Tuesday 13 June Day 1

It's another 3 am start, something we seem to have done a lot of this year.

The 23kg bag limit has proven to be even more of a challenge on this trip with the 2 full sets of competition fencing gear stashed across our 12 bags. Fortunately the BOT rep on this trip “Mr Smith” is a Koru member. A feature we aim to take full advantage of starting with an extra checked-in bag for our team leader's field days bargains.

Safely parked up at the airport for breakfast, the first challenge of the day presents itself in the form of the Kakahu wonder, Matt O’Connor. He must be the only teenager in the land whose phone still holds the original charge from the store. Our social media genius is looking to upskill while we are away, with the team leader happy she no longer has to ring home to request he checks his messages.

The Field Days app is dutifully downloaded and the health & safety induction is completed followed by a compulsory favourites list of all the show’s shoe stores. Our teens dutifully follow instructions until a brave wee soul questions, "Why?". An economics lesson into needs & wants follows.

On checking boarding passes the Woodbury representative, Jacob Muff, discovers he is without. The team leader bounds off to reacquaint herself with the check-in team. Now, on previous trips, the barcode has been handed to someone trustworthy looking, usually Aiden, who gleefully scans with abandon taking responsibility for the team and agreeing he has packed all bags and knows the contents. But…… not today. Quinn decides our deputy head boy is not up to it & bounds off to the kiosk only to be stopped in his tracks by the check-in captain - a stern vision in purple - who declares he needs help (the rest of the team nod in agreement) and insists all bags are checked in by their owners. A brief discussion around dangerous substances seems to put staff on edge and the group high tail it upstairs with the team leader winning the stair race against the students on the escalator.

So on the quest for Jacob’s ticket, we are re-acquainted with the check-in staff. An airport-wide request to summon Jacob to the counter is declined - batting our eyelashes and smiling nicely fails to kickstart the airport's sense of humour.

The purpose of this trip is for the dynamic duo of Aiden & Quinn to compete in the national fencing competition at the Mystery Creek field days in Hamilton. This is a big deal & the result of making friends & building our PIA brand over the last 10 years constantly seeking experts to help us & checking we are learning skills that the industry wants has meant we have built up a relationship with all the posh people at FCANZ (Fencing Contractors Association of New Zealand) which led to the cyclone recover trips, entry into the South Island Field Days and this competition which is the pinnacle of the fencing world.

Not a bad effort all around.

Usually, Quinn is able to drive to the competitions accompanied by every power tool known to man, enough batteries to power Arundel, two of everything plus a spare for luck. There was wailing & gnashing of teeth earlier in the year as the team leader gave driving to Hamilton the thumbs down. Which in hindsight was fortunate as when the specs were released we find the whole fence is to be built by hand with not a power tool in sight. A moment of silence for Stihl & Milwaukee, “I feel naked” he says.

So how to fit a wheelbarrow & crowbars into a suitcase. All the batting of eyelashes in the world is unable to solve this problem so it is time to call in some favours from our posh fencing friends from the North Island.

In the PIA world, more is definitely better so on planning this trip we thought why just take two students when clearly we needed eight. So Quinn & Aiden, are joined by Lydia, Scott & Reon (Yr 13 PIA) plus Jacob, Matt & Bryn (Yr 12 PIA) and parents Dallas Rae, Kim Christie and Glen Smith.

On discussing airport etiquette at school prior to leaving timely reminders were issued based on previous PIA experience whereby all knives, staples, ammo both full & spent and other assorted items commonly found in rural pockets are left at home. Fortunately, we are on the wee plane and the x-ray walk of shame is not for us this year.

