High Flyers
Name:Alexia Hinton
Catalogue: Sport Sub-Catalogue: Canoe
Achievements:
Polo
Year level:13
Form class:LT
Represented NZ and Captained U18 womens canoe polo team at Oceania Champs in Australia
Captained Eastern Regions U18 womens canoe polo team
Selected for NZSS canoe polo tournament team 2013 and 2014
Represented Palmerston North at National A-grade.
Alexia Hinton has represented NZ and captained the U18 Women’s Canoe Polo
team at Oceania Champs in Australia, where they won, captained Eastern
Regions U18 women’s canoe polo team and played for Eastern Senior Women.
Was selected for NZSS canoe polo tournament team 2013 and 2014, as well as
represented Palmerston North at National A grade.
Her ambition once finished school sums her up. “I plan to work full-time, train and hopefully play for the New
Zealand U21 Women’s team at World Champs in Italy, bringing home a
medal”. She also plans to increase her training to 5X water sessions, 5X run and 4X gym, from 4X water sessions,
5X run and 3X gym.
Alexia took up Canoe Polo during year 7 at Havelock North Intermediate, as she had watched her brother play it a
lot and decided it looked interesting. When asked what motivates her to achieve success in Canoe Polo, she says it
is the fact that it’s a minority sport. “I’m motivated to be better than my competition as it’s such a small sport. Also
motivated to get the sport more recognition”. Her career highlight so far was representing New Zealand for U18
women and captaining the team to a gold medal.
“Canoe Polo is a minority sport and deserves so much more recognition for its fast paced, competitive nature”, she
said of the sport.
Name: Nesta Lade
Catalogue: Culture Sub-Catalogue: Competition
Achievements:
Winner
Year level:10
Form class:HQ
Winner of Face of China
Following daily clues and finding a mystery person may seem straight forward.
But when they are all the way in China, a certain skill level is required. Beating all
the odds, year 10 student, Nesta Lade successfully managed to win an
all-expenses-paid trip to China during the Term 3 holidays, as part of The
Amazing China Face Race.
Using the web, Google and friends in China, Nesta successfully found and contacted the “China Face”; Li Sha on
June 18th, just four days, eight hours and nine minutes from the time the first clue was given. This was a huge
feat, given her other commitments; as well as completing her school work, she plays violin, sings and studies
Mandarin by correspondence.
Participants were required to follow clues and questions on China and its history in order to establish the
whereabouts in China of a certain lady. When asked why she decided to participate in the competition, she said
that she believed it would be a great opportunity to win a trip to china, also the slight incentive of beating her
friend from Iona College sweetened the deal for her.
Organised by the Hastings District Council, Nesta travelled with her mum, visiting Li Sha in her home town;
Beichuan, among other places. “Her town was destroyed in the earthquake, so they had to rebuild a new town
somewhere else. We visited the old town, where the buildings were still half fallen down and we also went to the
new Beichuan”. As part of her trip, she was asked to promote Hastings by appearing on the city’s TV and had a live
radio interview. “It was a bit scary, as I was walking down the street and everybody knows who you are. I had a lot
of people take photos of me”.
“I really enjoyed seeing the pandas at a breeding place. It was also interesting to see the way that people live there
compared to here”, Nesta said of her trip to China.