Congratulations to Fraser Gray (Year 10) and Caol Paoo (Year 10) who performed in this event.

This is the the first time HBHS has won the Super 8 Kapa Haka Event since 2016, with Rotorua Boys' High School having won every Kapa Haka Super 8 Cultural Festival Event since 2017.

All three nationally recognised judges placed our Kapa Haka group first in all five events, a clean sweep.

We received a final score of 1192 out of 1200, or 99.3%. This is the highest score Mr Dent is aware of, in his six years in charge of HBHS involvement in this festival. 

The performance involved the top 15 kapa haka students across the school as selected by Matua Toti West, performing a 12 to 15 minute performance bracket, in one continual performance. The event was live streamed on Māori Television and has since been watched by over 15 000 people since Thursday night.

HBHS also won the overall Super 8 Cultural Festival Shield, for the third consecutive year, a Shield that has only been open to win over the past three years.   

Our final overall score, across all 16 cultural codes, as a school was 20.4% higher than Rotorua Boys' High School, who came in second place overall, which is a significant margin.

Of the 16 cultural codes, HBHS had podium placings in 10 of those 16 events. First in Music Senior, Kapa Haka, and Chess. Second in Junior Debating, Senior Debating, Pasifika, Music group, Dance, Drama and third in Junior Art.

Congratulations to all our competitors, especially our Argyle House boarders, Fraser and Caol.