Locked & loaded we pop up to Hamilton. Clearly, the excitement of being let out is too much for the Pleasant Valley resident or possibly the excitement of achieving his RAC rugby cap but Scott sleeps his way between the islands, waking on landing and declaring, “That was quick”. The parents look knowingly at each other, “just like taking pre-schoolers away “

Boosting it out of the airport, Dallas rides the clutch on the automatic and Glen attempts to belly us on the judder bars, we head to the Field Days blissfully driving right past our intended destination and becoming lost in the maze that is Mystery Creek. On arrival, finally, there is pandemonium as our Hawkes Bay Cyclone crew is greeted. Apparently, we really did cover ourselves in glory. The students are put to work for the rest of the day helping to set up for the competitions being held over the next few days.

Highlights

• Learning how to steal a vehicle North Island style- Did you know it takes 8 PIA students to lift a car (locked and parked in the way of our marquee) Epic!

• Glen skillfully sending the above vehicle owner to the site next door to complain.

• Joy as our seniors receive news that the common room is out of bounds for the rest of the term. “It wasn’t us”

• Watching Kim navigate his way around the kitchen- finding how to open the microwave was a lesson we may never forget.

• Our BOT rep (G dog) is also proving to be a wonder in the kitchen priming the oven, sorting out the smart fridge and linking aforementioned items to his phone so we can preheat it off-site tomorrow. Dear lord!

• Compiling a grocery list- which includes brands, fat and salt levels- not you can't grab the first one off the shelf.

• Planes can do U-turns (on the tarmac)

• On deciding on the tea menu pea, pie and spud(of the kind still in their jackets\skins in the microwave) WW3 becomes likely as the precious teens vocally voice their disapproval re. eating potato skins, “Is the budget really that tight?” is Bryn's opinion, further action is imminent as topping such as cheese and sour cream are introduced. Clearly, tonight will be a culinary smorgasbord of new tastes.

• Aidan books us in for tea tomorrow night attempting to sound manly and parental.

• Team leader informs the other parents she is at her best in the morning. Something to look forward to - JOY!

• We have a bouncy castle for the wee one (supervised by the 7 accompanying adults)

• On pointing out our competitors, diligently working away in the distance they are described as the big one and the little one.

• Meeting Nick Leifting (multiple-time champion) who thinks PIA is more than cool.

• Chatting and getting tips from Owen Peterson, another multi-champion.

• Whispering to each other that we are working next to Shane Bouskill - fencing royalty.

• Generally hanging out with all the other fencing superstars.

• Name-dropping all the above.

• Confirming that what Team Leader had previously made up is actually true. We are the first school to ever compete in the Silver Staples AND the first team from the South Island. Actual.

• Students are amazed that there is a blog feature that is true. Rough Chat.

• Best of Luck Aidan And Quinn we are all super proud of you.

Wednesday 14 June Day 2

The big breakfast is all go at 5.30 am. A mean spread of bacon, sausage, eggs, hashys etc- again Kim is proving to be a legend in the kitchen.

Shane Tilson- our new fencing coach extraordinaire collects the dynamic duo at 6,30 to beat the show traffic- lucky- we left 30 min later and took over an hour to travel 15km! Team leader is attempting to be on her best behaviour in keeping the road rage under control. The boys eagerly watch out for the hot chicks in the vehicle alongside us in the queue.

Line 1 is ours and Team PIA set about making themselves at home seamlessly moving into cheerleading mode. Scott has a sore shoulder so his pompoms are attached to his ankles- Michelle and Grant would be so proud.

Over a frantic 2 hours 20 min Quinn & Aidan dig in 2 strainers and 6 posts by hand plus 2 breast blocks, 3 wire electric and a bungy gate. The frosty start did little to cool the boys with sweat in rivers inside the first 10 min. They say a fencing comp at this level is the equivalent of a small marathon. Am sure there are some PE credits in there somewhere.

Sideline, PIA management continues to hunt for more famous friends with Wiggy singing our praises on the microphone as the compere and continuing to hang out with the superstars of the fencing world and even booking some training sessions when Paul Van Beers visits his grandchildren in Woodbury- our spectators move further away as Team Leader finds more helpful friends- if you don’t ask you don’t get. I tell you the eyelashes are in overdrive!

