The New Zealand Association of Intermediate and Middle Schools (NZAIMS) Games was held in Tauranga from the 3rd to the 8th of September.

The NZAIMS games is an annual nationwide sporting event hosted in Tauranga. Over the course of 6 days, multiple sports take place such as Netball, Basketball, Football, Cross Country, Rugby Sevens etc. This year, Newlands Intermediate decided to send the top year 8 Netball and Basketball team, and a Y7 and Y8 team of girls for the Cross Country team. There are 9 boys who were chosen from our Basketball team Whaitiri, and 10 girls from our Netball team Kauri. We were all so lucky to be given this exciting opportunity of a lifetime.

On the 3rd of September early and bright at 7:30am both teams began their journey to Tauranga to compete for our Kura. After many stops and what felt like days in the van, we arrived at the Tauranga Netball Centre where Kauri began to set up the game day tent. A while later, we made our way to the motel we would be staying at. The day ended with both teams meeting in the main room and eating dinner. The dinner we enjoyed was ‘Pasta Surprise’, where we had to guess what secret ingredients were in the meal.

Newlands Int Kauri played a total of 12 games. Our earliest game was 9 am and our latest game was 7.30 pm at night. We felt like professional players, playing under lights. We won 8 games, drew 2 games and lost 2 games, one loss was by 1 goal and the other was a loss by 2 goals. All in all, we felt that we had done our school proud.

Newlands Int Whaitiri played a total of 8 games, winning 5 games and losing 3. Both teams tried to support each other as schedules allowed. We were all very lucky to have had such fantastic Whānau support on the sidelines.

We are very grateful to everyone who supported us in our journey to get to Tauranga, especially our Newlands Intermediate community. 

Billie Chiet and Lucy Patience