianga as there was secondary school attend. She spent years 12 and 13 playing rugby in Canada.
The 26-year-old said her earliest memories of growing up on Great Barrier Island, which is home to less than 900 people, is playing ‘‘little league’’. It was essentially a game of scrag played in barefeet. The players came from the three primary schools on the island. Their ages ranged between four and 18.
‘‘We had two fields going, depending on your age group. Every Saturday it was really cool because you got to meet up with your friends from all three of the primary-intermediate schools. The unstructured aspect is what I enjoyed because you could just run around in your barefeet and it was basically just like a muck around, which was a continuation of school where all we did was play games.
‘‘I don’t think I would have been playing rugby if I grew up in a bigger city.’’
There are no takeaways - not even a supermarket - on the island, so junk food is difficult to source. There is limited power too, so it is uncommon for anyone to spend hours in front of the TV. Blackwell said her family caught or grew most of their food, with pig hunting and fishing not just a hobby but a way of life.
‘‘I guess it’s more satisfactory because you can provide for your family and live off the land and that’s a lifestyle I really enjoy,’’ she said.
‘‘All we could do really was be outside and playing games. We spent a lot of time building tree huts and the only time we were really at home was to eat dinner and to sleep really. A lot of my life I was outside.’’
By spending so much time outside, Blackwell said growing up in Great Barrier Island played a significant role in becoming a Black Fern - a dream she wrote down on paper at primary school.
‘‘A lot of the games and activities that I used to do, it’s all transferable skills through to rugby and spending a lot of time out on the farm is where I got my strength, chasing after the sheep and all that kind of farm life and outdoor life is a huge contributor to who I am today.’’