The lads look confident and it is clear that the hard work they have been doing is paying dividends.

Numerous people introduce themselves, having heard of PIA and wanting to share the love. Proof that we are world famous beyond Arundel, Woodbury, Pleasant Valley, Kakahu and Fairlie.

The offers to enter more competitions and even to pop up for work mount. The Competition is over but it takes another few hours to move out to the actual field days thanking our experts and finding posh people for selfies along the way.

We have various sponsors to visit and then it's time to let the teens loose. The homework for the trip was for everyone to gather up all their supplier numbers so we can access the members-only hospitality - We may never leave! Our purchases include clothing, boots, a spotlight, various freebies and a class Jaguar 980 V8 twin-turbo straight pipe. The littlest team member has clearly had enough of being in the big boys' world and reverts to type in buying a model maize chopper - even comes with sound.

Research is undertaken at Bush Buck, Swandri, Stoney Creek, and Cactus; even the lure of the tractor pulls wasn’t enough to remove the teens from the bargains.

It's back to the fencing for prize giving. Anything better than 7th is a major upset. And it's 4th. Our tired champions have had a close competition with only 9 points separating the top 4 teams.

A walk-through with the judge reaps gold in terms of learning and the group immediately turns their attention to what else we can enter.

Team leader may need some couch time before embarking on the next round of fundraising.

It's out for tea. Aidan’s big boy voice had unexpected consequences in that our host thought we were all over 18. Awkward moment as children are adopted with just the 2 sets of twins.

Highlights

• Scott to Dallas: "So got anything to say?" Clearly need to work on his conversation openers.

• Start somewhere near the truth and move further away (description of the blog)

• The concept of Stone Grill presents a conundrum. "Why go out for tea if you have to cook it?"

• It takes a special kind of person to have a 2 wheel-drive Hilux with a personalized number plate.

• Describing the song selection “We are reliving our childhood".

Thursday 15 June Day 3

How to meet people in a crowd of thousands? Slap on a PIA shirt and they will come!

Our second day on-site at the field days proves to be an exercise in resting on our laurels. Somehow every other person has heard about the PIA Team from the South Island. Our celebrity status is certainly something we can get used to. Soon we are meeting, greeting and hand-shaking – outside observers would think we were politicians. Unfortunately for Team Leader, Wiggy (our favourite compere) announces to the crowd that she is not a hugger and all the posh people now think this is an acceptable handshake alternative. So it's high tailing it back to Arundel for some me-time in isolation to recover from the trauma.

Since we are now used to early starts we thought, "Why break the mould?", so we depart the Top 10 all tidied and packed by 7 am. Much better traffic today avoiding any potential Team Leader tantrums.

Straight up to the fencing to reacquaint ourselves with yesterday's new famous friends. It's Golden Pliers Finals time - the pinnacle event in the National fencing calendar. It doesn’t disappoint. Not long in and students are heard to say, "I’ve learnt more here in one hour than I have in 11 years at school”. Our tips and hints list grows - if only we had been able to see these guys in action before yesterday.

Truly phenomenal.

The time flies and at the 2-hour mark, hunger sets in so it's off to Fonterra for cookies, milk & muffins. We hear there is coffee and cake at Farmlands so the next stop is sorted.

There is an exercise bike at the entrance which goes unnoticed on the way in with the teens fully focusing on food. But apparently, we look young and fit. Team Leader is used to this but for the other adults, it's a fist bump all around. There is a leaderboard for the fastest time pedalling to burn 10 calories. The wee one (Quinn) manfully goes first and declares on finishing that he needs a lie-down. The rest line up, it is manners to pop Aidan up next - BOOM - Top of the leaderboard. The others don’t disgrace themselves with the fans although there are unexpected consequences with the Woodbury Wonder’s (Jacob) locks flowing in the fan’s breeze. The group looks bemused as he bounds off “declaring it won’t happen overnight but it will happen”. Lengthy explanation around 80’s shampoo commercials and Rachel Hunter follow. Lydia is up next and effortlessly glides past Quinn's time to place second on the female leaderboard. Now our BOT rep apparently takes a spin class in Geraldine which is where he tells his family he disappears to early in the morning regularly. His performance results in a please explain look from said family and the group distances itself envisaging an awkward conversation pending.

Dallas and our favourite teacher on this trip leave the teens unsupervised (they are rostered home after all) and set about making new friends at the career and innovation hubs. So many cool things that GHS students could do in class during the year. If we were just a year or 2 younger we would have pursued vastly different careers.

So PIA is universally known as being v v good at making *&#@! happen and today produces a storm. “Why not run a South Island Cadet Fencing Competition?” our esteemed leader muses as we watch the Bouskill fencing royalty compete.

The answer to this question is quickly resolved, Team Leader finds another gear and spends the next 2 hours storming the field day's site forcefully making friends.

So what did we achieve?

Not only a venue, criteria, specifications, official go-ahead but wait there’s more….We even have a trophy, all the key people are lined up and all we need is a date. BOOM we reckon there’s a QSM in there somewhere!

So an inaugural NZ Fencing South Island Cadet fencing competition will be launched in the next few months. Go us. Not just pretty faces.

A final lap around Mystery Creek and we are airport-bound early to beat the exit traffic. While every PIA trip is amazing, an unexpected night with her favourite friends is not actually high on our esteemed leader's priority list.

The field days are the type of event where you get out what you put in and our teens have not disappointed. Not for them wandering around looking for free stuff. They visited sites, yarned, learnt tonnes made valuable contacts and even began setting up sponsorship for our new event. A common occurrence was for Team leader to be approached to explain how PIA produces such a talented bunch.

Final farewells are made and an invitation to the 2024 event is issued.

Thank you to Dallas, Kim & Glen for taking time away from their busy lives to make this trip happen and making the PIA brand proud, in how they interacted with and looked after the students, and most importantly verifying the accuracy of each day’s blog. Great Mahi team.

So there's a fair bit to complete now ahead of retirement. Jobs on!

Highlights

• Kim agreeing that Mataiwhi can have a manager while he upskills as the next Jamie Oliver

• Glen disappearing into Koru only for his conscience to get the better of him and he rejoins the riff-raff.

• Lydia making full use of girl power on the bike and beating most of the boys.

• Aidan (big fella) as always brutal in the strength department remains top of the leaderboard by the close of the day.

• Quinn (wee one) attempting to turn the couch on at the airport when the inbuilt charger fails and playing the game being the littlest one.

• Bryn continuing to struggle that the Gudex Rd etiquette is not quite the done thing in public as his rugby ball is confiscated again, and complaining of gumboot burn - soft.

• Scott proving to be a hairdresser's nightmare each morning - curls don’t sleep well.

• Matt breaking all social media records in Winchester Hanging Rock - works out how to charge his phone - wants to phone home to tell mum its on 1%

• Reon discovering the hand dryer at the airport is part of the tap - OMG not technology currently seen in G town

• Jacob leading the way at final check-in, not wanting to tempt fate, clutches his boarding pass for the next 2 hours - a small airport is far more likely to pander to a lost child announcement.

• Dallas, our Camp Mother extraordinaire, managing to hold a lengthy conversation with Scott by the end of the trip and her economics lesson “it's not how much $ you spend it's the savings that count." - endless field day bargains winging their way South.

To Aidan & Quinn the all-time GOATs of PIA without your outstanding worth ethic, attitude, sense of humour plus complete inability to decline Team Leader's frequent requests, this whole fencing gig would have never got off the ground. You have big shoes to fill its quite a legacy you are leaving.

The latest notch in the PIA ladder of glory is complete.